The perfect brand

Tolga Sezer, Aujan Industries' executive vice president, took the opportunity offered by the conference to make an impassioned exploration of the power of brand building as an integral part of successful marketing strategies.

In his speech on ‘Building the Perfect Brand' Sezer began by reminding the delegates of the key differences between a "brand" and a "product", a simple point that he sometimes becomes blurred in the general public's often over-crowded collective conscious.

"I feel that there is a confusion between them," Sezer explained. "A good example of this is Starbucks. At the end of the day Starbucks is not just a cup of coffee.

"If we ask a consumer in America, they will say that it is that ‘third place' between work and home. Why is this important? Well, that difference is a US$3.6bn industry." And the region's poor contribution to global brands did not escape the enthused executive VP's astute eye: "If you look at the list [of biggest advertising spenders] for 2007, it starts with Coke, which is no surprise. That alone is US$65bn. Just the top 10 put together total over US$411bn! Imagine, that's more than the GDPs of some countries. So, what do these great brands have in common? Well, they have a story, longevity, uniqueness, emotions, ubiquity. But, if you look at the list, the entire top 100, unfortunately there are no brands from the Middle East."

Sezer placed the blame for this on the fact that, for many Middle Eastern companies, branding comes at a later stage of their development strategies. "If you go and ask the owners and chairmen of regional businesses what their most important assets are, many will say ‘our factories' - but this is not the way to advertise."

Admitting that there were some up-and-coming brands in the region, especially in the FMCG sector, Sezer maintained that that was not enough.

"With the high oil GDP, and a population of young people willing, and able, to spend, this region should be a marketer's dream. Look at 2010, there will be an expected 210 million-strong consumer group. So we have to do better. The challenge is how to produce more great brands."

And for Sezer, is it as the "consumers' champions," that marketers can really achieve their aim. "We have to understand them, we have to share experiences with them - it's not a matter of ‘reconnecting', we should stay with them constantly."

Sezer illustrated his point by underlining that the brand must reach two key areas in order to successfully attract increasing numbers of consumers.

"The vision has to have an ‘essence' that works on both physical and emotional platforms. Defining the vision is not enough, defining the destination is not enough - you need a driver, a motto. Nike has ‘Just Do It', Dove has ‘Real Beauty', Omo has ‘Dirt Is Good'. For Rani it's ‘Get Chunked'."

Yet, despite the region's lack of brandbuilding brilliance, Sezer sees a bright future for the advertising industry, one that has great potential. "We can make the journey, we just need the consumer to tell us if we are going in the right direction. If we play by the rules a regional brand like Rani can open the gates to big international competition."

But the never-resting Sezer left his audience with a stark reminder: "Never forget, however, that it's a never-ending journey," he warned. "Once we reach our objective that will just become our position from which to start afresh and go further." He concluded to stirring applause from the floor: "the only thing that we need is you to make it happen."