Brand talk with Aftab Mahmud Khurshid

How does a brand care? How do you build an infrastructure for the people who deal with content creation?

A brand is the DNA of a company. So, branding must be the central focus of the management. Corporate entities need to relate their vision, mission and values to the overall business strategy, which will eventually be translated into brand strategy. Moreover, brand culture needs to be developed within the company so as to transform the workforce into part of the brand force.

To create a proper quality management system you have to build on your brand properly. The corporate culture has to be appropriate in order for the brand to live long and to increase product basket. Remember, people buy the brand not the product. That is how a brand cares.

Content is the context that sets you differently from others in marketing. Messages should be uniform visually, verbally and virtually. And this requires specialised people who are truly competent in brand marketing. Not everyone can nurture a brand. So structured brand marketing environment is needed for a strong corporate brand.

Do you think brands can be called art?

Branding is of course an art. At the same time, I also call it a strategic business science. The content of your communications is the key to differentiate you from other brands. And the content has to be finely chosen to position you perfectly. For example, to brand a bulb, you can say it illuminates well. But that would just be stating a general feature of the product. If you say that it is 'slim and smart' then you are giving it a more artistic definition and instilling a more intense interest in the customer.

You are a great example of successful brand building. Give some tips to our young professionals on how to market themselves and create recognisable corporate brands.

My advice to a young professional would be to not be a bookish person. To be a successful marketer, you have to know the market as well as the culture besides the theory. You need to have business acumen and some natural in-built talents. Reality is different from the books.

Remember, from vision to strategy, employee to customer, interior to exterior – everything represents your brand. Do something so that your customer speaks for your brand and refers your brand to others. People engagement is the future of marketing and innovative engagement models are coming up every day. So be updated with recent trends, always.

What do you think is the future of a career in marketing?

I can see a bright future for brand marketing. New businesses are flourishing, GDP growth is high and the future generation is grooming itself in the right manner for business. But upcoming marketers need to be under the umbrella of professional leadership. Employers or entrepreneurs should build up their enterprises in such a way that they will attract the best resources in the market.

It is important to note that marketing is not limited to traditional marketing anymore. Traditional marketing is being surpassed by digital marketing. Digital space is a new and revolutionary media of marketing. You can reach the global and local marketplace simultaneously.

Then there is the issue of corporate social responsibility. A strong brand manages its CSR aspect expertly.

If you look at the recent trend in marketing, you may notice the hype around strategic brand partnerships. Strategic decisions require both marketing knowledge as well as win-win relationships. Marketing now has new avenues to shape more and more opportunities for people.

So the future of marketing is bright indeed. Are there any challenges of brand marketing in a country like ours?

In many cases, the management philosophy is trade- and sales-oriented rather than brand-oriented. The benefits of brand strategy in overall business strategy is either not known or ignored. For this reason, right people are often not hired for the right positions.

Companies need to give due importance to image building. It should be considered as an investment instead of a cost, because at the end of the day only marketing and innovation can ensure an organisation's sustainability. Everything else is simply supporting cost.

Moreover, if your brand is not strong, it is difficult to acquire funds. Remember, a good brand can overcome crisis easily. Branding is a continuous creative engineering and strategic business process. Sometimes people think that anyone can be a brand expert, but there is a reason why there is the saying, "When the CMO speaks the CEO listens."

What do local emerging companies need to build brand reputation? How can they become the employer of choice?

Entrepreneurs will fail if they have limited understanding of strategic branding. People think that brand marketing means advertising and PR. But in reality, the brand is everything from the vision to HR, the supply chain, quality products and services and CSR.

Local emerging companies need to build their employer brand into a place with the right work environment. Pay and perks should be competitive based on the market. There should not be any gender discrimination. To become the employer of choice, they need to hire the right people with the right skill sets in the right places. We call this employee branding.

Moreover in the age of globalisation, companies should think on a global level to maintain and retain top quality people. Because at the end of the day people matter. If you cannot retain your employees, your competitor will hire them because there is a scarcity of talent in the market.

Local companies have to build the right structure with a process-oriented business model. It is reassuring to know that new companies are now developing professional infrastructures. It is better to prepare yourself before learning from mistakes.

The interviewer is a young marketing professional who is Strategic Project Planner, Business Development at The Daily Star