The influence of marketing and branding across the globe has exploded in the past 20 years. It has now become a sophisticated discipline full of theory, expertise and opinion. However, markets like the UK or US in which marketing was created are now reaching a saturation point. For brand marketing to evolve it must locate new markets, which it can transform. Bangladesh is one of those markets, a place where dramatic transformation will take place during the next 15 years.
Before one can attempt an exercise in branding, one has to understand what it is, how it originated and what core principles are at work to ensure success. Once this has been established, we will see how these principles can transform the Bangladeshi economy.
The birth of branding
The industrial revolution provided British people with more employment and income than ever before. This new source of income allowed a group of people to live a slightly more advanced life by making accessible basic commodities such as wheat, potato, timber and soap. Towards the end of the 1880s, many village-based suppliers provided these commodities. A labourer working during the industrial revolution would shop for all these newly affordable items. Whilst shopping, it was difficult to distinguish between the quality of the various wheat, vegetables and soaps on display. There was very little visible product differentiation and so ultimately people purchased on availability and price: not dissimilar to consumer behaviour throughout the many villages of Bangladesh today.
Near the northern city of Liverpool in a village called Sunlight, one particular soap maker made a very fine quality product. Very quickly, customers went into the market and asked specifically for his soap. It had no name, so people asked for the name of the soap maker. The shop vendors told them that the soap maker was a man called William Lever. So customers would ask for ‘Lever’s’ soap. Soon many other vendors started to claim to sell the soap from Lever, even though they were selling different, inferior products. When customers used these false Lever-made soaps, of course it was not as good as Lever’s original soap and they soon became disgruntled and started to complain.
Lever was fearful that his hard earned reputation could quickly be in tatters. He knew he made soap better than the others and that he could do so on a consistent basis. Now he had to devise a “seal of authenticity” so people would know that they were buying the genuine soap manufactured in his factory.
Up until that point, soap was sold in huge 10kg slabs; shop vendors would cut off whatever weight of soap a customer requested and charge accordingly. The most common weight of soap requested was 100g. Lever decided to pre-cut his soap into 100g pieces and ‘brand’ every piece with a unique logo. He then wrapped each 100g soap tablet into a paper wrapper that also had the name Sunlight branded across it.
The role of the Sunlight label was shorthand: a promise that a customer would get a certain quality standard every single time that commodity was purchased. The effect was immediate: instead of asking shop vendors for soap, customers would ask for Lever’s Sunlight. “Branding” as a commercial strategy had been born.
For this consistent promise of quality, Lever charged a premium price. Customers immediately accepted that they would have to pay more for a consistently better product, hence establishing¡ the principle that branded goods were valued at a premium over non-branded goods.
Very quickly, Sunlight became a highly desired purchase; those who acquired it felt that they were connoisseurs of sophistication and choice. They felt an emotional connection when purchasing or using Sunlight, as it made a statement about the customers’ knowledge and their social status. Although people might have had different types of soap at home, when guests visited, only the Sunlight bar would be set on the sideboard to indicate a certain class.
Imagine that: a simple bar of soap elevating a person to a higher social class!
Of course this phenomena occurring in North West England was not the only example of the world’s first forays into commercial branding. South of Sunlight, in a town called Bourneville, an entrepreneur by the name of Cadbury had discovered a similar method and applied it to his chocolate business. Likewise, across the Atlantic in the USA, a chemist by the name of John Pemberton from Atlanta had created a cola beverage that made labourers feel miraculously refreshed. He branded his product Coca Cola in an attempt to distinguish his product from other similar competitors.
Lessons learned from the forefathers of branding
An analysis of these early practitioners of branding quickly reveals a common approach. Lever, Cadbury and Pemberton all believed in a number of core principles:
1. Their products were genuinely better than the competition. They strived to make the best possible product and took no shortcuts in quality, longevity or how the consumer experienced the product. Hence, their brands were able to differentiate themselves from the competition.
2. They ensured that they consistently made high quality products; and that if the customer ever found the product experience unsatisfactory, they would replace the product without asking any questions.
3. Only once they were able to consistently make superior products, did they give their products a brand name, which allowed customers to quickly identify their product.
4. The brand name became the promise of product quality and experience that consumers expected.
5. Very quickly, these brand owners built in a critical emotional dimension into their brands, making consumers desire a product not just for its consistent quality but also because of what it said about the people who bought it, how it made them feel.
Creating mega brands in Bangladesh
The first time I saw a typical bazaar in the rural hinterlands of Bangladesh, I was dumbfounded at the naivety of the marketplace; and also at the huge possibility that branding offers within every single category of products in the market. It seemed that the opportunities were limitless; that with foresight and creativity, literally anything in Bangladesh could be transformed through marketing and branding.
Why and how should branding be the solution you may ask? To demonstrate my view, I played a little game with a good friend to prove my point. We drove to a market in Uttara, Dhaka. I asked my friend to point in any direction and tell me what he saw. He pointed at a chemist by the name of Laaz.
I am told that Laaz is the most famous pharmacy in Dhaka. When I asked my Dhaka friends to describe what made this pharmacy unique, they replied that it was because it would supply “any medicine at any time.” An impressive boast and one I’m sure will help it stand out. However, it is not very differentiating; indeed there is a pharmacy 20 yards down the road from Laaz in Uttara that claims the same promise! What the owners of Laaz Pharmacy have done is apply the first four rules above but not the most important fifth rule, that of an emotional connection.
Laaz pharmacy opened in 1972, very soon after Bangladesh’s war for independence. So, in effect, Laaz was a pioneer in providing health solutions to this new vulnerable country. When I probed a little more, I found out that the founder of Laaz pharmacy was in fact one of Bangladesh’s freedom fighters and had risked his life to help create his new nation. In reality, the people at Laaz were much more than just a pharmacy.
Laaz had fought for freedom and continues to give people freedom from illness by providing healthcare and medicine to Bangladeshis on a daily basis…Laaz Pharmacy has been fighting for a healthy Bangladesh since 1971!
Imagine the impact wielded by a brand bearing that claim. Does it appeal to you more than a company who provides “any medicine at any time”? If Laaz took this brand positioning and managed to communicate it convincingly to its consumers, through advertisements and a PR campaign, many new opportunities would open.
In the pharmaceutical sector in Bangladesh, people ask for a medicine by the name of the manufacturer. For instance, the medicine, Ibuprofen comes in the original version from Novartis and also in generic versions made by many other manufacturers. Given what we saw happening in Lever’s day of inferior imitations and today’s look-alike, sound-alike products, how can we know who to trust?
What if the people at Laaz, who Bangladeshis trust a great deal, examined all available versions of ibuprofen, deduced which the best one was and then marked it with the Laaz brand? So instead of asking for “bideshi” (foreign) Ibuprofen, customers would ask for Laaz Ibuprofen because they trusted Laaz as it has demonstrated expertise and knowledge; it has “the health of Bangladesh” as one of its core principles. And just like Sunlight did, Laaz could even charge a premium as their customers would have peace of mind that the medicine they had purchased was of superior quality and the best value for their money.
Now imagine that Laaz did this for every single category of medicine they sold. There would be over 100 medicines from Laaz pharmacy. By undergoing such a branding exercise, Laaz would in an instant, create a huge brand presence among the hundreds and thousands of pharmacies across Bangladesh. People would be asking for Laaz medicines in Dhaka, Sylhet, Chittagong and beyond.
As cash flow increased, Laaz could use the extra profits to acquire the largest and most successful pharmacies around the country and convert them into more branded Laaz pharmacies. They would train new members of staff with the knowledge, expertise and values that had made them successful ensuring that all there employees were proud to work for Laaz, employees would become the most critical brand ambassadors.
These new “super pharmacies” could stock higher margin items from the personal products category. As incomes keep rising and more and more people have access to wealth, Laaz would continue reinforcing its brand promise, that of “fighting for a healthy and prosperous Bangladesh!”
Preposterous, a pipedream I hear you say … well in the developed world, this phenomenon has already taken place. In the UK, it is called Boots chemist and there is at least one in every single town across the country.
Emotional connectivity carries much more power than any functional claim.
The danger is unless Bangladeshi entrepreneurs recognise this potential quickly, foreign outfits can steal the opportunity and the profits forever! Instead of Laaz or Rahman or The Bengal Pharmacy, the super pharmacy will be called Boots, Tesco, Wal Mart or whichever multinational company spots the opportunity and steps in first.
This example illustrates how branding can enable companies to identify unique areas of difference vis a vis their competition. As demonstrated, this can create routes into bigger, higher margin markets. If a company gets it right, something amazing happens. Instead of having to push its products onto people by active selling (all the chaos of the shabzi-wallahs in New Market, screaming promises of price, quality, and so on), people come into the market pulled by the brand promise. They ask for their favourite brands, and in an instant, the rules of selling are rewritten!
I challenge you – find me a category, any product or service in Bangladesh that cannot be transformed and improved using the principles of brand building. These ideas apply in the wood/timber market, the Hilsa fish market, bicycle rickshaws, fruit, rice and travel agents. Everywhere in Bangladesh, there are huge opportunities for companies to differentiate themselves, to offer consistently better products marketed in both functional and emotional domains.
Branding Bangladesh
In a world that can be bewildering in its competitive clamour, in which rational choice has become almost impossible, brands represent clarity, reassurance, consistency, status, membership – everything that enables people to define their needs, and even themselves. Brands, more than anything, represent identity.
Bangladeshis have an intimate understanding of this: we fought a war to preserve our identity. It is time to express this identity through the many industries in Bangladesh.
Gone are the days of mass illiteracy and starvation. Despite serious political, environmental and social challenges, the economy still grows 6%-7% every year.
Bangladesh is drastically changing. This change is both the country’s biggest potential opportunity and threat. Our neighbour, India, is busy trying to benefit from both its huge market and the world beyond and multinational companies already have a huge presence. How long before they, and we, realise that Bangladesh is not very different?
Most critically, Bangladesh as a nation requires inspirational branding to positively affect global opinion. It needs to have its views respected on the international stage, to differentiate itself from other countries and attract foreign investment to help develop promising sectors like tourism.
The longer we wait, the more time foreign companies get to pillage and benefit from what belongs to us. Soon, it will be too late and our children will clamour for all things western. McDonalds and Levi’s will supplant local and national cultural icons. Haleem and Laaz will become memories of the distant past.
I encourage all who read this article and who are in the world of government, business, brands and marketing to fight against the clamour for all things foreign. We have to recognise and build upon our strengths, the high quality goods we already have and those we can produce in the future. It’s time the world saw Bangladesh’s unique and wonderful culture, and branding can be the medium that does that for us.
