With a population of under 5 million, Singapore’s domestic market can be considered limited by global standards. Any successful Singaporean entrepreneur knows that it is only a matter of time before he needs to go overseas. This is because, even if his business is operating successfully in Singapore, there is a practical limit to how much his brand can achieve within our shores.

Instead of self-owned outlets, one of the preferred ways to grow a brand is via franchising where a proven concept can be replicated and introduced quickly in another market by tapping on the efforts of a franchisee who is familiar with the operating environment of the intended market.

However if the foundation behind this growth is not managed systematically, the brand will find it a challenge to sustain its success and penetrate even more markets; something we have discovered through our consulting journey with numerous growing enterprises across Singapore and Asia.

In this article, we will share key areas that you should work on to beef up your brand, which you will find useful if you are considering expansion beyond Singapore. These pointers are by no means exhaustive as the issues and challenges faced by each business and the industry that it comes from are highly varied. For a more in-depth understanding, please feel free to approach a professional brand consultant for advice.

BUILDING A STRONG BRAND FOUNDATION FOR INTERNATIONALISATION

Identify your unique core competitive advantage

The more a brand understands its own unique competency, the higher its chances of building and replicating a sustainable business model.

Knowing your unique competency is akin to discovering the competitive strength of your brand. The nature of competition in any marketplace is captured in the sayings “survival of the fittest” or “may the best brand win”. The brand that stands out the most and draws customers away from everybody else becomes the winner. This is why the key to success is in identifying and exploiting the unique advantage that enables you to compete most effectively.

Innovativeness is the BreadTalk Group’s strength and competency. It leveraged on this to drive the growth journey of BreadTalk, now a hugely successful bakery franchise with outlets in more than 15 countries and over 200 outlets worldwide.

For shoe retailer Charles and Keith though, it is its ability to interpret trends in the fast fashion industry that underlines its unique competency and galvanises its business model, allowing it to emerge as a leading shoe brand in Singapore and the region.

What is your unique competency? Have you identified an area that you can perform best in? Have you built it in your business model? Do your customers know that you excel in this area?

Once a robust business model has been achieved, replication is easy. More importantly you are able to share your tried and tested model with partners, eliminating the risk of costly lessons.

There are many important questions that you as the brand owner must be able to account for before thinking of venturing out of home territory. Among them are:

Understand the market(s) that you are entering

This first step of internationalisation is to determine if there is proven market demand for your company’s products and services in other countries. There is no point in working out any market entry strategy if there is no market for your product or service in those countries in the first place.

There are various ways to determine overseas market demand, which can include :

1. Market research – send staff overseas to conduct market research or appoint third-party researchers/consultants for the task
2. Test marketing – allow limited products or services to enter the overseas market, possibly even using another brand identity
3. Test opening – open one or a few outlets, either self-owned or through business partners

Adapt your brand positioning to cater to different markets

Different markets have different operating environments and consumer purchasing behaviours. When wood furniture specialist Scanteak was entering the Taiwan market, it realised that Taiwanese customers preferred smaller space-saving furniture products partly due to the influence from Japan. As a result, Scanteak designed new products along these lines to suit Taiwanese customers. Today, Scanteak is the leading furniture chain store in Taiwan, with a combined 84 outlets in Taiwan and Japan.

In some markets, the demand may be niche instead of mass due to the standards of living in that country. In Singapore our homegrown ladies’ shoe brand Charles and Keith caters to the mass market. Its brand positioning is to make attractive yet affordable shoes available to working class women. However, due to high import duties, the same brand no longer uses affordability as one of its selling points when it opened its stores in Dubai. In this new market, its footwear is positioned as a fashionable but mid-priced brand.

From this example it becomes clear that a brand’s positioning can be adapted within reasonable limits, to suit different market operating conditions.

Keep your brand values consistent, wherever you are!

However a brand owner must bear in mind that a brand’s values should not change regardless of its geographic locations. The brand values is part of a brand’s inherent DNA. Whilst its personality and promise can be updated, brand values are formed through the passion of its founding parties and should remain true and integral to the brand.

We were once tasked to create a doughnut brand for the Indian market. The decision was to position the brand as a retailer of fresh, hot doughnuts done the American style. However in the market research on India’s snack food market, we realised that the brand will not appeal to locals if it simply offered typical sweet- or chocolate-flavoured confectionery like what is typically done in the West.

Armed with the understanding that consumer tastes vary greatly across markets, we decided that the brand had to offer local-flavoured doughnuts besides the standard Western offerings. This resulted in the creation of original chaat and masala doughnuts which you wouldn’t find anywhere else in the world.

In this case, the values of the brand which covers the way it operates and promotes itself is still very much American in nature. But the product offering is tweaked to better appeal to its local customers.

Communicate your unique brand proposition

Again there are questions that you as the brand owner must be able to answer when growing your brand. You must determine if:

1. your customers are getting the message the way you want them to
2. you are communicating in a clear and consistent manner
3. the benefits of your brand is appreciated and relevant to your audience

Polar Puffs and Cakes, a well-loved confectioner in Singapore, wanted to expand its local operations to cater to a wider segment of audience, including the youth. In the market research, it was found that the brand was not a brand of choice amongst the youth as it was perceived to be somewhat dated. To continue staying relevant to the needs of its existing and intended audience, Polar undertook a rebranding exercise in 2008 to rejuvenate its image and subsequently opened more stores in Singapore.

Solidify brand presence before venturing overseas

If franchising to overseas parties is in your pipeline, the home market is the best place to build your brand presence.

Whilst most SMEs provide strong product benefits, some of them often neglect on building brand awareness and mindshare. Always start by building brand visibility, whether is it on- or off-line. In this respect, many retail brands emphasise on choosing the right mall location as well as creating attractive retail storefronts. As most of them do not spend on advertising, they invest in prime retail locations to attract high foot traffic to yield brand recognition and acceptance over time.

Enquiries and interest from potential partners will come when there is sufficient brand presence and positive recall.

Beef up your brand’s intellectual property assets

Every company enjoys intellectual property. A strong franchise means building up proprietary intellectual property that has value and is transferable to franchisees. It must be capable of protection too. Here are a few examples from our clients.

Mothers En Vogue is one of Singapore’s leading nursing fashion labels who designs, produces and distributes its own line of nursing and maternity apparel. We found that the brand has developed its unique competency in its nursing access constructions, and advised the brand owner to build trademarks around these proprietary designs prior to franchising.

Besides its product designs, Mothers En Vogue was also advised to build its brand system in its retail store identity and communications, as well as e-commerce platform as it also merchandises its products online besides having physical stores.

Skinc is a revolutionary skincare concept that empowers users by allowing them to discover their unique skincare identity. Skinc’s customised ‘cocktail’ dose that is personalised for the user provides convenience and efficacy. Besides having a unique skincare system, Skinc’s outlets are also differentiated from typical cosmetic counters as they are styled like long cocktail bars with high stools. Having developed a unique brand concept, Skinc made the wise decision to secure intellectual property rights for its proprietary serum and skincare formulas and brand trademarks before franchising its business. Started in 2008, Skinc quickly expanded to four outlets in Singapore, including one franchise store.

Develop the brand system for easy replication

Finally comes the part when you get down to ironing out the finer details. Developing the brand framework includes systemising the brand and documenting its processes into clear operational reference materials.

This is achieved by the use of diagrams, pictures and other visual aids which are universal and easy to understand. Sometimes, manuals in the printed form do not communicate the concepts well, so we often recommend the use of videos especially for training manuals. For example, operational staff may find it easier to watch videos than reading about processes on paper. For them, videos are easier to understand and make learning more fun and interesting.

In the case of our client Mothers en Vogue, its training processes are captured on video to better communicate the techniques of wearing its nursing apparel.

CONCLUSION

We hope that the insights we have gathered here from the many Singapore SMEs we have worked with will be helpful to you in your great leap forward.

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Founder and CEO of A. S. Louken, Luke Lim and his team work with clients to build, rejuvenate and replicate their brands. He also leverages on intellectual property to push their growth regionally. He is a highly sought-after guest speaker in workshops and talk shows. Mr. Luke Lim| Founder and CEO Tel: 6299 0338 | Email: luke.lim@aslouken.com

A.S. LOUKEN GROUP was established in Singapore in 2001 to provide brand and strategic growth, specifically in strategy development, holistic branding, franchising, operations systemisation, innovation, integrated design communications and other advisory services.