Are Pakistani products in the West being culturally profiled? It’s no secret that consumers all over the world are far more politically savvy than they were a decade ago.
Equally, and more often, the consumers are fully aware of the major foreign policies of the other countries and have a sense to measure their direct impact on their own immediate surroundings. Most foreign policies, whether straight or sugar coated, strategically branded or falsely promoted by so many countries, have all contributed to new tendencies towards a “culturally-profiled-neo-consumerism.” The emergence of this new twist is going to shake the flow of products and services among all nations.
Customers have started selecting goods and services available on the global markets based on cultural profiling, while creating an aggressive “us versus them” street fighter mentality.
In the meanwhile, the high-speed e-commerce humming via broadband has replaced the traditional trade winds that once travelled all the way from the long-anticipated caravans with their classy silver-tongued merchants suddenly appearing through twisted silk roads. Now there are massive colourful catalogues of millions of products and services, directly plugged into our pre-programmed online purchasing portals. Marco Polo would have simply flipped.
With hundreds of countries making millions of original products, the origination of products is no longer exclusive to a single country and consumers have the choice and the power to select at the best quality and price while applying a random culture profile to a brand.
Passport please: An entry to a consumer’s house in any foreign land now requires a quick customs check. Ah ... So where was this product born? What’s its true nationality? What’s this nation doing on the global scene today? What’s the bearer’s nation done for my nation lately? Do I really like this nation?
Depending on where this is happening, the national level of education determines the outcome. The problem gets even more complex, when a pre-conceived or ill-informed notion about a specific country kicks in and seriously hurts sales.
Globally geared propaganda machines are available to almost all countries, and some use it with great sophistication, while the rest use it as a purely unsophisticated screaming device. They simply yell about their causes, while the global audience tunes them out. To most, this may sound like managing marketing and branding 101, but in reality, it is extremely difficult. An advanced level of image-building knowledge is critically required.
For a fraction of costs, but certainly under professional expertise, Pakistan’s exporters can not only engage into a multi-brands for multi-nations models while equally creating and developing some transparent corporate and master umbrella name identities to circumnavigate the global regions. Without too much fuss or trademarks confusions.
A proper branding architecture is most critical for exporters under these culturally profiled and competitive markets. It sounds easy, but it is, as it has been a proven and a well tested model from the West.
First, replication of technology is easy for most developing nations. The more they grow in population, the easier the math as economy of scales pushes them forward. Technology then further enhances their capabilities, making it an outward-bound spiral of growth and new opportunities. The floodgates are now open for increased global consumerism. Corporate Pakistan must be fully aware of how technology is so closely related to exportability and branding experiences.
Second, news, good or bad, is travelling faster than the actual goods, making it a key component in the buyer’s mind before a purchase decision. There is a country-by-country drive to achieve distinction and acquire some branded image to align with friendly countries, something that was once only done at the political level and not at a general populace level.
Pakistan’s leadership is being tested and sooner the country’s image and experiences through successful branding personalities and satisfaction from goods and services are checked by the global masses at the floodgates the better. Other countries have done it and so can Pakistan. Branding image and name identities for the global masses is a science and not to be confused with wildly creative local advertising campaigns.
Lastly, there is an absence of a super power at the consumption level. There is not one single country that could exclusively dominate the global consumer supply chain. From the beginning of modern business, there were only a handful of countries that dominated the global appetite for finer products. Not any longer. Wonderful. What better way to lead and open brand new markets. Pakistan can certainly have a process to build rapidly select top brands to lead this. A grass root branding revolution awaits.
Corporate image and branding now requires a deeper understanding of the type and style of persona.A corporate image is and what perceptions its various brand trigger. It is essential to know the three critical personas — Territorial, Nationalistic or Universal — and equally which one is the best and for what reason.
Profiling the Future As old models of wild promotions and overly repeated designs are dying, marketing, cyber-branding, global domain management and creation of global identity all have very different challenges today. Not only they are available for a fraction of cost once rightly applied, they can catapult a business to new heights.
The global free trade pendulum is swinging back more to a nationalistic tick. For the time being, brands are increasingly being culturally profiled. Passport please.