MANAGING CREATIVITY IN BRANDING

Building brands, as an integral part of the business strategy, is a persistent and vigorous effort to establish value that goes above and beyond the tangible benefits that the products and services offer. That makes our Executive Series of Branding Programmes so popular and our new intake to its third year programmes will also commence shortly. Students registered on our Executive Diploma in Strategic Brand Management programme in October 2009 and March this year took part in a brand competition organized with the Hong Kong Brand Development Council. They found the overall experience very fruitful as it enabled them to put their ideas into perspective through a real-life project.

Competition Nurtures Professionals

An award presentation ceremony was held on 15th September, 2010 to honor the winning teams. Ms Shirley Chan, Chairman of Hong Kong Brand Development Council delivered her speech at the start of the ceremony, “Being an energetic Asian city thriving to promote authentic brand ideas, Hong Kong is in need of innovative brand strategy, management and consultancy services. Hence, professionals in these areas are also in high demand. The Hong Kong Brand Development Council considers education and training a very important aspect to achieve our goals and it is our foremost objective to promote the awareness of brand management through establishing partnerships with the academic sector.” Shirley also praised the works of the students while she reiterated that course design and strong support from various sectors are among the major reasons making the series of Brand Management courses for executives so successful. She finds it encouraging to witness students applying new knowledge to real-life business scenarios.

Dr. Jane Lee, Deputy Director and Head of College of Business and Finance, HKU SPACE, hoped that all students can make good use of what they learned. She pledged to help driving businesses forward by hatching more professionals through the courses jointly organized with the Hong Kong Brand Development Council. Feedbacks from students suggest that they have benefitted greatly in mastering the essential skills in building brands. They are particularly grateful to their teachers who are brand experts and have shared with them their knowledge and wisdom in building brands. The winning team shared, “The biggest challenge for us is time management. We’ve got to make everything ready within 16 weeks, from scratch to a well-prepared presentation. I also think that the collaboration and commitment among our team members are crucial elements to succeed.”

A Dialogue with Brand Experts

A professional seminar on ‘Managing Creativity in Branding – A Dialogue with Brand Experts’ was held right after the ceremony. Ms Janice Chan, ex-Managing Director of M&C Saatchi illustrated the power of creativity by looking at the monetary market values of Apple, the designing company of iPhone and Foxconn, the manufacturer. Apparently, the innovative product design contributed to a much greater value of Apple. Janice said, “Likewise, if Hong Kong can establish herself as a brand building center pioneering the global standard, market possibilities will also be infinite.”

Janice stated that creativity is best materialized in innovative product designs, which must be steered towards the ever-changing expectations of consumers. She remarked, “If any telecommunication service provider is still working on traditional phonelines business only, it would certainly be eliminated when everyone are talking about internet connectivity, mobile data, VoIP and online gaming technologies. Businesses need to make sure they are not just 'in the business' but 'in the business of serving communication needs.'

Janice quoted a line from Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”  - Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Her point is that advertising dollars spent without planned strategy will have little positive effect on the business. Corporations should continuously keep track of customers' needs while carefully establishing their brand value. More importantly, continuity of innovation can only be achieved in a culture in which creativity is encouraged and valued.

Creativity and Strategy Aligned

The seminar switched into an interactive forum when Ms Iris Lo, Managing Director of DRAFTftb joined the discussion facilitated by Ms Melanie Lee, Adjunct Assistant Professor of HKU SPACE. Iris shared her valuable experiences in her past projects, “One of the crucial qualities for successful creative professionals is the ability to express ideas in a concise and precise way. Sometimes we may have differences and even conflicting ideas with the clients, but fruitful outcomes can still be seen if we keep ourselves aligned with the previously agreed strategic direction.”

Melanie added, “Very often, marketing practitioners focus on the technicality of implementation without understanding the business strategy behind. That is why our course is designed to let students take a close look at why and how, on top of what we do to build brands .”

HKU SPACE College of Business & FInance has invited five notable brand experts to share their experience and knowledge in different aspects of building brands in the Brand Forum to be held on October 9, 2010, hoping to create awareness within the business and marketing community, on the importance of investing in brands in a persistent manner. Like the experts said, investing in brands is one of the most effective and long lasting strategies in creating long term value and customer loyalty for corporations.

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