Why Are developing countries losing the five star status race?
The race for the global image repositioning is getting fiercely competitive as
more and more countries are improving their softer image, claiming the right
to produce good quality exportable brands for the international markets.
Poised
and confident, they want to play the marketing game on a global scale. The West,
in the meanwhile has almost abandoned manufacturing, ignoring research development
and creating vacuums, which have resulted in global shifts, which have been
moving rapidly towards Asia and other regions.
As this tectonic shift continues,
it will have opened doors among the highly entrepreneurial companies of emerging
regions to capture new image positioning opportunities and, as they enter the
game that was formerly reserved for select Western countries.
At a time where it’s all about ultimate power demonstrated by the success of
brand name identities in combative plays with other competing countries, a majority
of developing countries have somehow failed the acid test of global branding
stature. The Five Star Standard of Naming was established two decades ago to
help young and old corporations devise sharper and better global image and brand
identities, seeking a unique position in the global marketplace.
The big question of today is why only less than 1% of high maintenance brands
in most developing countries have achieved Five Star Status, while the rest are
too far below to ensure any significant global victory. Today, playing the global
branding game demands following global branding rules, otherwise the sheer cost
of promotion or the lack of global acceptability will eventually kill the project.
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The principal concept behind this ranking standard is all based on ownership.
Simply put, if you have a super brand, let the whole world see it. If you think
that you have an exclusive and absolute 100% Ownership to that brand name identity,
then you must prove it. Today, 99% of some of the most advertised and intensely
promoted name brands cannot. Names like Rolex, Sony, Panasonic or PlayStation
can. Such brand names are exclusively and absolutely 100% owned by their respective
corporations, giving them global respect and an undisputed understanding of their
ownership to customers all over the world, resulting in global power and a Five
Star Standard. www.fivestarstandard.com
The process of the Five Star Naming Standard awards earns the First Star for
being easy and simple, a Second star for being one-of-a-kind, a Third for being
highly related to the business, a Fourth for being globally protected, and a
Fifth for having an identical, matching dotcom. For those lucky few with a Five
Star Standard the brand feels globally secure and free to travel, while a Four-Star
rank is seriously lacking. A Three-Star name is injured, while the Two and One-Star
names are seriously damaged and dying. The test is stringent but paints a very
clear picture, with this deeper understanding corporations can guide their brands
to appropriate winnings, with modifications or establishing a stronger platform
from which further name identities can be built upon with a higher degree of
confidence.
The Five Star Standard of Naming has been originated and developed by ABC Namebank,
who has defined these five characteristics as primal traits among powerful brand
identities. The current market demands powerful names based on originality and
simplicity in order to attain success on a global scale. Despite common sense
simplicity and a pragmatic approach to this ranking process, most corporations
are not fully aware of the gravity or the risk of advancing their weaker and
injured name identities on the global battlefields especially when their aggressive
pushes to boost are often simply increasing the brand’s mortality. The west is
already littered with thousands of unheard mega branding project failures, especially
when creating a Five Star Standard Name Identity is not an expensive exercise,
and considerably less than the promotion costs used to push a struggling identity.
Under the present situation, the real winners will be the nations that recognize
the global branding and image challenges that face their domestic corporations,
and provide effective platforms to cultivate these brands to overcome these global
realities. There is a strong need for mass-educational programs to train armies
of branding and marketing savvy students, who in turn, become local champions
that produce success stories. Establishing national institutions with sophisticated
programs on a large scale will ensure an image-savvy culture. Despite these institutions,
the global battle of brands will intensify when thousands of new global-reach,
brand name identities emerge from India and China, which will dwarf the current
landscape of western brand name establishment, as the new winners and losers
are divided based solely on absolute, 100% global ownership.
Currently, the Top 1000 Brands of the world mostly enjoy their Five Star Status,
but it’s the tens of thousands of other young and old brands that remain in the
race, struggling to gain some attention, that are caught in serious global challenges
for either being too difficult or obscure to be understood around the world,
or too simple and cute to be protected by trademarks. Without a Five Star Standard,
most brands in search of global fame will stay entrenched in a losing war with
their struggling identity.
Naseem Javed, recognized world authority on corporate image and global image
repositioning, and author of Naming For Power, is currently on a lecture tour
in Asia. [email protected]
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