Patents and consumer’s choice Afshan Subohi | From InpaperMagzine Brands have emerged as one of the pillars of consumer democracy with products from a widening range of producers and suppliers flooding the market. For each item and at every step, they confront consumers with choices they need to make to arrive at a final decision to buy. In fast pace modern life, people do not have time or energy to do market research every time they enter the market. It is next to impossible to judge quality, price and durability for a lay consumer just by looking at a product.Imagine the complexity and the confusion had there been no Ponstan, National, Shan, Lux, Macleans, New Town, Norus, Pantene, Dawn, BP, Service, Nestle, Surf, Ponds, K&N, Igloo, Lipton, Soya Supreme, Dalda, Nokia, Samsung, Toyota, Suzuki, Coke, Pepsi, and hundreds of thousand of brands we use in our everyday life. How would we know what value we are getting for exchange of money we are spending? It is possible that someone in some corner in Pakistan is producing breads better than known brands. Even if this man manages somehow to place his produce on the shelf of a retail store who will buy it? A few people who know him and his superior product, but he stands no chance to sustain and grow his business unless he strategises his marketing and succeeds in giving his product a personality that enjoys consumer confidence and beats others in price. Local companies are becoming conscious of the power of brand. Over the past two decades several hundred national brands emerged particularly in textiles, pharmaceuticals, cement, mattress, ceramic tiles, fans, woodworks, fertiliser, gems and jewellery, footwear and food sector. Still out of well over 60,000 companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, not even five per cent have even entered the brand rings. Major Pakistani brands that have established themselves in the market are not many . However, the success of Gul Ahmed, Al Karam, Khadi, Nishat, Bareeze, Guard, Shan, Fauji, Younus, Engro, English, Euro, K&N, etc. have encouraged others to toe their business path. Still even today out of 100 products an average urban affluent household uses at least 50 items that are produced by multinationals. This ratio becomes more favourable for foreign brands as families climb up the social ladder. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in consumers’ mind established imported brands are a lot more superior to locally produced stuff. “All affluent young people prefer Nike over local shoes any time. If other sports shoes sell more it is only because not everyone can afford Nike. This is what we call power of brand”, a lawyer dealing in intellectual property rights cases said. “The practice of branding gives products an identity. Building a brand in already crowded market, however, is no mean task. It poses very tough demands on business establishments especially for late entrants. It can possibly not be done randomly. To develop a brand the whole orientation and structure of a business establishment has to change to become modern and innovative”, an expert told Dawn. Commenting on the weak performance of national companies in world market and the miniscule share of the country in international product trade an expert blamed the private sector. “In Pakistan for long, business establishments thrived on state patronage. The culture of patronage, however, allowed them to amass wealth but failed to equip them with attributes necessary to compete and win in an open market”, he said. A former economic diplomat who represented Pakistan at World Trade Organization told Dawn that how, in Geneva some years back, the conduct of irresponsible exporters embarrassed the ministry of commerce when their shipments were rejected on quality considerations. “The media tears the government down at drop of a hat in our country but shies away from exposing inefficiencies of the private sector that render all efforts at commercial diplomacy futile”, he said. The Intellectual Property Right Organisation (IPO) website shows that the post of the chairman is currently vacant. The Brands Foundation, a public company that has initiated brand of the year awards in 2007 claims to be active in promoting branding culture through multiple activities. Last year in December the ‘Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan Act 2012 was signed by President Zardari, and its website introduces the organisation thus: “Intellectual Property (IP) is critical for competitive economy in the backdrop of ongoing globalisation. Sustainable economic growth now depends largely on Hi-tech R&D base and efficient knowledge input.”
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 08:20:10 +0000
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