As I am travelling through Asia, shooting my upcoming Channel NewsAsia TV series on branding (more about this in the next newsletter), I am meeting many CEOs of Asian companies - they all started small, with nothing more than an idea and the right spirit, then built up into an SME, finally going International.

Those that I talk to - in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia - are very much aware that they needed to build a brand; actually, the fact that they did think of their positioning and which idea to own in consumers' minds, is a great part of their success, whether for skincare, coffee, furniture, slimming or noodles.

And yet, quite a few SME leaders I meet (and will talk to while launching the Singapore Prestige Brand Awards this Thursday with a keynote speech) think that branding is not for them. They feel that:

- Branding is only for the big boys.

How do you think they got this big? By building a brand from scratch, by doing their homework and understanding consumer needs, then developing a single-minded offer to address them.

- Branding is expensive.

Coming up with an idea for a brand does not mean spending millions on a big advertising campaign. Depending on the market footprint, it consists of research (which can be scaled to fit budget needs, online is more affordable than focus groups), positioning (the time we spend thinking) and then translating the positioning into execution. The branding itself is not what is expensive: it is always the execution, or communication that - depending on the target group - requires the big budget.

- Branding is having a logo.

Not even close. The logo is not the beginning of the process, it is the end - merely one small expression of a positioning based on market and consumer insights. On its own, it can't do much - the whole brand must be set up to support it, with a promise that is relevant to the target, credible and differentiated from the competition. We don't just look at communication; the brand idea and personality must find its expression in every single point where the brand touches the customer - from letterheads to trucks, uniforms to phone manner, TV ads to shelf wobblers.

So branding is for everybody - I would even say it's particularly important for SMEs, since their purpose in life is to grow, and a good brand is one of the ingredients to fuel and often fast-track that growth.

Jorg