ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights several of the key factors which serve to render Asia an especially challenging context in which to build brands 'from the inside-out' – both for foreign-headquartered established brands, Asian multinationals and local domestic enterprises. It shows the overall changes engaged with brands and branding of organizations in Asia among both management and consumers. This was followed with a look at the major 'hardware' and 'software' characteristics which define the region – exploring the diversity and the commonalities in terms of economic development, political organization, regulations, demographic profiles and, finally, socio-cultural norms and values. The lack of strong Asian brands to date is also down to the practical difficulties of dealing with traditional, internationally embedded perceptions of product/service inferiority. Finally, the chapter discusses the corruption in Asia that can often, sometimes imperceptibly, challenge the good name of an organizational brand both in Asia and beyond.
