Marketing guru to help brand Bahrain groups

[DavyBUK]

MANAMA: International marketing and branding guru Naseem Javed is to help brand some of Bahrain's major corporations.Mr Javed, who was in Bahrain at the invitation of Al Hayat Group chairman and chief executive officer Hadi Al Alawi, leaves tonight after a week-long visit.

However, he is returning to Bahrain on February 21 as a keynote speaker at the International Public Relations Association meeting at the Gulf Hotel.

Mr Javed, who is known as a master of corporate naming, held talks with Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) on helping companies which are looking for global branding.

A syndicated columnist, Mr Javed is a world recognised authority on Image Leadership, Global Iconisation & Cyber-Branding.

He is recognised as a world-authority on creating global name identities and building corporate image and brands.

Mr Javed introduced The Laws of Corporate Naming in the 1980s and also founded ABC Namebank, in Toronto and New York, a quarter century ago.

The author of Naming for Power and Domain Wars, his cutting-edge research on cyber-branding and on building image on e-commerce, is published around the globe.

Mr Javed has been invited to speak at over 100 of the world's top conferences, and has been profiled in hundreds of articles around the world.

He has also appeared on hundreds of Radio and TV programmes.

Today, he is responsible for personally creating brand name identities.

When all combined, these names conduct an annual turnover of some $40 billion every year, said Mr Al Alawi.

"Names are perhaps the single-most important issue of corporate communication today, "said Mr Javed.

"With millions and millions of product names dashing in cyberspace, a name is no longer something people can sit around a kitchen and come up with.

"If you want a legendary name, it must belong to you."

Today, without the ultra-high visibility of a brand with easily recognisable, pronounceable and distinctly memorable alpha-structures, a name brand is nothing but just an expensive liability, said Mr Javed.

"In a time where a few dollars research on Google will tell you who owns what trademark and how many others are using a similar name, it is still amazing that billion dollar companies with millions in promotional campaigns would get caught up in these i-stupid games," he noted.

"We have now entered into a time where cyber-branding shrinks the globe by the second and only professionally structured corporate image and name identities have a chance to play out the real marketing and branding games."

If you have a super brand, then let the whole world see it, if you have absolute 100 per cent ownership of that brand, prove it, says Mr Javed.

"Proving an absolute ownership only takes a search on Google, demonstrating how unique and one-of-a-kind a name brand is," he noted.

"Today, around the world, 95 per cent of brands do not have full ownership. "They may have logos, unique designs, colourful executions, banners and billboards, but as long as there are far too many identical and similar names all over the marketplace, the issue of 100pc ownership stays behind.

"Without iron-clad ownership of the name identity, the organisation is left holding logos and billboards and this makes the entire advertising and marketing process nothing but an uphill losing battle."

Mr Javed, born in India, is now a Canadian, living in Toronto.


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