South Africans lauded at Asia Brand Congress

Recognised for their brand leadership achievements, from South Africa, were: Terry Behan, MD of the Fearless Executive; Thebe Ikalafeng founder of The Brand Leadership; Patrick Collings partner at Sagacite; Sean McCoy, group CEO of HKLM; as well as Vanessa Singh, head of marketing for American Express.

Over 300 delegates from 70 countries attended this year's Asia Brand Congress, from the 25th to the 28th of September in Mumbai. Brand professionals from the industry, academia and many of Asia's biggest organizations gathered to debate and discuss the development and the future of branding in Asia.

“To give an example, we talked about cell phone brands like Reliance Mobile and Airtel; sound familiar? Probably not, but to give you a sense of perspective, the cellular industry in India takes on in excess of seven million new subscribers a month. Seven million! One of the ‘smaller' brands represented was a travel company that is rolling out 500 new branches in 2009. The size and scope of this market is both compelling and frightening,” Terry Behan from The Fearless Executive reported.

In addition to these brand behemoths, thought leaders such as Amitava Chattopadhyay, Professor of Innovation and Creativity at INSEAD Singapore, as well as Professor Kumar from Havard IMD, were present to deliver compelling insights into emerging trends in emerging markets, said Behan.

The theme of the conference was communicating a brand that connects, engages and inspires audiences and 28 speakers gave their views on the topic, linking the theme into diverse topics, such as: how to build brands in a virtual environment; to engaging customers through internal brand building.

Next year's congress is being expanded to incorporate what's left of the rest of the world and will become The world brand congress.

It's well worth a trip to Mumbai, says Behan.