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Marketing "Asian brands" engages participants at meeting

P. S. Suryanarayana

Low-cost air carriers cannot offer round-the-world trips on budget fares for now

SINGAPORE: The challenges and opportunities of marketing "Asian brands" in an atmosphere of global practices were explored during the ongoing ADASIA 05 conference here on Tuesday.

The focus of discussions ranged from low-fare air travel to the idea of "media-neutral" advertising in the communications industry.

In a lively session on "the battle of the low-cost [air] carriers," Tony Fernandes, group chief executive officer of Malaysia's Air Asia, and Ken Ryan, CEO of Singapore-based Jetstar Asia, said there was little or no prospect of round-the-world journeys on budget fares at this stage. Responding to a question whether low-cost carriers in different parts of the world could form an alliance to promote cheaper inter-continental air travel, they indicated that the operational economies of these companies would not allow them to fly beyond their respective domains.

On the issue of how far marketing could "make a [positive] difference" to the success of low-budget carriers, the attractiveness of cheaper air travel was itself portrayed as the emphatic formula. The target groups in Asia for such travel included those sections that might be tempted by the fare structure to take to the skies for the first time. Within this context, there was scope for innovation to ensure safe travel with a touch of comfort too, it was emphasised. The dramatic reinventions of the cellular phone, which could now provide multi-media access, were cited by Hiroshi Tanaka, executive manager in the research and development division of Japan's Hakuhodo Inc., as a trend that was used to feel the pulse of the consumer in a high-tech environment.

The question of drawing "the line" for viable advertising to humour "Asian customers" was also debated. A view that emerged was that there was no such thing as a line at all. The "marketing of an Asian brand in Asia" was discussed with particular reference to the Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia. At the same time, Shaun Seow, deputy group CEO of the Singapore-based MediaCorp Pte Ltd., agreed with Pradeep Guha, CEO of India's Zee Telefilms Ltd., that "we are hoping to co-exist" with the non-regional international channels.

An interactive session on the theme of "Beyond print: lessons from Genghis Khan" featured Leslie Fong, executive vice-president (marketing division) of the Singapore Press Holdings Ltd., and Bhaskar Das, executive president of India's Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.

Some ideas that gained currency were the possibilities of print publications widening their horizons to become multi-media players, the "irreverent" dismissal of the empirical finding that the younger generation is short on "attention span," the perception that advertisers "are not necessarily trying to control content" of the newspapers, and the importance of a "thinking future."

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Marketing "Asian brands" engages participants at meeting

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