March 2016

Rapidkl scores a branding own goal

Published on 22/03/201622/03/2016 by brandconsultantasia3 Comments

RapidKL the operating arm of Government ownded company Prasarana recently took 8 corporate leaders on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) so that they could experience public transport and more importantly, be seen to be taking public transport in an apparent effort to “encourage the culture within their organization(s) and the public in general, as well as obtain their feedback for further improvements. This is a continuous effort from our end to get key leaders more involved in understanding the need to further enhance public transportation services in the country.”

However, The Heat Malaysia, an increasingly popular source of news for Malaysians called the event a ‘failed PR stunt’ and wrote a long article critizing the event and suggesting Prasarana misled the public by claiming it took place during peak time when in fact it happened between the hours of 11am – 2pm which can hardly be considered peak time.

Prasarana responded quickly with a decent explanation that was duly published at the end of the article. The Heat Malaysia site doesn’t appear to allow comments and it’s not possible to tell how many people shared the article on social media.

But never mind, all well and good so far and for many stories, this is quite often where it ends. Unless of course it is related to an issue that is close to commuter’s hearts. And public transport is definately close to the commuter’s heart. Which is probably why the Heat Malaysia didn’t leave it at that. They know a story with legs and so they also published the article on Facebook. And that’s when things started to fall apart.

Once the story gained traction online, instead of participating, Rapidkl went awol

Within hours, there were more than 50 comments on the post, nearly every one of them negative. By 2.30pm in the afternoon, Rapidkl cobbled together a predictable, corporate response, “Dear The Heat Malaysia, the recent online reports by the media covering 8 key corporate leaders riding the LRT during “peak hours” was inaccurately reported and had caused anxiety among some of our commuters. Please allow us to correct the facts and inform that the hour spoken refers to the afternoon “lunch crowd” and not peak hours as mentioned in the reports. The leaders were given an opportunity to experience taking public transportation as an effort to encourage the culture within their organization and the public in general, as well as obtain their feedback for further improvements. This is a continuous effort from our end to get key leaders more involved in understanding the need to further enhance public transportation services in the country.”

This typically contrived, corporate driven, out of touch and dated response generated even more negativity with Evelyn Toh asking what all of us were thinking would have been the right approach from the start:

24 hours later there was no let up in the abuse. And when Halim Hassan uploaded this image of the VIPs sitting in seats reserved for the elderly and disabled, what started out as a good idea, became an unmitigated disaster.

Not a good idea to sit in the disabled/special needs seats

However, there was still a chance for Rapidkl to salvage the situation. If it had shown its human side, put it’s hands up and apologised, explained how their intentions were honourable, how they were trying to get more cars off the road, increase use of public transport and make life better for everyone and that in future they would go out and meet with real, genuine commuters and not chauffeur driven VIPs and done a few other things it could have recovered the initiative.

But they did what far too many firms do and ran away from the problem. Despite The Heat Malaysia Facebook post getting more than 500 Likes and 164 comments, Rapidkl refused to participate in the narrative. Hoping it would instead go away. This is a classic example of how not to approach social media. Social media is your friend but the best bit of advice I can give any company is that if you intend to use it as part of your brand strategy then the first thing you have to understand is that you must be social, not do social.

Too many brands think that social media is to be used in the same way as they’ve been using traditional media – as the base for a series of poorly thought out ad hoc tactics pushing a corporate driven message. Social media is not something you do, it is something you are. Which means that the people responsible for your social media communications must know what they are doing. Being young does not qualify you for managing a firms social media communications.

And any social media initiative must be part of a clearly defined brand strategy. This is not rocket science yet so many companies feel they can simply jump into social media with an idea and announce the idea and expect it to spread out across the eco system in a perfectly choreographed, positive manner. This of course rarely happens. But until senior management learns and understands social media, and actively participates in social media, most social media projects will fail because the corporate culture dictates social media competencies and if the CEO is non committal then the culture will be non committal and that’s the wrong place from which to start.

The strategy is so important. All bases must be covered. The ‘what if’ scenarios must be carefully thought through and prepared for. And the team designated to develop the narrative must have the skills required to address any issues and communicate effectively and in tandem with the overall goal.

The irony is that Rapidkl had a good idea but they didn’t understand how to implement the idea and certainly didn’t know how to develop the narrative around the idea on social media. And as soon as it went wrong, they panicked and shut down. Nevermind, all is not lost. The public are a forgiving lot. The next steps though will be crucial. Let’s see what happens.

Where is Malaysia in terms of world happiness?

Published on 17/03/201617/03/2016 by brandconsultantasiaLeave a comment

Sticking with the Nation branding theme of the previous post, the 2016 World Happiness report is out. You can download the full report here. Of the 157 countries that participated in the project, Malaysia is the 47th most happy country, 25 places below Singapore at 22 and way above Indonesia at 79.

Denmark top of the world happiness index

The sample size is 3,000 and its purpose is to, “survey the scientific underpinnings of measuring and understanding subjective well-being.” One section of the methodology caught my eye, “..continued with our attempts to explain the levels and changes in average national life evaluations among countries around the world. This year we shall still consider the geographic distribution of life evaluations among countries, while extending our analysis to consider in more detail the inequality of happiness – how life evaluations are distributed among individuals within countries and geographic regions.” It caught my eye but I’m not sure what it means!

One argument in the report suggests “people are happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness.” Which I think means “People are happier where everyone is happy.” If I’m right, I don’t think that’s particularly ground breaking information.

However, the section on Measuring and understanding happiness is interesting and worth a look. In fact the whole report is worth a look but I won’t be taking it too seriously. Oh, and the happiest country in the world? Denmark. Why, because everyone looks out for everyone else. The government’s social policy really is social and embraces everyone which has created a civil society where everyone has the freedom and income to make their own life choices. Food for thought there.

Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysia nation brand

Published on 17/03/2016 by brandconsultantasiaLeave a comment

Place branding is a generic term for all the elements of a nation or country brand, cities, states and regions and even destinations within those areas. In South East Asia alone there are more than 600,000 destinations competing for investment, talent and tourists. In an effort to match their destinations to stakeholder requirements for value, smart places are developing brands that investors, talent and tourists embrace.

Our company Fusionbrand is working on a brand for one state government in Malaysia and in the past have worked with other state governments, tourism boards, enterprise zones and the Malaysia Tourism Board. It’s always a privilege when we win a destination or place branding project because such projects have a major impact on society.

Many nation brands are victims of the politician’s need for quick wins

The Place Brand Observer heard about our work and got in touch with me in February and suggested an interview. The Place Brand Observer is a fantastic resource for anyone responsible for branding nations, cities, states and regions, public diplomacy and reputation management.

The site features insights into the industry, interviews with experts in destination branding from around the world as well as tutorials and case studies of successful branding of countries, regions, cities and destinations. It’s a meeting place for the brains and the brawn of the place branding industry. If you are involved in place branding or simply want to know more about the industry, I strongly recommend you sign up for their excellent news feeds.

You can read the full interview here . I thought it was a really good interview and we discussed data driven branding, country brands, Malaysia airlines and the link between the legacy carrier and the country. I hope you find the time to comment, good or bad!

Mazda should stop advertising, start branding

Published on 11/03/201611/03/2016 by brandconsultantasiaLeave a comment

Malaysia’s January automotive sales nose dived 12% to 44,591 units although this was expected after the record highs of December 2015. Japanese firms were hardest hit with Toyota sales down 27%, followed by Nissan 22% and Honda down 12%.

It’ll take more than a new logo and a dubious tagline to stop Proton’s slide

Proton continued its slide with sales down 13%. And even though Perodua sold less cars this Janaury than it did in 2015, the relative newcomer to the industry saw its market share increase to 35% giving it more than double Proton’s market share. In an effort to stem the bleeding, Proton has created a new logo and tagline but Perodua is undeniably Malaysia’s number one automotive company.

Mercedes Benz sales went through the roof with a year on year increase of 139%. Mercedez Benz sold 1,027 units in January 2016, up from 430 in January 2015. Mercedes Benz was the only top 15 brand to sell more cars in January 2015 than it did in December 2015.

BMW and Audi probably spend more on traditional advertising than any of the other luxury brands and have been particularly active recently but neither brand was able to match the performance of Mercedes Benz. Audi sales were down over 40% in January over the previous month although they did manage a modest 9% gain over January 2015.

BMW fared better with a gain of 23% over January 2015 but compared to December 2015, sales were down 25%. This fall in sales would probably explain why BMW is now offering a longer warranty although anecdotal evidence suggests the BMW brand is losing its lustre in the local market.

But of most interest to me was the performance of Mazda. Mazda has come from nowhere to take 3% of the market share in Malaysia, up from 1% five years ago. This is an extraordinary feat because Mazda spends very little on advertising. Which is probably just as well because the advertising they do revolves around the words ‘ZOOM ZOOM’ and poorly written copy.

For instance ‘A new era of driving experience’ doesn’t make sense. The copy begins, ‘New levels of freedom, new levels of versatility. New levels of pure enjoyment on the road.’ Obviously the person who wrote that doesn’t drive on the roads of KL. Certainly not during the daily commute or on a wet Friday afternoon.

The copy also breaks the cardinal rule of not providing any solutions to problems but instead rambles on about nothing. I mean seriously, how can the CX-3 really be ‘designed and engineered to evoke emotions by closely matching human sensibilities?’ Get real. The copy is cold and doesn’t talk to anyone and ends with Zoom-Zoom is unique. It certainly is. I could go on but I’ll spare you the pain.

This is what I meant when I wrote my book Stop Advertising, Start Branding. It’s not that you should stop advertising, it’s that you should stop poor or weak advertising. Mazda is doing really well at the moment in Malaysia and globally. It has tripled its market share and could be on to something spectacular. But it needs to do more than churn out this sort of advertising because it is wasting money and it may have a negative effect on the brand. It needs to Stop Advertising, Start Branding.

I am yet to visit a Mazda showroom so can’t tell you about the experience. I will endeavour to do so and we’ll do some research and report back to you.

The Proton brand is in trouble, can it survive?

Published on 07/03/201607/03/2016 by brandconsultantasiaLeave a comment

Back in July 2013 I wrote a post about how Proton must fast track its branding activities. You can read the full article here. Two years before that in 2011 I wrote about that the first rule of auto advertising was ‘to keep it real’. You can read that post here. More on this in my next post.

The first post quotes then Proton Edar CEO Hisham Othman as saying that the company, “Would pay greater attention to product quality and customer service.”

Fast forward to March 2016 and Proton Chief Executive Officer Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah is promising, “new product introduction, network rationalisation, the introduction of new dealers and upgrading of services at our centres.”

This comes soon after the announcement in February 2016 that the company was recalling close to 100,000 Exora, Preve and Suprima models with defective oil cooler hoses. The recall was announced only after the news broke that the national car maker was surreptitiously changing hoses without the knowledge of the owner.

Proton is in big trouble. Its market share has dropped from close to 80% to 17% in little more than 20 years. Proton service centres rarely deliver on promises made and many consider the cars to be inferior to the competition and over priced.

In other words, the brand and its reputation is in tatters. Abdul Harith has acknowledged the problem and has vowed to “reform and rebrand.”

What we don’t know at this stage is what Abdul Harith and his team consider to be a rebrand. Certainly some of the noises coming out of the firm are good.

For instance he stated at the weekend, “We have an audit team going out there to make sure that key performance indicators are met.” That’s a good start. The service centres and their ability to look after customers are key to this rescue mission. On this matter he said, “To address the poor quality of our customer services at after-sales operations, key improvement initiatives will include network rationalisation, the introduction of new dealers and upgrading of service at our centres.” Owning up to the faulty hose deception is another good start. As is getting rid of crap dealers, as long as they aren’t replaced with more crap dealers.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank wrote in a report that, “negative consumer perception on Proton’s quality has been a major blow to the national carmaker for many years.” The report adds, “various programs have also been introduced to improve (the) customer experience and provide more value-add services, such as courtesy car service, pick-up and delivery service, quick service money-back guarantee, mobile assist service and one-stop customer care line.” I know what you are thinking – this isn’t the first time Proton has gone through this process.

So can Proton survive? Provided the new Proton cars really are exceptional and meet target market requirements for value. If they are still poor and the team tasked with implementing the rebrand don’t know what constitutes the level of service consumers are looking for and they are able to train the service centre owners and staff to deliver meet those requirements for value at every touch point and every time, it has a fighting chance.

In other words, a rebrand is not the CEO standing up and repeating what his predecessor said 3 years ago. It’s not a change of logo or an advertising campaign. It’s a ‘fit for purpose’ product that is able to deliver on promises made. It’s a comprehensive overhaul of all the processess and systems involved in delivering the value the customer needs.

It’s the collection of data and having the knowledge to interpret and use that data. It’s the ability to deal with issues and crises in an open and transparent manner. It’s the ability to work with potential customers, assuage their fears with solutions that matter to them, and often only them. It’s about going the extra mile, time and time again and often in different ways.

It’s about communications that resonate. Not about a ‘big idea’ created by an advertising agency or the CEO. It’s about talking to customers in a language that they understand and will address their concerns.

It’s an ongoing relationship with the customer that turns them into fans and advocates. If all these are in place then Proton could achieve it’s target of 150,000 vehicle sales this year and start to reverse the decline in its market share.

This is the first in a series of articles where we will track Proton and see how it is doing.