The article reported:

COMPLACENCY can set in with age and that appears to be happening with some of Singapore’s more venerable companies when it comes to keeping the brand polished.

The warning signs surfaced when few firms were nominated for the Singapore Prestige Brand Awards (SPBA) in the heritage category – for companies that have been around for more than 30 years.

It was not surprising at all that older companies in Singapore are still not very educated on the concepts of branding and how it is so vital to business longevity today. Business is not as usual anymore and somebody must tell these bosses before it is too late.Too late will be when younger companies, despite smaller capital, are able to leverage on the Web 2.0, public relations, guerilla marketing and a whole slew of low-cost-high-impact marketing strategies to build greater customer awareness, maintain a sense of ‘updatedness’ that relates well with the new generation of well-travelled, savvy, global thinking customers. 

“But, we have always done it this way” is just not enough anymore. 

Gone are the days where you can market products with brands like “Mother and Son” , “Volleyball Players” etc. Even “Axe” oil brand worked very hard to stay relevant. The cluttered marketplace of today alone is enough reason to drown such brands out.

Business owners of established brands need to re-look at their customer psychographic. They will probably get a shock at how much these customers have changed in their buying decision making.

Mr Chan Chong Beng, chairman of the SPBA organising committee that handed out the awards last night, told The Straits Times: ‘What is quite sad is that for the heritage award, there seems to be a lack of response.

‘A lot of these older companies – they think they have already built a good brand and they are established already, so there’s no need to relook what they have done.’

Mr Chan cautioned that if such firms fail to remember that they need to keep building up their brands, newer companies will soon overtake them.

Wake up wake up old businesses. The world is changing….