Pakistan has completed 90 percent of the requirements for entry into the international marketplace and its production processes are in place, ready for value addition through a scientific branding process. This was stated by Naseem Javed, Chief Executive Officer of ABC Namebank based in New York and Toronto, while speaking at conference on "Naming for Power & Corporate Identity in Pakistan" organised by TCS Management Development Services at a local hotel on Friday. Naseem Javed began proceedings with identifying the 'Triple T' progression of Pakistan's image - from T-shirts to Terrorists to Technology.
He emphasised the need to discover globalisation, and take pride in ownership, and turn a manufacturing mentality into a global branding reality. He cited Attitude, Quality, Design, Value expansion and Ownership as the five key ingredients to brand development, with attitude flagged for special emphasis.
"We are all exposed to the world, and the world is watching us whether we like it or not", he said. Proper branding can reduce costs and increase power by multiples of 10 in Naseem's estimation, with the new age of Asia characterised by curiosity and scarcity.
China, he said, is poised on the brink of a global take- over, having registered more trademarks in the last five years than the rest of the world. US brands are sleeping and Western brands are too costly, he said adding that the action is right here in Pakistan and South Asia, and not in Manhattan.
Describing the various categories of names Naseem mentioned surname, descriptive, geographic, coined, alpha-numeric and foreign, while the prevalent five corporate images can be grouped under flower-power, undertaker, Ivy League, cybernaut, dinosaurs, faceless and nameless.
In the branding clinic that he conducted, Naseem Javed dwelt at length at the centrality of e-Commerce in the modern day world given the all pervasiveness of Internet connectivity. He warned against the dangers of master-branding, citing the case study of IBM, and flagged naming traps, litigation, domain management and nomenclature, as important areas of concern.
Jamil Janjua, the CEO of TCS International Businesses based in Dubai, in his welcoming speech said that the Pakistani brand name generates a less than favourable response, to put it very mildly.
"Our business applications have not been consistent. We have been plagued by fly-by-night operators who have played havoc with Pakistan's goodwill both at home and abroad" he said adding that "the general state of civil society has not helped either and we have given the world an opportunity to brand us fundamentalists and terrorists".
He said that the corporate leadership of Pakistan is the nations' best hope in reversing the tide of misfortunes and blazing a trail to progress, prosperity and peace.
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