Branding for a Better Tomorrow

The campaign was a huge success. Enquiries from around the world soon started coming in. Meetings and presentations were set up with prospective clients. Unfortunately, all of the media veteran's experience in the marketing industry couldn't prepare him for the first quarter of 2003.

As meetings began to take place, so too did rumours of a mysterious lung disease, which later became known as SARS. "We had to stop everything. No one called and it was really a period from hell. Then from August, things started to get back to normal. The good thing was that nobody had spent their marketing budgets, so the fall of 2003 was really busy," he said.

New clients started to roll in, and in January 2005, the company secured two large contracts, one with the Mainland telecoms giant ZTE Corp, and the other with Finnair, which was then looking to expand its China operations. The Tomorrow Group set up an office in Shanghai and by the following year the number of Western and Chinese companies on its books had reached 50:50.

Filling a niche

What sets The Tomorrow Group apart from other branding and marketing agencies in Hong Kong, is that it focuses exclusively on business-to-business (B2B) communications. Mr Ronnquist said with only one other agency in Hong Kong involved in B2B marketing, the potential for growth is enormous.

He is also in the process of setting up an office in Singapore, as well as other offices in Southeast Asia. By 2012, he expects the company to have up to eight offices around the region.

The expansion, funded by organic growth, is part of his own branding strategy, as a bigger footprint will attract the best talent to work for the company, and win more big contracts. But he insists that companies large and small can and should work at building their own brand, citing the example of an SME manufacturer doing OEM for U.S. and European distributors.

"This guy came to us and said he was tired of customers pressing his margins lower and lower. He said he couldn't go on like this, so he realized he needed to build his brand," Mr Ronnquist explained.

The company had developed a personal entertainment system that allows users to watch movies or play games on special goggles that look like sunglasses. His product is now sold at trendy gadget stores in Hong Kong, and he is negotiating with overseas clients who want to distribute his product.

The company is at the forefront of what Mr Ronnquist believes is an historical shift to branding. Hong Kong companies have been very successful in manufacturing and selling electronics, clothes, shoes, etc., but as Mainland firms quickly develop similar products and charge less for them, Hong Kong companies are looking to branding to move them further up the value chain.

"Another company told us that he produces for Sony, for Philips, for National, all the big names, but when he goes into a store in the U.S., he said he gets angry. On the top shelves are the brands that he manufactures for his clients, but on the bottom shelf he finds his own unbranded products. The others are charging 50% more than he is, but people still prefer to buy the brands," he said.

Putting a value on something as intangible as a brand is very difficult. Ironically, some of the world's most valuable companies are those with the least assets. All they have is their brand.

Mr Ronnquist said some businesses struggle to grasp the value of something that they cannot measure. Hardnosed business people depend on facts and figures to come to a decision. They can't get their head around how something they cannot touch, how something that they cannot drop on their foot, can be worth so much. But when he asks them what they drive or what handbags they buy for their wives, they all recite luxury brands.

"I met the head of purchasing for Nike on a flight out here recently. We got talking and I found out that they don't own any shoe factories, or any sewing factories to produce their goods," he said. "So I asked her: what do you own? She said we own our brand."

These things are beginning to be understood in Asia, where successful industrialists are traditionally judged by the size of their factory and how many people they employ. They realize that a brand represents value, and that people are willing to pay more to have a piece of that.

By taking its own medicine, The Tomorrow Group plans to open a new office every year to keep pace with growth. Could it have done this as an unbranded B2B marketing specialist? Probably not.

"It is about getting our brand out there and to make sure the clients out there realise we can help solve their problems," he said.