Because to them, branding = marketing

Ever wondered why Singapore’s infocomm SMEs fare so poorly beyond our shores?

Some of the common excuses I hear from peers or entrepreneurs I meet include:

Aiyah, Singapore’s market very small mah…then gahmen only give tenders to MNCs and GLCs. GLCs also very unfriendly lah, dun help us SMEs.

Gahmen give us grant for product development, for brand strategy, but never give us grant for brand roll-out.

In fact, I could go on and on about each of the above-mentioned comments, but I won’t – not in this entry at least. The one that has been bugging me the most is…*drum roll*

Branding? Orrrh…yah I paid a design house to design my logo recently. Also hired an intern to do my marketing lah. Whatever collaterals we need, my sales team looks for her.

Of course, I exaggerate. However, the underlying fact remains – a significant portion (don’t ask me to quote, it’s all anecdotal) of our infocomm SMEs that form the 80% of companies and businesses, but only <20% of the revenue, continue to have fallacies to the utmost degree when it comes to branding.

Add to that the fact that ~60% of the ICT industry (in terms of revenue) in Singapore is dominated by hardware distributorship and system integrators – companies that make moolah by pushing other people’s brands…it’s little wonder we’ve yet to see a strong ICT brand emerge from Singapore. Even Creative Technologies, our poster-boy of yore has become the proverbial hare in the race with the once-turtlish Apple Inc. The result? The ignominy of losing in its brand equity, market share and a P/E ratio of 915.

Instead of chasing that next deal, you Singaporean SME CEOs, it would do your companies some good to STOP and THINK about how branding can be a strategic enabler to your businesses. Repeat after me!

1. Branding does not equal marketing!
2. Branding is NOT ancillary when it comes to your business!
3. Stop treating your Marketing & Communications folks like support staff!
4. (to add more when they come to mind)

Without strong ICT brands that we can call our own, to distinguish our companies from ‘the madding crowd’, Singapore’s infocomm industry will surely melt in the heat of global competition.

Wake up your bloody idea, because I told you to.

Wake up your bloody idea, because otherwise, your company won’t be stickin’ around for much longer.

Wake up your bloody idea, I implore of thee (or is it thou?) – the fate of our tiny nation state’s future lies in the hands of you SMEs!