Brand Development Forum

I was fortunate to attend the Brand Development Forum that was held at Marina Hotel last Sunday and Monday. It was the first of its kind in Kuwait; these forums usually take place anywhere but here and I usually have to beg to go and the answer is always NO!

It was a very interesting forum and the time went by so quickly because this is a subject that I really love (in case you couldn't tell). We kicked off with a long speech by the organizers (yawn!) and then a presentation by BKME, the main sponsor, in which they explained the strategy behind their new brand image. I shall reserve comment on BKME's new brand mainly because it's been discussed before on Kuwaitism. However, I was very surprised - and offended - that they didn't bother to attend the whole forum or even send any of their marketing staff to attend. Their representative just gave his presentation and promptly left after that. Did they just think they got everything right and had nothing new to learn? Or were they afraid to discover how they totally screwed up the execution?!

Our lecturer was a very nice American lady from the American Banker's Association. She had a very New Yorker sensibility; imagine a female cross between Woody Allen and Richard Lewis and you get the picture. She was so New York Jewish I had pleasant flashbacks of my college days, and I certainly learned a lot from her.

So now I'm even more obsessed with branding than ever before. I'm totally aware that branding isn't just creating a cool logo. There has to be a solid promise behind the brand for it to mean something to the consumers and the general public.

Over the next few weeks, I will be randomly picking some very public Kuwaiti institutions that need some serious re-branding to discuss them with you.