Page 93 - myanmar

“There was an element of brands being stuck in a time warp; sanctions meant that many Western brands had been unable to advertise for years.”
GOLD RUSH
Myanmar is becoming a magnet for multinational brands, and presents a marketing landscape unlike anywhere else in the world.
“There was an element of brands being stuck in a time warp; sanctions meant that many Western brands had been unable to advertise for years,”
he says. “And if you look at brands like Coca-Cola, their identity had been evolving around the world, but it hadn’t in Myanmar. Many foreign brands
had been frozen in time. How you reintroduce and update yourself after such a period of absence is a pretty unique challenge.”
Macfarlane found that entire categories, such as international fast food, had not been communicating with consumers at all; the idea of banking was still some way off most people’s radar. “You had to bring, as
I did, a suitcase full of cash because there were no ATMs, and if a note had a single crease it would be rejected. From a brand standpoint, what do you do
to convince people who have money under their mattress to put it in a bank?”
Multinationals would do well to tear up their emerging markets strategies and start afresh with Myanmar, Macfarlane says. Brands need to abandon the notion that success elsewhere commands desirability here, and acknowledge that people don’t necessarily want the best of the West. “You see brands coming in and trying creative that’s worked elsewhere and it doesn’t work very well. They absolutely need to think again. Myanmar people want brands that play a role in their lives.”
“They’re proud of their identity and don’t want to jump on the expressway to uber- modernization. It’s about finding a balance,”
100PLUS, the isotonic drink from Malaysia, is one brand to have made an especially strong connection with Myanmar consumers, Macfarlane says. “They don’t have the same heritage as
Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but they’ve come in with a really thoughtful take on what it means day-to-day here, to be in a hot country, where people want to get a lot done, and what that feels like. Their communications show a Myanmar experience, and 100PLUS is everywhere.”
The Norwegian mobile network Telenor has also made its brand relevant to local consumers. “Their brand draws on international pedigree to emphasize reliability, but it is also very local. It has sought to understand the transformative role that mobile phones are having in local people’s lives, and placed it at the heart of Telenor communications.” Its launch TV ad captures the role of the family, urbanization and generational shifts as a young woman calls her mother for urgent advice on how to make
the traditional ‘nan gyi thohk’ noodles from her home town to impress her mother-in-law. The advertisement was so popular that people now think of nan gyi thohk as ‘the Telenor dish’.
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