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IMR
24,4 Asian brands without borders:
regional opportunities and
challenges
444
Julien Cayla
Faculty of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and
Giana M. Eckhardt
Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to analyze Asian branding strategies at the regional level, and provide a
map of opportunities and challenges for Asian regional branding.
Design/methodology/approach – The study takes, a multi-sited interpretive approach and
interview 22 brand managers throughout the Asian region. The length of interviews was
approximately 1.5 hours/respondent. In-depth case studies of two prominent pan-Asian brands,
Tiger Beer and Zuji, were also conducted. An interpretive analysis to this data set was applied and five
themes were developed.
Findings – The two major challenges for regional Asian branding are negative country of origin
perceptions and regional positioning being inherently fragile. Despite these key challenges, our
respondents saw clear opportunities for regional branding initiatives. Brands can achieve a regional
positioning by focusing on Asian modernity rather than on common cultural heritage. They can also
capitalize on newfound Asian pride and confidence, and finally they can use a Western stamp of
approval to signal to Asians the viability of the brand.
Originality/value – The paper extends previous work on the globalization of marketing activities
by advancing the region as an important unit of analysis. It helps understand the development of
brands in a part of the world that is becoming more important at the economic and political level. The
study shows how marketers are shaping culture in the Asian context. Finally, the paper contributes a
better understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with a regional positioning and
the development of regional branding strategies.
Keywords Marketing, Brands, Culture, Globalization, South Asia, South East Asia
Paper type Research paper

International Marketing Review
Vol. 24 No. 4, 2007
pp. 444-456
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0265-1335
DOI 10.1108/02651330710761017
While most of global trade happens between neighbouring countries, very little
research examines branding activities at a regional level. This paper helps bridge that
gap by looking at the region as the context and unit of analysis for the study of
branding strategies. We interviewed 22 managers participating in regional marketing
activities in the Asian region and derived a map of opportunities and challenges for
regional branding.
Despite the media hype about global brands and global business, the world
economy is fundamentally regional. For example, while we tend to think of
The authors are listed alphabetically; both contributed equally. The authors would like to thank
the Australian Graduate School of Management for funding this research, Matthew Minnix for
his data analysis assistance, and most importantly the author’s respondents for sharing their
insights with authors.
multinational companies as trading all over the globe, the world’s 500 largest Asian brands
multinationals generate most of their revenues from neighbouring markets (Rugman without borders
and Verbeke, 2004). Even as many companies try to reap the benefits associated with a
global positioning (Steenkamp et al., 2003), many of them do not have the resources to
establish a truly global presence. Moreover, in the past 20 years, regions have become
increasingly important at the economic and political levels, as reflected in the European
Union and regional trade agreements such as the Association of South East Asian 445
Nations (ASEAN). Yet there is very little research in international marketing that
focuses on regional issues.
In this paper, we use the region as the context and unit of analysis for the study of
branding strategies. By regional branding practices, we mean the set of firm practices
designed to increase a brand’s equity in the region. Despite the importance of regional
trade, very little research documents the way brands are managed in a regional context
(notable exceptions for the Asian region include Schmitt and Pan, 1994; Tai, 1997). So far
studies on international branding have focused on global brands, explaining how these
brands are perceived (Holt et al., 2004; Johansson and Ronkainen, 2005), and how they
adapt to local contexts outside their home markets (Watson, 1997); or on local branding,
explaining how they can compete against global brands (Eckhardt, 2005; Ger, 1999). In
contrast we focus on the development of regional branding strategies within Asia.
Asia is fast becoming a major economic centre. The success of brands such as
Giordano, Banyan Tree and Acer all testify to the dynamism of brands in the Asian
region. Yet there is little academic writing to guide or even understand the expansion of
Asian brands in Asia. Past studies have focused on the “Asianization” of Western
brands by emphasizing their ability to adapt to Asian cultural contexts (Watson, 1997),
or on the development of Asian brands for Western markets (Ewing et al., 2001). Few
studies have examined the development of Asian brands tailored for Asian audiences.
Studying the development of Asian brands becomes particularly relevant because
more and more Asian firms increasingly concentrate on branding and image
management to fuel their expansion (Schmitt and Pan, 1994).
In this paper, we research how managers make sense of the Asian region, and how their
understanding impacts regional branding activities. How do branding experts fashion a
regional positioning for brands? How do marketers contend with the heterogeneity of the
Asian region when building regional brands? To understand the nature of Asian regional
branding, we took an interpretive approach and conducted depth interviews with
branding, marketing and advertising managers, all participating in regional marketing
activities, and developed a map of regional branding challenges and opportunities.

Conceptual foundations
Within the field of international branding, there is a growing body of literature that
illuminates what it takes to be a successful local brand (Eckhardt, 2005; Ger, 1999;
Kapferer, 2002). This literature emphasizes that local brands should capitalize on their
local cultural capital to create unique value (Ger, 1999). At the same time, researchers
have shown how global brands can charge price premiums (Johansson and Ronkainen,
2005; Schuiling and Kapferer, 2004; Steenkamp et al., 2003) because of the glamour
(Alden et al., 1999) and quality associations (Holt et al., 2004) they convey.
It is unclear how past research on local and global branding would apply to regional
marketing issues. The international branding literature typically seeks to understand
IMR when global and local appeals are most relevant (Zhou and Belk, 2004). At the heart of
24,4 this question is how a global firm can understand the other. That is, when the firm
enters a new market, how much should it modify the brand proposition or the brand
aesthetics to attempt to reach an imagined local consumer? When investigating
regionality, it is unclear how relevant this approach would be. In Asia, for example,
where migration patterns and history have let to a vast heterogeneity between and
446 within countries, what is the mandate for localization in each country market? When a
brand is developed to be regional in the first place, and thus sees an entire region, albeit
a diverse one, as the self rather than the other, is the question about achieving a
balance between global consistency and local relevance even applicable?
Moreover, models of global branding and international marketing have been based
on the expansion of Western firms into other countries. This is evident in the way we
talk of “emerging markets,” as if markets like China and India had suddenly appeared
on the map of global marketing. Like in other social sciences (Fabian, 1983), academics
in the field of international marketing have defined non-Western countries as the
periphery and the West as the centre of frameworks and preoccupations.
We take the examination of regional brands as a way to move beyond the debate of
global versus local. We cannot make sense of the world system in terms of neat models
of centre and periphery (Appadurai, 1990). Some of Appadurai’s insights have already
been used in international marketing (Alden et al., 1999; Steenkamp et al., 2003) to talk
about the existence of a global consumer culture that transcends national boundaries.
But his framework to understand globalization, which emphasizes cultural flows
within regions, is yet to have the impact it deserves in international marketing,
especially when it comes to branding practices.
Finally, this study helps us analyze branding issues in their global cultural context.
The marketing literature has amply discussed branding issues at the individual level
(Fournier, 1998) but brands have rarely been analyzed in regional or global contexts
(Askegaard, 2006). Brands provide symbolic resources for consumers to forge their
identity, but brands can also change cultures (Ritzer, 1993). This research helps us to
move from the micro perspective of most branding studies to the macro level of
regional branding activities.

Methodology
To understand regional branding practices, we used an interpretive approach. Rather
than testing hypotheses as in experimental work or survey research, the objective of
interpretive marketing research is the articulation of theory, and typically uses
qualitative methods. Qualitative marketing research is especially pertinent in contexts
that have not been well studied and where exploratory research is needed (Thompson,
1997). Given the lack of research on regional marketing strategies, qualitative research
projects for the purpose of theory development are critical at this stage.
The research is designed to gain both depth and breadth of understanding
(Hirschman, 1989). To develop depth of understanding, we focus on two brands:
a Singaporean beer with ambitions to be the regional leader in its product category
(Tiger Beer), and a travel portal targeting Asian audiences (Zuji). To gain breadth of
understanding, we rely on additional depth interviews with executives working on a
wide variety of Asian branding campaigns in a wide variety of positions and
companies. We specifically selected managers with experience in regional marketing
strategy in the Asian region. Sampling ceased when new sources and informants no Asian brands
longer added to the insights. See Table I for details on the informants. without borders
We used a variety of sites and companies for our data collection effort – Hong Kong,
Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. These are the cities
where the brand consultancies, advertising agencies and marketing departments for
the Asian region are located. In addition, our approach was also to “follow the brand”
in the different places where branding strategies were developed and refined. For a 447
brand like Zuji, this involved interviewing the consultant responsible for brand design
in Sydney, the ad agency in Singapore, and a regional marketing manager in Hong
Kong. The globalization of marketing activities leads to the creation of multicultural
teams working on the same brand from different locations. Overall, our approach is
consistent with recent calls for qualitative marketing research to go beyond spatially
bounded studies of one culture in one specific site (Kjeldgaard et al., 2006).
We used an interpretive analysis approach, in which we coded the interview
transcripts, first with lower level categories and eventually with higher-level
categories. We developed summaries of the interviews, and used various techniques
such as developing iterative coding schemes and diagramming to develop patterns in
the data (Spiggle, 1994). During the analysis period, we went back and forth between
the literature and the data, and between individual interviews and the entire corpus of
data, until we reached our final categorization scheme.
As a final note, we never attempt to define the physical boundaries of Asia. Like other
regions, Asia is not a natural category. It is socially constructed. As geographers Kelly
and Olds (1999, p. 2) put it: “. . . perhaps more than any other world region, the
boundaries of the Asia-Pacific are indeterminate and open to contestation and social
construction.” One of the primary objectives of this research is to understand how
managers conceptualize a region. We are interested in emic definitions of the Asian

Name Position Company type Location

Midori Regional Research Manager Market Research Company Sydney

Damian Director of Brand Consulting Branding Consultancy Sydney
Mark Director of Marketing Branding Consultancy Hong Kong
John Regional Planning Director Advertising Agency Hong Kong
Anthony Managing Director Branding Consultancy Hong-Kong
Bhuvana Marketing Manager Business School Hyderabad
Sandeep Consultant Branding Consultancy Hyderabad
Navonil Planning Director Advertising Agency Kuala Lumpur
Linda National Creative Director Advertising Agency Singapore
Sharon Senior Brand Consultant Branding Consultancy Singapore
Ray Marketing Manager Brewery Singapore
Katherine Strategy Director Branding Consultancy Singapore
Dave Market Researcher Market Research Company Kuala Lumpur
Jovan Group Managing Director Branding Consultancy Singapore
Jason Market Researcher Market Research Company Shanghai
Mike Senior Consultant Strategic Consulting Firm Hong Kong
Bill Senior Market Researcher Market Research Company Sydney
Angela Account Planning Director Advertising Agency Singapore
Martin CEO, Consulting Company Branding Consultancy Singapore Table I.
Joseph CEO, Consulting Company Branding Consultancy Singapore Informant characteristics
IMR region, rather than imposing our own definition. From a practical perspective, however,
24,4 the brands we are researching encompass various countries located in East Asia,
Southeast Asia, or the Asia-Pacific region.

Findings
There is an emerging stream of literature documenting the rich intraregional cultural
448 exchanges happening within Asia (Iwabuchi, 1999; Moeran, 2001). These studies stress
how television, music and cinema producers are increasingly tapping into the sense of
cultural proximity existing in Asia. Asian audiences feel the US type of modernity
portrayed by Hollywood is too distant from their lives. Asian TV series and hip-hop
acts, with their emphasis on the difficulties of balancing modernity and traditional
values, have a stronger regional appeal (Iwabuchi, 2002).
At the same time, most of the managers we spoke with described the overwhelming
religious, ethnic, language, economic and cultural heterogeneity in Asia as a major
hindrance for developing a regional branding platform. For example, Sharon says,
“I think a lot of people look at Asia as one market. But each country is completely
different, the cultures, the people, the norms, the behaviours, and I think it’s a real
challenge to try and build the bridge between markets.” With these two opposing
trends in mind – regional cohesiveness vs heterogeneity – we outline what
managers see as the major challenges they face in developing a regional branding
strategy before moving to the most promising opportunities for overcoming these
challenges.

Challenges for regional Asian branding

Country of origin perceptions. The managers we interviewed outlined negative country
of origin perceptions as a major challenge for Asian brands that want to achieve a
regional presence. Perceptions of certain Asian countries and products made in those
countries can be quite negative. This is due in part to the history of the region. For
example, because northern parts of China were subjugated by Japan during the second
world war, consumers there are reluctant to buy products that were made in Japan,
even as they acknowledge the superiority of those brands to local ones (Klein et al.,
1998). These negative country of origin perceptions are also due to a history of poor
quality in the past. For example, “Made in Vietnam,” or “Made in Cambodia” tend to
symbolize low quality products to residents of other Asian countries (Eckhardt and
Hahn, 2006). And finally, managers argue feelings of superiority from one country
versus another permeate the region. To wit, Mark relates that:
No Chinese person with a soul would buy a Thai brand. For Chinese people Thailand is that
murky little country down there. [They think] ‘To me we are China, we are the future of the
world. We would not have anything in China that’s a Thai brand at all, either give me an
American brand or give me a local brand.’ It is difficult for an Asian brand to have credibility
in a market like China if the brand is not international.
Branding Asian products is often as much about reassuring consumers that Asian
brands can carry status and cache as much as promoting particular aspects of the
brand. In the following narrative, Bhuvana talks about the challenges of attracting
Asians to an Indian business school, when most of them would not perceive Indian
brands and schools as aspirational:
 So it was not so much selling ISB [Indian School of Business] as an Indian school but it was Asian brands
more selling India as a brand. That was a very big lesson that we learnt. Trying to attract
Asians to come to India for higher education. It is a very big task. without borders
Despite these negative associations, managers also recognize the ability for brands to
capitalize on a newfound desire for Asian cultural products and brands. For example,
when it comes to Japan, resentment and admiration coexist throughout the region. While
resentment toward Japan’s colonial history still runs deep, the admiration for Japan’s 449
trend leading aesthetics is stronger than ever. For example, Coca-Cola developed a
regional brand of juice called Qoo (pronounced “coo”) that capitalizes on the attraction
for Japanese pop culture in many parts of Asia. The brand hinges on an animated
character named Qoo. An account planner working on the Qoo campaign discusses the
attraction for these types of animated characters that exists in Singapore:
Coke saw an opportunity in the Singapore market, with the female teen market, who were
consuming less carbonated soft drinks. The character of Qoo is especially appealing to these
teens. He is a silent character, he is naı̈ve and makes a lot of mistakes. He is always trying,
failing but then ending in a good place. That’s surprising in a region that is supposed to love
winners. In Asia and especially here in Singapore, you want to be a winner not a loser. Our
point of reference was Hello Kitty, and Hello Kitty was hugely successful in Singapore.
Somewhere Qoo seems to be a very lovable character, someone these teen girls want to
protect. And the Japaneseness also makes it appealing. The Japaneseness of the brand was
essential to building its appeal because of the appeal in Singapore of things that come from
Japan, especially with the younger generation.
This desire for Japanese brands and cultural products can be read as evidence for the
shifting nature of transnational cultural power away from a centre-periphery model.
In other words, the currency of Japaneseness illustrates how cultural globalization does
not just mean the diffusion of Western products all over the world. Cultural
globalization has also activated intraregional cultural flows, illustrated here by the
appeal of Japaneseness in East/Southeast Asia.
Regional positionings are inherently fragile. While our managers acknowledged the
currency of Japaneseness, they also questioned the relevance of an overtly Asian
positioning. For example, Mike described a regional Asian positioning as a “no-man’s
land.” He explained that being Asian does not necessarily have a clear-cut meaning in
the eyes of consumers, especially when pitted against strong local or global
positionings. Brands with a strong local character, such as motorcycle maker Bajaj in
India or Tsing Tao beer in China, play on the potential identification between the brand
and consumers. These brands position themselves as sons of the soil who understand
local consumers. In contrast, global brands such as Nokia or Levi’s are built on
powerful narratives with universal appeal (for Levi’s, the myth of independence; for
Nokia, connection). From the perspective of the managers we interviewed, it is unclear
whether a regional positioning captures either local or global benefits. Mark talks
about the weakness of the “middle ground” that regional positioning occupies:
The difficulty with a Pan-Asian positioning is that it is a sort of grey area. In China you need
either to be local or to be international – the middle ground is very grey and risky.
Managers like Mark who worked on the development of Zuji.com all emphasized the
challenge of being stuck between the two strong positions of the global and local. Zuji.com
is a travel portal similar to travelocity that was developed by a consortium of airlines
IMR operating in the Asia-Pacific, specifically to address the increasing demand for travel in
24,4 the region. A global travel portal such as travelocity has the advantage of being trusted
due to its global presence. An Asian positioning helps Zuji build its reputation for being an
expert in regional destinations, something the brand tries to leverage through the tagline
“Your travel guru.” But at a local level, Zuji still faces the competition of travel agents who
have long-term relationships with their clients. A regional positioning cannot leverage one
450 of the key advantages of both global and local brands – familiarity.

Opportunities for creating a regional Asian brand

In spite of the above challenges, almost all the managers we interviewed also mentioned
opportunities for overcoming them. In this section, we focus on brands that have
developed a regional positioning – namely Zuji.com and Tiger Beer. Following are the
key themes that emerged from our analysis of the opportunities for Asian branding.
Focusing on Asian modernity. The brands that achieved a regional presence
capitalized on a vision of the future, rather than focusing on common cultural heritage
or any symbols that may be representative of the past. Symbols that previously had
been thought of as representing cultural heritage are now seen as old fashioned. In the
following discussion about Malaysia Airlines, Navonil contrasts old-fashioned cultural
symbols to more contemporary ones:
What is interesting in Malaysia is the element of surprise. You don’t expect the roads to be
good, the airport to be so good. It surprises you. That spirit was brought into the [Malaysian
Airlines] campaign. The campaign is very slick, there is no national association, it’s very
business oriented. And so for example the TV commercial, it is about this business traveller
who starts off saying that you know, I had a very good meeting today. It kind of leaves
behind a very professional kind of feel. Prior to that there would always be a tribal character,
a guy with a lot of colourful head-dresses and all that.
Another example where managers tried to focus on Asian modernity is the travel
portal Zuji. The name Zuji means “footprint” in Mandarin, and has no meaning in most
other major languages in Asia. The font used in the logo is deliberately modern, with a
subtle hint of calligraphy in the “J.” The banner used above the “J” is an Asian style
banner or kite, and is also an eastward pointing arrow, again a subtle reminder of the
Asianness of the brand. The colours used – bright blue and green – were deliberately
chosen over the more common colours of red and gold that are typically used in
depictions of “Asian-ness” in the region. Blue and green are more typically Thai
colours, and symbolize the vibrancy of a forward thinking Asian brand.
To build modern Asian brands, the brand managers we interviewed rely on a mix of
cultural symbols from different Asian cultures. Zuji uses a Chinese name, colours that
are associated with Thai imagery, and consumer research undertaken by the company
suggests that the name is perceived to be Japanese, imbuing the brand with a sense of
trust. These multiple cultural cues allow Zuji to be subtly associated with Asia.
Another branding example where managers used symbolism from different cultures to
achieve a positioning based on modern Asia is Tiger Beer. Tiger is an established brewer
from Singapore with regional aspirations of becoming the flag bearer for modern Asia.
Tiger was forced to become regional, as their home market of Singapore, with less than
four million residents, is so restricted. In their marketing and branding activities, they do
not emphasize their country of origin, but instead portray an image of Asian-ness that
cannot be identified with any one country. For example, in their pan-Asian advertising
campaign entitled, “Hero,” the hero is a Korean and the heroine is a Chinese actor, with Asian brands
neither of them physically identifiable with any particular country. The advertisement is without borders
set in an ambiguous epic struggle along the lines of “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,” an
immensely popular movie in the West as well as Asia. And the latter half of the ad is
actually set in modern day New York City. The journey of the hero in the advertisement is
designed to mirror the journey of Asia itself – from heroic beginnings to its current place
as part of the global new world order. The Tiger Beer “Hero” campaign, with its mix of 451
Korean actors, medieval Chinese imagery and Manhattan bar scenes illustrates the type of
multicultural process that is used to build Asian brands with a modern flavour.
Overall, managers build brands that have regional appeal by invoking different
cultural references and by using contemporary Asian symbolism. These are the ways
managers contend with the heterogeneity of a region like Asia where there are few
commonalities. To create regional appeals, managers are more concerned with a vision
of the future than on any commonalities that have a basis in the past.
Capitalizing on newfound Asian pride and confidence. Asians realize that they are
leading rather than following in many domains. The managers we interviewed are
embracing consumer trends that emerge in Asia, and realize that many global fashion
trends are actually emerging in Asia rather than the West. Navonil explains this
change in mindset that has occurred over the past 20 years:
In the 1980s, Asians still looked upon the West for fashion. But there is now this sense of
pride, of being confident about yourself. It’s now kind of quite cool to be Asian. There is an
overall sense of pride in Asians that I didn’t see before, Asian brands going to the Western
markets in a very outlandish manner highlighting the Asian-ness.
Many of the trends shaping the development of Asian brands are emerging from
within the region, echoing the notion that globalization operates from multiple centres
(Appadurai, 1990). Anthony explains the results of some recent market research
conducted by his consultancy that illustrates this process:
Younger Asians particularly Asian females, and I’m talking under 28 years old, will consider
Japan and Korea to be more fashionable than France or America. America comes next
actually, and then France, in terms of fashion and music. So it’s not just technology,
it’s actually fashion and that Japanese-Korean sort of fashion thing is very strong across
Asia – it’s very strong in China, I’m talking urban, Shanghai, Beijing, it’s very strong in
Thailand, it’s very strong in Philippines, it’s very strong in Singapore also and Taiwan.
In terms of the arts, in terms of fashion, pop culture, it’s at the top.
Thus, the brands that emerge as regional leaders will take advantage of this newfound
pride and confidence, and those that can reflect this onto their own brands will be
successful. Bill explains:
I think you look at brands that stand for not so much Asian cultural values but Asian vertical
leaps if you like, self confidence, and I think people in Asia take a certain pride from brands
like Cathay and Singapore Airlines because they are now fantastic world class airlines. Look
at shitty Heathrow compared to Changi Airport. I think that sense of what’s the world going
to be in 50 years from now in our time is quite powerful.
Using a Western stamp of approval to signal to Asians the viability of the brand. To
overcome the negative country of origin interpretations mentioned earlier, successful
Asian brands are signalling their high quality and prestige by using what we call
IMR Western stamps of approval, references to the West through advertising imagery,
24,4 slogans, logos and other branding elements. While this may seem paradoxical to the
Asian pride just mentioned, it may still take some time to overcome histories of poor
product quality in the region, so in the meantime, proxies like Western stamps of
approval are used to signal quality and prestige. We can see this with Chinese brands
like Haier, whose impressive reputation in Western markets allows it to compete
452 against Western brands in China.
In the following narratives, our respondents describe the various ways they use
Western stamps of approval. Navonil relates how being successful in the West
increases the success of Asian brands in Asia:
The acceptance of a product is easier if it goes from here, gets accepted in the West and comes
back here. It’s a bit like Jimmy Choo who’s one of the biggest shoe designers, he was a
Malaysian guy, he made it big in the UK and then came to Malaysia. There is still a need for
recognition in the West or Global/Western context.
The developers of the Zuji brand cited the Chinese actor Chow Yun Fat as an analogy
for the development of their brand: Asian but modern and global enough that it avoids
parochialism. Signalling that your brand is successful around the world, especially in
the West, is a defining dimension for the development of regional Asian brands. In the
following narrative, a creative director working on the Tiger Beer campaign explains
how it was essential to shoot part of the “Hero” commercial in New York:
In creating the advertising campaign for Tiger Beer, a very important thing was to set part of
the film in New York because part of the driving force of this is a sense of dynamism, of being
successful around the world. The idea is that Asians now play on a global playing field, are
accepted and recognized on the global playing field, and therefore to take our hero and place
him actually in the West (Linda)
While many of our respondents emphasized the pride Asians (including themselves)
feel in the economic vitality of the region, they recognized the limits of Asian appeals.
Although brand managers working in Asia are increasingly looking at intraregional
cultural phenomena to develop brand positioning, either being successful in the West
or using Western imagery and symbolism seem crucial. They are heading east while
gazing back at the West.

Discussion
We have mapped out the challenges and opportunities for creating a regional brand in
Asia. While country of origin perceptions and the fragility of a regional positioning remain
stumbling blocks for many companies with regional branding aspirations, we also
identified various platforms that can be utilized successfully in a regional campaign,
including focusing on Asian modernity, capitalizing on newfound Asian pride and
confidence, and using a Western stamp of approval to signal the viability of the brand.
This detailed exposition of the intricacies of being located in the “no man’s land” of
regionality has important implications for international branding, and enabled us to
gain a few key insights. First, rather than relying on an exotic notion of Asia, the Asian
brands we studied are imbued with modern notions of what it means to be Asian.
Importantly, the ideas and imagery driving this notion of Asian modernity emanate
from within Asia, demonstrating that the centre and periphery model of globalization
is largely irrelevant in the Asian branding context. Regional brands such as Tiger
capitalize on this newfound pride in being Asian. The modernity of Asian brands is Asian brands
very much tied to the Asian experience of globalization, the feeling that Asia has without borders
arrived on the world stage. One of Tiger Beer’s advertising slogans illustrates this
feeling of confidence by claiming: “This is our time.”
Second, the development of regional brands seems to take two varying approaches.
In the first approach, brands like Qoo rely on a single cultural stamp – in Qoo’s case, the
aesthetics of Japaneseness – that appeals to the entire region. This approach is premised 453
upon the country-of-origin having a leading position within the region, and a history of
positive country of origin associations. In the second approach, a multicultural process
that relies on the diversity of regional cultural flows is used, which results in
“brands without borders.” Brands like Zuji and Tiger distil their Asianness by invoking
symbols and associations from different cultures. These brands mix cultural influences
so that the origin of the brand is not clear. These hybrid brands can be contrasted to
global and local positioning approaches, and indeed serves to illustrate that brand
cannot be neatly categorized as global on one side and local on the other. Whether using a
monoculture or a multicultural approach, the very nature of developing regional brands
involves judging and making decisions about a host of cultures at the same time, a
process that has not been documented in detail in the international marketing literature.
Finally, we find that Asian brands are somehow stuck between pride and prejudice.
On one hand, most managers we interviewed emphasized the “coming of age” of Asian
brands and perceived Asia to be a leading centre of economic and cultural activity.
Asia remains one of the most heterogeneous parts of the world, but the common
experience of globalization and the pride in economic vitality seems to be truly Pan
Asian. This pride permeates the imagery of brands like Tiger Beer. On the other hand,
running parallel to the pride of being Asian, managers emphasized the negative
perceptions of Asianness, which are partly explained by the history of low-priced
products being manufactured in Asia. To avoid being too closely associated with Asia,
the regional brands we studied made ample references to the West (e.g. scenes of
New York City in Tiger Beer ads; references to Travelocity, the US web site, on Zuji’s
web site). Associations with the West form part of the multicultural branding process
and allow regional Asian brands to appear less parochial, more global and modern.
As we demonstrate in this paper, with regional brands, managers try to reach a
balance between the quotidian and the compellingly distant. The power and attraction
of regional brands depend on what Mazzarella (2003) has termed close distance; that is,
their ability to appear at once distant and familiar. Regional brands can create this
close distance through the hybrid brand development process that we describe – a mix
of cultural symbols and associations that fuel aspiration and identification. Achieving
this close distance, as some of the brands we studied managed to do, is one way that
brands can achieve a regional presence while overcome the paradox of a region having
homogeneity in some dimensions and heterogeneity in others.

Conclusion and future research

Overall, this study contributes to international marketing theory and practice in the
following three ways. First, we extend previous work on the globalization of marketing
activities by advancing the region as an important unit of analysis. More specifically,
this paper helps go beyond the debate on the globalization/localization of branding
activities by highlighting the importance of regional cultural flows and their impact on
IMR branding practices. By looking at the region as our unit of analysis, we go beyond
24,4 marketing studies that always study Asia in reference to the West. Many studies have
looked at the domestication of Western cultural forms in Asia (Tobin, 1992; Sherry and
Camargo, 1987). By solely studying East/West types of cultural exchanges, we have
not paid enough attention to the rich intraregional cultural flows permeating Asia. Our
regional focus helps move beyond the story of overpowering global brands and
454 resisting local ones by shifting attention to the regional. We illustrate that globalization
encompasses a complex mix of influences being circulated around the globe, not just
Western influences being imposed on the rest of the world (Appadurai, 1990).
Second, our paper helps understand the development of brands in a part of the
world that is becoming more important at the economic and political level. While a
practitioner literature on Asian brands is beginning to emerge (Aitchison, 2002;
Temporal, 2001; Williamson, 2005), the academic literature on the way Asian brands
compete in the international arena is still limited. This study helps bridge that gap by
linking the development of Asian brands to international marketing theory. Academic
studies focusing on brand relationships have flourished (Fournier, 1998; Muniz and
O’Guinn, 2001) but we still do not know much about the way brands impact the global
cultural context (Askegaard, 2006), especially in the Asian context.
Third, we show how marketers are shaping culture in the Asian context. More
specifically, we illuminate the type of Asian modernity brands like Tiger Beer and Zuji
promote: an East Asian, urban and multicultural modernity. In doing so, marketers
join the cortege of political leaders trying to define what Asia means (Milner and
Johnson, 1997). We show that the Asia brand managers promote is quite different from
the promotion of Asian values and often avoids references to Asian tradition. Finding
out how Asians react to this different depiction of Asia is beyond the scope of this
study but seems to be a critical path for future research.
Finally, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the opportunities and
challenges associated with a regional positioning and the development of regional
branding strategies. As we have shown, establishing a regional positioning is a difficult
task, where marketers have to compete against familiar local brands and aspirational
global ones. Understanding how marketers negotiate this terrain is important in
advancing international marketing theory, and suggests that analyzing regional brands
should proceed in a qualitatively different way to analyzing global or local brands.
Our study has focused on the creation of regional brands. More research is needed that
examines the way consumers interpret the meaning of these brands. While we have some
evidence that citizens of different Asian countries feel connections to some of their Asian
counterparts (Iwabuchi, 2002), it is still unclear how this newly articulated “Asianness”
contributes to brand success, and how it could overcome the immense economic, religious
and cultural differences inherent in the region to be able to provide a consistent platform for
brand building activities. Future research examining Asian brands should specifically
investigate notions of cultural proximity and distance and their different dimensions. These
concepts will become increasingly important as media products and brands are circulated
in a region where cultures, being so near and yet so far, are increasingly juxtaposed.

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Corresponding author
Giana M. Eckhardt can be contacted at: geckhardt@suffolk.edu

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