Asian Home Gourmet Small players can establish themselves globally

Asian Home Gourmet is a brand developed by Cerebos Pacific Ltd. But it is the product brand that receives the attention and not the company. The brand product range - spice pastes made from fresh herbs and spices - are high quality convenience products that help consumers prepare different foods in a variety of Asian styles. Potentially, this is a commodity market with a great deal of competition. To survive in Asia, let alone globally, the brand has to somehow convince the consumer that it is different and better. So how does it stand out from the crowd? What can Cerebos Pacific do to convince people to buy its brand, as opposed to the array of competitive sauce additives that are available around the world?

Essentially, the brand has chosen to compete in a niche market. Although there is a substantial market for products of this type, the Asian dimension removes it to a particular category. But within this still competitive category, the brand strategy will decide whether the name achieves global presence and status or whether it is perceived only as a commodity. The name includes the word "gourmet" that gives it a lift in prestige, but the brand platform created is the key.

The answer lies in an insight used to express Asian values, relative to food, to build the brand personality, instead of a traditional approach to positioning Asian foods. Most people love food but for Asian people, the link between food and family values is especially strong. Cooking food in Asia is not just an act, but a way of expressing emotion. Like all human beings, Asian people are emotional, but it is not the Asian way to outwardly express these emotions. They are, therefore, somewhat repressed. There is also a tremendous respect for the family as an institution, a value that appears to be, if not on the decline, certainly less strong in the West. So when Asians cook meals for their families, it is more an expression of love as opposed to a chore. When they cook for friends, it is a gesture of respect and happiness for that friendship. When they cook for someone they love, it is an ingredient of romance. Food has special status in Asia. As Guy Murphy, strategic planning director of Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty (BBH), the advertising agency for Asian Home Gourmet says: "In Asia, food is a proxy for showing emotion. While people the world over have an emotional relationship with food, that relationship appears to be most intense in the Asian region."

BBH devised a campaign that brought together the brand personality and Asian values and superbly called, not surprisingly, "Recipes made with love". The television commercials, for example, animate ingredients like chillies that intertwine with affection and a family of herbs holding hands. Print advertisements are portrayed visually with a modern but tastefully designed cookbook design. The main ingredients express the emotion on the left-hand page and the words are on the right side.

The product description is: "Our spice pastes are made from fresh herbs and spices. You can use them to create any one of a range of authentic Asian dishes. All you have to add is one important ingredient. A little of yourself."

This is a wonderful example of how an Asian brand can project itself by projecting a personality based on values from the region of origin, together with a positioning that combines a combination of strategies, including emotion. After initially being available only in Asia, it has gone global in its chosen niche market, using emotional values that have universal appeal.

Brand strengths: personality; a combination of features and attributes; rational, emotional, and aspirational positioning strategies; excellent use of animation in demonstrating brand values

Excerpted from Branding in Asia by Paul Temporal. Click on the book title to order from Amazon.

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