October 2003

Through its Ministry of International Trade and Industry - the Malaysian Government has and continues to promote the creation and enhancement of Malaysian product and service brands.But our question is: are we ready to strategically brand or are we missing something in our quest for global competitiveness as we accelerate investments in the building of our brands?

Amidst the presence of accomplished, world-class brand support industries from design, media and communications, is the cumulative industry and organisational brand competency enough for us to manage and control the growth of competitive Malaysian brands? Brand communications is only one part of the brand jigsaw.The rest is in the brand convergence of committed leadership, organisational structures, people competencies, process and technology investments.The ability to build and sustain a brand-aligned business is the competitive advantage of the globally branded. Are there gaps in our existing business approach and the way we strategically invest and grow our brands?

A Pioneering Survey

Unlike surveys that appraise brand value and brand recognition by customers and markets after the brand has been created, this pioneering survey attempts to understand where brand opportunities and constraints occur at point of investment within brand-intent companies without deep brand experiences in strategic brandbuilding.

The focus of this survey is on 3 main business practice areas:

Brand commitment and investment.

Brand structure, organisation and competencies.

Brand process alignment and integration.

Survey Partners

This survey is the collaborative effort of three key partners.They are the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Trax Associates.MIM or the Malaysian Institute of Management is the non-profit national management organisation dedicated to the development of managerial competencies in Malaysia.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the world's largest professional services organisations with more than 125,000 professionals in 142 countries.Trax Associates is the first brand consulting firm in the region to focus on the design and implementation of enterprise-centric brand delivery processes and systems, having pioneered leading edge brandbuilding solutions in Malaysian organisations.

Thank you very much for your kind participation and we hope to be able to share with you the results of this exciting and pivotal survey in the next few months.We would appreciate if you could return the completed questionnaire in the self-addressed envelope by October 31, 2003. If you have any questions or would like a senior representative to meet with you, please contact Syed Omar or Jay Raj at 03-2094 8266.