Integrity vital for brand building, says Rafidah
KUALA LUMPUR: Integrity should be the core value of a brand in order to offer something more value-added and with a positive impact, says former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.
She said integrity as it relates the human factor refers to honesty and a strong sense of right and wrong.
“While in products or services, or organisations, you have to ensure the services or products you offer are sound,” she said in her opening remarks at Malaysia’s Strongest Brands Award 2016 yesterday.
The awards recognise the strongest brands in Malaysia across 10 categories, namely banking; insurance; automotive; telecommunications companies; food and beverages; infrastructure and property; beauty; retail as well as broadcast.
Rafidah said a brand without integrity could be short-lived in the marketplace and be quickly eroded.
“Once people know what is inside, end of story, even if you have spent millions for the marketing,” she said, adding a brand is for the long-haul journey, and must be able to stand out amongst the competition and continue to improve.
Rafidah said it could be hard for a damaged brand to regain trust from consumers, and the damage could provide an opportunity for competitors to press it down.
“Hence, you must make sure that nothing happens to damage the brand,” she said.
Rafidah also emphasised the importance of governance for any field, especially in the economic sector.
“No matter who governs the country, it is the institutions and systems that are in place that make the country run.
“They have to be re-integrated and continually improved and enhanced, because we are not standing still in an environment that is static, because things are changing,” she said.
She urged leaders in every area to not only be as competitive as before, but also to be more comparative.
Despite urging those who govern the system to improve all the time, Rafidah said things are actually improving and are as good as before.
“It’s just that sometimes the improvement is not visible as it is overshadowed by other aberrations that cloud the real substance.
“Having said that so much needs to be improved, let’s focus on the system’s improvement and let the aberrations be sorted out the way they should be.
“I think we should be able to move forward the way we want to,” she added. — Bernama