3 out of 5 SMEs have no plan to invest in branding:Lee Yi Shyan

This is a problem, says Lee, after more than 9000 Singaporeans have participated in BrandPact training workshops.

In his speech, he said, "for Singapore firms to have strong brands, they must first have strong products. Services that differentiate from the competition in terms of proprietary knowhow, superior delivery and reliability. Strong brands cannot be established on weak products.

"Firms achieve strong branding through consistency in making good promises made to customers. Strong brands cannot be built on haphazard or inconsistent customers’ experiences. Behind strong brands are hard work that ensures process robustness and product integrity".

This is why he believes firms hoping to build strong brands must continually enhance their product designs and production methods.

To address the needs on building design capability, he introduced The Design for Enterprises (DFE) program, a joint program administered by DesignSingaporeCouncil, SPRING Singapore and IE Singapore, DFE seeks to help firms adopt design as a strategic differentiator for business competitiveness and growth. Under DFE, firms could attend design-related seminars, workshops, clinic sessions, business networking events, and also how related grants and tax incentive programs could benefit them.

In one of their surveys, they found that two in five SMEs intend to build a competitive differentiation by strengthening their brand. Recognizing firms’ need for branding capacity building, IE Singapore and SPRING Singapore jointly manages a program called BrandPact to help local firms define their product branding strategy. Since its launch in 2005, more than 9,000 participants have participated in BrandPact training workshops, conferences and clinics. Some 400 firms took their branding efforts beyond learning to realizing them.

He concluded his speech by encouraging his audience to take design and branding seriously in charting out their growth strategies. According to Lee, they cannot create strong brands overnight. But once a strong brand is created, it will protect their margins and customer base for a sustained period of time. It is this sustained competitiveness that they are seeking in the Singapore Brand.