A luxury cruise ship, the Azamara Quest caught fire a couple of days ago whilst sailing in the South China Seas. The ship was travelling from Manila on its way to Sulawesi, Bali and Komodo before heading off to its final destination of Singapore. By all accounts, the Azamara Quest is a beautifully designed and [...]
Archive for the ‘Singapore’ Category
Destination Branding – Take advantage of opportunities when they come your way
Posted in asia, branding, brands, destination branding, Malaysia, public relations, Singapore, tagged Azamara club cruises Borneo, Azamara quest, cruise ship engine room fire, sabah tourism, sandakan, sandakan opportunity, Sandakan tourism on 01/04/2012 | Leave a Comment »
Creative campaign not the solution to smoking issues in Singapore
Posted in accountability, advertising, asia, brand plan, creative driven branding, creativity, Singapore, tagged advertising, branding, ogilvy, ogilvy singapore, singapore on 16/06/2010 | 3 Comments »
As with many issues, Singapore has a zero tolerance approach to smoking and in particular, teen smoking. Get caught selling cigarettes to minors and you face a fine of over US$6,000. Anyone under the age of 18 caught carrying cigarettes, carrying not smoking, and it is an automatic fine of US$30. Get caught again and [...]
3 words that can ruin your brand in Malaysia and Singapore
Posted in branding, brands, customers, Malaysia, sales, service, Singapore, tagged branding, brands, experience, Malaysia, marketing, retail, sales, shopping, value on 28/04/2010 | Leave a Comment »
If you are in Malaysia or Singapore and you sell stuff to customers, there is one phrase that can ruin your brand. “No stock Lah.” Is repeated time again by poorly trained and disinterested staff. This seemingly innocuous phrase should be banned in your organization. While we’re at it, you should also ban the obligatory [...]
Should destinations brace themselves for a brutal summer?
Posted in advertising, asia, branding, brands, Malaysia, Singapore, tagged asia, branding, destination, emergency, football world cup, Malaysia, marketing, South Africa, tourists, world cup on 22/04/2010 | Leave a Comment »
Grant Thornton has published a report that forecasts 373,000 visitors to the Football World Cup in South Africa in June. That’s a drop of 110,000 from original forecasts. The big question is, are fans waiting to the last minute to book tickets or is this a sign of the recession? Certainly political tensions in the [...]
Another argument for building brands
Posted in branding, brands, luxury branding, Malaysia, Singapore, tagged advertising, BMW, branding, brands, champagne, luxury, Malaysia, Mercedez Benz, Porche on 20/04/2010 | Leave a Comment »
A year ago, the Wall Street Journal was telling us that wealthy consumers were suffering from ‘luxury shame’. Others were talking about the end of the luxury business. Certainly, the luxury business took a massive hit when the sub prime crisis blew up and the repercussions were still being felt at the end of 2009 [...]
Negative brand association, real world examples
Posted in advertising, asia, awareness, branding, brands, creativity, Malaysia, nation branding, Singapore, tagged advertising, asia, branding, brands, fusionbrand, Malaysia, Marcus Osborne, positioning, tourists on 22/02/2010 | Leave a Comment »
In October of last year, I wrote a piece on my blog about negative brand association. You can read the short post here David Ansett of Storm in Australia approached the subject from a different angle and you can read his piece here Essentially, my attitude is that if the concept of positioning a product [...]
Will poor execution of a great offer become a public relations nightmare for Hilton hotels?
Posted in advertising, asia, branding, Hospitality, Singapore, tagged advertising, branding, brands, hilton, Hospitality, Peter Drucker on 22/01/2010 | 9 Comments »
This is an example of how the old world of ‘special offers’ with hidden strings attached clashes with the new world of social media where transparency, honesty and engagement rule. It also shows, once again that a one-size-fits-all brand strategy conceived by well meaning executives in one country can backfire on the brand in other [...]
