How Asian Companies can Better Manage their Design and Branding

How are our best local companies doing in the area of branding and design? What are the best practices and strategies that they can adopt to take them to the next level? Our resident contributor, Brian Ling, aka Design Translator together with his colleague, PY from IDasia.org, offer a design and branding case study on two of the more prominent Singaporean consumer brands Creative and OSIM. In this article, they track their successes, as well as comment on what they can do to overcome their current struggles in this very fast pace and fickle consumer market.

Contributed by Brian Ling

Success is not always sweet
Success lies in the sum of its parts. Two Singapore’s brightest “sons”, Creative and Osim, have been successful in their time as the first local Singapore brands that succeeded in stamping their marks globally as leaders in computer sound technology (Creative) and health and wellness (Osim) markets.

However recently there has been a spade of articles on the fading success of the former darlings of the Singapore Stock Exchange, as well as challenges ahead for Creative and Osim.

Really these two brands are finding out that maintaining a successful consumer products business is a whole different ball game. With the media slamming their recent poor performance as well as their products, the harsh reality of the success of their competition is starting to set in.

Facing the Storm in Different Ways
The lawsuit between Apple and Creative, over Apple’s usage of Creative’s patented technology last year, brought about a settlement payout of $100-million in favor to Creative and a collaboration agreement for designing Apple accessories. Although the payout helped overshadow poor performance, other reports have argued this collaboration may not generate much positive fallout unless a strong innovative product arises from the venture. Furthermore in light of their recent poor performance, Creative has indicated that they are taking the most common route of a failing business and that is restructuring their resources and cutting down costs, in order to break even.

Actually it’s really about “Survival of the Smartest” in this market in particular.

As for Osim it is currently facing the consequences of, what many say was a poor acquisition, the buy-out of American health retail chain Brookstone, and nutrition retailers GNC. Also the recalling of 3000 “Uzap mini belts” which caught fire, resulted in a loss of product sales and customer good will. Moreover together with claims of Osim’s designs getting pirated by other competitors, these factors have contributed to company’s share price hitting an 18-month low in Feb 2007. Despite the deterioration of sales and branding goodwill, Mr Ron Sim is still optimistic and aims to grow sales targets by breaking into new markets currently not covered by OSIM.

However if we take a step back, focus on the big picture, and consider what Osim and Creative plan to do, the question that many ask is, “is this enough” Or perhaps in our point of view “is this the right thing to do”? Cutting cost or taking a gamble by looking for new markets is perhaps only a short term solution at best. This is especially when, in our opinion, the problem might lie with their product delivery. Let us explain.

The Importance of Design in Product Branding

“Design is the silent ambassador of a brand” ~Paul Rand.

Nothing shouts more about your brand than your product sitting in front of your consumer. In order for a brand to be successful, a total holistic application of the company’s brand values and vision needs to be adopted in a 360-degree manner within the organization.