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Ogilvy & Mather eyes product branding role in Bangladesh

Chairman for Asia Pacific region talks tofcjyiu^tar

MONJUR MAHMUD
Bangladesh as a growing market in Asia has tremendous potential for product branding, in which a Hong Kong-based leading advertising agency wants to play its supportive role.
"There are a lot of prospects in branding. We like to extend all out cooperation in developing brands here," Miles Young, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, said in an interview with The Daily Star on Wednesday.
He said though product-branding acts as a stimulating factor in big businesses around the world, in Bangladesh it is yet to be "well expressed".
"Bangladesh market with a population of 135 million is growing and it has been able to draw the interest of some big multinational companies," the Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) chief said. "It seems that development is taking place here."
O&M is one of the largest communication network in the world having some giant global players like Cisco, Motorola, SAP, Nestle, Amex, Kodak, BP, Unilever, BAT as its clients. Local company Interspeed Advertising is an associate of O&M.
About the company's partnership in Bangladesh, Young said, "I'm impressed with the people working at our local network. The country has a lot of creative people."
Explaining the service O&M now provides to its local agency, he said specialised people come to Bangladesh to train the staff and work with them. Local staff also have the opportunity to participate in the exchange programmes.
"We provide our local agency access to our strategic tools, software programmes for managing customer relations, tools for public relations and the techniques and essence to develop a brand," said the O&M chairman.
Young thinks Bangladesh's negative image portrayed in international media has harmful impact on the development of the country. "But our big clients like Lever Brothers, British American Tobacco, Standard Chartered and other local clients have expressed their positive perception about the growth of the country."
The O&M chief believes the situation in Bangladesh is much better than in many other countries. "There are lot of positive things that can be communicated through international media to build a positive image."
After Miles Young joined his present position in September 1995, O&M has grown significantly in size and market share.
O&M grew seven percent in Asia Pacific region last year while its global growth was around four percent. However, the company could not grow as per its expectation because of an economic recession, said Young.
"Japan is the biggest market for O&M. In Asia, we are doing particularly well having some 6,000 staff across the continent. India is the largest partner in South Asia and the most successful," the O&M Asia Pacific chairman said.
About the competitors of O&M, Young said he had never been worried about any competitor. "I'm worried about my works. We try to learn from our competitors."
Referring to major challenges of O&M, he mentioned reviving IBM was one of them. "The brand was in a lot of troubles. We changed the picture substantially."
Miles Young has already returned to Hong Kong ending his four-day visit to Dhaka. This was his first visit to Bangladesh. "I'm planning to visit Bangladesh again and see the world's largest mangrove forest Sundarbans," he had told The Daily Star.