The difficult part was putting the plan into practice to build a brand that stamps an unmistakeable presence in the marketplace.
The complexity of the mission was underlined by Eric Rosenkranz, Asia-Pacific president of Grey Global Group, who said that "manufacturers and agencies do not create brands. Brands are created by the consumer". Which makes sense because people decide what they want to purchase. Manufacturers and their agencies for their part, however, must be astute enough to be aware of the needs of consumers and the level of quality that must be incorporated into any offering.
But once those needs are determined, the marketers go to work to create a powerful brand. The point was highlighted twice during the conference.
Winnie Yeung, associate director of customised research at ACNielsen, used the example of a plain T-shirt and the same garment with a Nike swoosh.
The difference was clear for all to see and feel.
But in order to build an emotional bond with people, Rosenkranz suggested that any marketing communications effort should touch on one or more of nine emotional trigger points: pride, empowerment, trust, relevance, familiarity, curiosity, approachability, identification and warmth.
Grey's research, he pointed out, showed that these emotions encouraged brand loyalty and - pricing and distribution aside - accounted for 99 per cent of consumer purchase decisions.
Peter Jeffery, associate publisher of Reader's Digest - which conducts an annual ranking of SuperBrands in Asia - added five points should be considered: quality, value, trust, image and understanding needs. "For a brand to be strong, they must excel across this range, he said.
He also stressed that the strength of a brand was determined by "its ability to stand out from the crowd".
But Rosenkranz added that creating loyalty was an extremely difficult task because consumers could be swayed even if they were satisfied with a brand. What marketers had to do, he said, was to move a brand to what he called "the zone of affection".
But getting to the zone of affection required an extraordinary effort.
And as Debora Chatwin, managing director of Enterprise IG, pointed out, the effort included not only rallying company employees behind a campaign but also fitting them effectively into an organisation for maximum impact.
She pointed to a recent study which found that a typical firm had four groups of people: brand champions, bystanders, loose cannons and weak links.
Bystanders and weak links needed to be sorted out quickly. That was agreed.
However, there was some debate as to what should be done with the loose cannons, those who go, according to Chatwin, 'rah, rah, rah ... now what do I do?'.
She said that the current conventional wisdom suggested that management should devote its resources to developing the brand champions, who typically make up about a third of any organisation and who have the rational understanding and emotional commitment to a brand. These people would then go out and give the loose cannons the direction they needed.
"We must engage employees in a meaningful way that translates into positive effects on the bottom line, said Chatwin.
"Employees must have a deep conviction for their brand and they must care, she told the more than 130 delegates who took part in the conference, which was organised by media and sponsored by Reader's Digest.
