Welcome to the segment Asiana Cobra Planning. This will be the agenda, I will introduce what Asiana Cobra is and explain that it's a very useful branding platform. We'll apply it to a specific company, and we'll show how flexible it is, and how even non-Asian companies can apply it. So, let's get started. Okay, what is Asiana Cobra? Okay, don't get alarmed, has nothing to do with snakes [LAUGH] but it's an acronym which I will explain later, consists of Asia nation company brands. And it's a reorganization of secondary brand associations. It's a notion that brands have many associations, even indirect ones that can transfer very positive but sometimes negative meaning to a brand. And using Asiana Cobra, companies can plan not only for existing markets and strategies, but for future ones as well. And it facilitates in the shaping of brand narratives for marketing from Asia, for marketing to Asia. Okay, we've learned from scholars like Kevin Keller that brands act as this associative network. And I highly recommend his book, Strategic Brand Management, where he explains how different associations can confer different meanings to a brand. Here, I've reorganized and expanded that approach into four categories, again, Asia, nation, company, and brand, and hence, Asiana Cobra. And so we could think almost of this like an onion where you have different layers and we start at the outer layer and here that is Asia. And Asia can have both positive and negative associations. It can have very old ones which are kind of outdated, and it can have new ones, new ones that aren't aware of, let's say beyond Asia. So, in that respect it's very similar to the Pan-Asian identity issue that I discussed in a different segment. And as a company, we share in these both positive and negative Pan-Asian associations. So it behooves us to sort of shape the narrative and make sure that the positive ones are much more emphasized as opposed to the negative ones. And the negative ones can include sort of the image often stereotyped about how Asia is, that it's very crowded, that it could even be evil and that it's really the source of cheap labor. Again, many of these associations can be very outdated, and in fact false. But again, many of the associations can be very positive. And when used well, it can confer very positive meaning, not only to the region, to the country, but ultimately, to your brands. And so in the case of luxury and exotic, these are the association that cosmetic companies have used well, companies from Japan, companies from Korea. And it's also used very proactively by companies in the travel, hotel and spa industries as well. When we get into sort of a deeper layer, that is that of the nation, and each country has their own, again, positive and negative associations. Here let me look at Korea, and many of these are outdated. Korea sort of emphasizes things done very fast, that some companies have been corrupt, and that because of our neighbor, North Korea, that even South Korea can be a very dangerous place to visit. But of course, there are many positive associations related to this country. That it's very efficient and maybe facts and fiction are maybe sort of the two sides of that same coin. So again, as a company, as a nation, it behooves you that you shape, very positively and proactively, what the narrative is. And that creates also, a very dynamic country and that it's a very cool country. And that explains why the Korean wave and K-pop is so popular beyond Korea, beyond Asia in fact. And we see this kind of soft power marketing being done by countries with their slogans. So here I have a list of some Asian countries that have tried to brand itself in a very positive way. But here, again, we have to ask whether or not this kind of branding is relevant and whether it is unique to that particular country. So ultimately they have to relate this, connect this with what really makes, for example, Singapore unique. And for example their nighttime Formula One race maybe is consistent with their argument that things that they do are unique as compared to other countries. Okay, at a company level, we have to think about what people, not only in your home country but elsewhere, associate with you. So here, as an example, I will use LG. We will have an interview with LG executives about their marketing. But this is my analysis about what might be some associations with LG. And I use this only from an expositional standpoint. So in real practice, there should be a much more scientific and representative sampling of your target consumers. To assess what are the associations, current associations for your company. So here too, we might have positive and negative ones, outdated and perhaps, when need to be, update ones. So potentially negative might be that LG has been a very cautious adapter and it stems from them being relatively late to some technologies. Again, a common association with a lot of Korean companies is that it's a chaebol, these former family owned conglomerates. So maybe that stigma still sticks to large conglomerates in a non-positive way. But we see that the number of positive associations outnumber the negative ones. So this is what I think LG has to proactively use going forward. And especially with technologies like the Internet of things looming. In fact a lot of it is already here, the fact that LG has this full line of electronic products bodes well in terms of them making the case that they are prepared for this technological trend, which is already upon us. Okay, for a lot of companies, brand and company are very highly inter related. But brand associations, perhaps address much more product specific associations that people may have. And so, especially for companies that have a lot of products, like LG, I think they should try to assess what much more industry or product specific associations are. And also brand associations are related to the brand DNA, what its core value proposition is. So in the case of LG, again here too, you may have positive and negative ones. Outdated and maybe for Korea and elsewhere ones that has to be updated. So as for potentially negative brand association it could be the impression that many people have that LG is concentrating on their competition, their rivalry with one company, that company being maybe Samsung. Whereas a more positive and expansive, meaning something that they can sort of use beyond their existing association, can be that they are a global innovator. Not just at home, but in other markets, especially emerging ones. And that they're paying much attention to customer shared value.
