El IMZ como modulador electro-óptico

We believe that what we have learnt in ‘advanced’ societies about creating value through branding can and should be transferred to less-developed nations in order to improve the lives of their populations. If organizations in these countries apply brand thinking to their activities, they will be better able to provide their stakeholders with what they want. This may entail: ᔡ better value propositions for their customers, which can lead to greater

customer loyalty, attracting more and better customers, the ability to charge higher prices and so on;

ᔡ improved working conditions for their employees, as the organizations realize that their people are instrumental in taking the brand to their customers;

ᔡ increase in share prices as branding demonstrates the continuity and vitality of the organization to investors;

ᔡ increased appeal of the organization to suppliers, as well as potential employees, who feel secure and proud to be working for a trusted and respected organization;

ᔡ development of the local community as more means become available to invest in health, education, infrastructure and the like;

ᔡ local, regional and national governments benefiting not only from an expanded tax base, but from the reflected glory of flourishing brands in their constituencies.

Each individual brand will, of course, have different impacts on different stakeholders. But there is absolutely no reason why the beneficial effects of branding should be restricted to the developed world, or why the role of less-developed nations should be as mere suppliers of commodity goods and labour to rich companies from rich countries.

One very visible benefit of better branding in developing countries would be the rise of export brands, directly tapping the wealth of consumers in rich countries – truly a pipeline of economic ‘aid’ directly linking the donor and recipient, providing clear and immediate benefits to both parties. But such cases are still the exception rather than the rule. Many poor countries remain, and are likely to remain, enmeshed in a pattern of economic behaviour that keeps them poor: selling unprocessed goods to richer nations at extremely low margins and allowing their buyers to add massive ‘value’ by finishing, packaging, branding and retailing to the end user. In many cases, this process helps deplete the source country’s resources while keeping its foreign revenues at a break- even level at best.

But building an export brand requires more funding, marketing expertise, ambition and chutzpah than many emerging-market companies can lay claim to. Still, organizations that only operate locally have much to gain from branding, and the same value-creation process applies to local brands as much as to export brands. Indeed, building a powerful domestic brand may often be a more urgent priority: local brands constantly need to fend off foreign brands encroaching on their territory and the best way to achieve this is often by developing a brand that better meets local demands and is more sensitive to local cultural conditions.

As the glossy image of multinational and especially Western-owned brands begins to wear a little thin, local brands may well find that they have an unprecedented window of opportunity to state their different and attractive credentials. One of the authors of this chapter argues in the book Global Brand Management (van Gelder, 2003) that brands are influenced by various local structural, cultural and motivational conventions, and that the choice of abiding by or challenging these factors may provide specific value to consumers. A further effect of this situation is that strong local brands become more and more likely to be selected by foreign brands as co-brands or as component or ingredient brands.

There are many obstacles that can impede the development of healthy local brands. One significant problem is the issue of proper legal protection

of the brand. Hernando de Soto (2001) argues that it is the complex and peculiarly Western system of legally protected property title that has enabled trade in the West to burgeon into capitalism on a major scale, and the lack of such a system that keeps the great wealth of parts of the ‘devel- oping’ world in unmeasurable, non-negotiable and unrealizable form (you can’t take out a mortgage, for example, against a property for which you hold no formal legal title). De Soto’s argument clearly has its application to the issue of brands: without the protection afforded by intellectual property legislation, and the right of a manufacturer to protect its namestyle, it would be impossible for the value of a brand name to be considered a quantifiable asset of the business. Without this asset the market capitalization of a company like Xerox, for example, would be a mere $481 million rather than $6.5 billion.1

However, even in places with rather weak legal protection of intel- lectual property, local brands can thrive. A good example is China, where brands like Tsingtao, Haier and Legend have (largely) depended on their local markets and despite stiff competition from powerful foreign brands have nonetheless managed to create substantial brand equity, which now stands them in good stead as they move out on to the international market.

Multinational brands often create this entirely beneficial (and entirely unintended) side effect: their presence in countries around the world has the power to ‘inoculate’ local brands against powerful competition, teaches them world-class design, quality, packaging and marketing stan- dards, and helps to train them for success on the global marketplace.

Along with the transfer of branding knowledge and skills, foreign and local companies who wish to practise branding must also realize that this brings added responsibility: responsibility for delivering on one’s promise, meeting expectations, behaving in an ethical manner, contributing to the community and generally being held accountable for one’s actions.