• We can see and touch its conspicuous presence through exhibition of logo and trademark, sense its enveloping aura of brand affection and exclusivity, listen to its reassuring informative message and smell it users’ satisfaction and appreciation.
    Brand goodness awards owner with momentous opportunities for growth and profitability. Established brand potency seizes and lock-in prospects, and its inherent flexibility allows visionary owner to prolong and reinforce brand life cycle, indefinitely, sweeping across generations and time. Great brand elevates owner to almost divine status (after all, it is in the beholder’s state of mind), which creates and sustains lifetime relations - from fanatical customers to engaged employees to dedicated suppliers. Brand power offers isolate itself from the rest, distancing from the red ocean and making competitions irrelevant (Blue Ocean). There are no boundaries and impossible is nothing but your inhibited state of mind.
    Of course, branding goes beyond individuals to organizations to the country as a whole. Good branding efforts would need consistent and years to effect. Branding a nation is, I strongly advocate, the ultimate dreams come true for marketers. Could it be done? Concerted and large amount of resources would first come to mind for this noble and gratifying yet far-reached notion. Of all, I reckon Japan (Korea is catching up fast) is the best branded nation. Be it electronics, cars, food, language, choice of vacation, entertainment, cosmetics, girls (and yup, sex) - Japan has it all. And we keep ponder, how would a nation devastated from war recover and globally position itself? Relentless pursuits by innovative firms/individuals are one, but the right direction, support and incentive given the government are equally, if not more imperative. The government, must leverage the nation resources and shape, layout and manage the national blue print i.e. crafting the grand strategic architecture with a strategic intent (Competing for the future). Next, finding and establishing the right core competencies/capabilities….etc.
    But, resources endowment, skills and technologies are often short-lived and non renewable. And how do we overcome that?
    Answer to that question, to which Japan (had long being doing) and nation like Korea and Singapore is embarking. Arguably, the cheapest yet fastest route to sustain a grand nation branding effort is ENTERTAINMENT business - notably, the music and movies (M&M) power offers. As the M&M industry is THE workstation for energy to accumulate, prosper and disseminate. People, being a form of energy (bet the producers of Matrix already know…hehe), when reach a number can energize a network effect, so strong that keep the whole value chain rushing and merging into a single brand identity i.e. the spillover effect comes into play. Moreover, the power offers of M&M, aforesaid, have virtually no boundaries, quick to bond and in all highly rewarding