JEDDAH, 7 October 2003 — Saudi authorities are looking into various steps to curb brand imitation, according to a senior marketing executive.

“Whether it is in the form of imitation of products or logos, it is for the ministry concerned to take legal steps, and I’m sure they are already on the job to check or even eliminate such malpractices,” Khalid F.A. Baghdadi, marketing support director at the Riyadh-based Saudi Telecom Company (STC), told Arab News alongside the annual Saudi Marketing Conference that ended yesterday after a two-day run. “Developing successful brand strategies in Saudi Arabia” was the theme of the event, organized by the Middle East Marketing Forum at Jeddah Hilton Hotel.

Baghdadi, who presented a case study on successful development of a local brand, has been involved with the rebranding exercise, which has seen STC successfully implement a new corporate identity and also largely changed customer perceptions toward the organization. “There must be a change from an unfriendly technology-focused to customer-focused that is friendly, helpful and cooperative. People don’t want empty promises, because criticism of STC is rooted in real experience. Consumers will only respond to communication if it contains tangible evidence of change,” he said and called for a “holistic communication” approach to deliver the message.

Andreas Christopoulos, managing director, Synovate Middle East, Jeddah, strongly pleaded for using market research to build stronger brands. “Brand equity and consumer commitment are key to the success of any brand,” he said and outlined how marketing research helps create consumer commitment. He called for positioning a brand successfully to meet the challenges of the future.

Andreas Gregoriou, managing director, Synovate, Saudi Arabia, told Arab News that the Kingdom should develop the capability to adapt in order to build brands. “Local companies should make it a policy to invest in the brand building exercise, as most of the brands here are global. There are very few known brands in the Kingdom,” he said, adding that the brand equity should be such as to associate it with consumers. “Consumers are brand loyal, especially the older generation. The younger generation may take the liberty of trying products of other brands,” he said.

Ghaida Fatany, senior research executive at Synovate, Jeddah, who was among the participants, said: “The forum presentations and discussions were very interesting, useful and beneficial. I’m sure all attendees have enriched their knowledge about branding through this interactive event.”

Martin Lindstrom, author of books like “Clicks, Bricks & Brands” and “BRANDchild,” and considered to be a branding guru, in his keynote address spoke on “Branding 2.0 - the next generation of brand building.” He based his presentation on the world’s largest ever study conducted about future brand generations He analyzed future brand tools and suggested exploration of new techniques to build solid brands. He introduced “Contextual branding” — a concept that is predicted to take over the future of brand building and contended that the success behind cross-channel branding should be explored and a move should be made from offline to online and wireless branding.

Fahd Hamidaddin, business team director at DMS, Jeddah, spoke on brand equity building promotions and outlined how brand loyalty should be built and maintained. He also presented a case study from the Saudi market. He said 60 percent of promotions fail to build business because of inadequate handling of all the details behind executing an idea. While executing a promotion, he suggested that all parties involved should be motivated to implement a winning promotion. “Test your value trade off with a sample of your core target before rollout, avoid price reductions - reward don’t bribe, make sure your communication is clear and has a call for action, capture information of as many customers and prospects as possible, select your partners carefully, use your running communicational channels to run promotions, outsource and give to an expert things that aren’t your core, and measure payout and analyze results after a promotion is done,” he suggested.

Saudi Arabian Airlines, Al Jomaih Automotive Company, Zamil Air Conditioners, Synovate, BBC World, American Express and Cadillac sponsored the event held in association with Gulf Marketing Review.