The brand calling

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Mohammad Ruhul Kader
When I was a college kid, my father often bought me pen. Sometimes he also took me to buy one. But what I'm trying to say is not a creepy story of father-child sweet relationship. Rather, a different story. However, whenever I went with my father for buying a pen, he never asked the salesman to give a matador pen or another pen instead he asked to give "valo kolom" (good pen).
But now my younger sister also goes to school and my father buys pen for her too, but this time he asked for 'matador pinpoint' instead of "valo pen". This is the story. The change to be seen by our wanna be brand corporations.
Then and again, in 2007 when I was a student in Cox's Bazar, I never heard about cats Eye, Ecstasy or any other retail brands of Bangladesh. Neither I was that much conscious about the value of branded and no-branded products and nor my any of friends were too.
Now in 2011, my younger brother is studying at Cox's Bazaar college. He has also friends and he also goes to shopping. But the difference is that, now he buys Cats Eye or Ecstasy goods when he buys any dress. He goes for branded products that I was not even aware of in 2007. Unlike my friends, his friends are also brand freak.
This is one side of change.
The other side of the coin is, in 2007 very few of my friends were aware of internet, and facebook was unknown to most of them. Because, just four years back, internet was not that much available in Cox's Bazar to come to the access of masses. But now my younger brother is a total facebook freak. He uses facebook whimsically and his friends, too. It shows the availability and access to information has changed beyond our imagination.
Things have changed drastically so far. Now, your Instant Power Supply (IPS) that lights your darkness is Rahimafrooz IPS, your car is obviously Toyota, your shirt is either Cats Eye or Ecstasy, your microwave oven is Sebec, you cannot survive without Meril body lotion in winter, you shop at either Agora or Mina Bazaar, your body soap is either Meril, or Sandelina or Lux, your footwear is either Apex or Bata and you are molded and folded by brands. Whatever you do, wherever you go, whatever you see, whatever you wear and wherever you use are all branded. Means you are branded from head to heel. No fool now goes for nameless products that just abduct their night sleep with wrong time trouble. Consumers today know who makes what, and who gives what.
These are the changes happened in last four years. And for sure it's only the beginning. Bigger surprises are just to be appeared.
Marketers are good at imagination. It can be better said if I say, any good marketer must be a futurist. And globally the leading corporations often predict the future and take measures accordingly.
The time we are living is very critical for the Bangladeshi corporations who want to survive in coming years. Some of the major clear changes can make the case more clear. Number one, the level of access to information has increased significantly in last few years. Apparently, in the coming years it will swipe the whole country with information. Secondly, people's consciousness regarding brands has increased drastically. Third, the issue of climate change has changed the pattern of lifestyles in many areas. And consciousness regarding climate change has increased tremendously. Fourth, the openness of our market is increasing day by day by letting our market open to global brands and giving our consumers more options to be chosen from. Moreover, because of repeated talk about corporate impacts on our society and eco-system, a significant number of consumers are now becoming increasingly conscious about the impact of their brands on society. This portion of consumers just consider brands that are willing to make social good. Hopefully this number of consumers is on the increase.
All these changes are not mere changes. They possess a lot of deep and pervasive challenges for Bangladeshi corporations in coming decades. Challenge is about to deal with a more educated, socially responsible, informed and choosy customers in a market where they have more or less thousands of alternatives.
More specifically, now with the advent of more easy access to information, our consumers are no more caged birds. With more options before them to make the choice to buy any product, they are not loyal anymore. To make the situation worse, due to globalization market is gradually more and more widening up and consumers are getting more and more opportunities to live on.
Unfortunately, most of our corporations are either unwilling or unable to address properly the issues related to branding. It seems that they are busy with lots other messy jobs. How I'm so sure that, our brands are not aware of the situation? Just let me give you one example. For most of Bangladeshi brands, customer care is no care at all, they have turned it into customer fear. Secondly, where brands die for a long-term customer relationship, they love a single customer not to visit twice. How? Firstly, they always want to get more by giving less. Whatever quality does not matter, price is just like that. Second, most Bangladeshi brands give their employees so little that they want to just stay out of the company but they cannot because there are no available jobs out there. So, what do employees do? They pay it through service. They deliver the most pathetic service possible.
It has been found in several researches that there is a strong correlation between employee investment and the balance sheet. As Prof. James L. Heskett wrote in his latest book The Culture Cycle, effective culture can account for 20-30% of the differential in corporate performance. It has been found that among 25 global top ranked companies, 20 of them do highly invest on their employees. Are our companies placed in the list? They should seriously consider this, if they want to stay alive.
Making money is easy but making money for a long time is not. A brand makes the second option easy. As early our corporations understand the truth, the better it will be for them.
(The writer is Founder & Chief Coordinator, Futurestartup.com-Bangladesh's first startup business blog. He can be reached at e-mail- romel122@gmail.com)