Building Brand Oman in a global world

TOP BRANDS IN OMAN
By Hasan Kamoonpuri

With the multitude of products carrying the thumbs-up sign against the background of an Omani flag inundating the market, it is important to keep abreast of the status of the Brand Oman Campaign. That is what this book from the associate editor of Oman Money Works sets out to do.

Kamoonpuri has successfully cobbled together information on Omani brands scattered over various media, and filtered them for the average reader, business students and people planning to start up businesses in the Omani market to understand. In this context, the 22-page introduction is one of the most useful facets of the book, in which Kamoonpuri provides the definitions and the purposes of a brand, brand equity, brand identity and brand positioning.

Successful brands build on and augment the core values of a company, notes Kamoonpuri, while simultaneously diffe-rentiating themselves from other brands and building a loyal consumer base. Kamoonpuri then goes on to describe the successful application of these concepts in the Omani market, through a campaign that initiated around 2004 and has since gained tremendous momentum.

The Brand Oman Campaign was initia-ted with the Omani Products Exhibitions in late 2004, followed closely by the creation of a special committee within the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to determine methods of promoting homebred goods. Each of the picture-spangled profiles – of companies ranging from Oman Textile Mills to Bahwan Engineering Company, from Oman Mobile to Nawras, from Amouage to even Sohar University – provide an overview of the core values of the company and a description of its milestones and successful brands, ending with a box of useful company facts.

Though they often give a vague idea of a company’s future plans and prospects, the profiles are the most distinguishing and layman-friendly features of the book, very useful to all who wish to understand and invest in the current Omani market, very adroit and inspirational in endorsing key Omani products worldwide. The book even ends with 60 tips on creating and establis-hing a successful brand.

The book may not be a masterpiece, but this is one Omani product one should definitely acquire – it is a good reference point.

3 quick lessons

1. A brand is subtly different from a product: a company makes a product, a consumer buys a brand.
2. Based on the intended audience, a company can and should define and uphold the perception it would like to be identified with.
3. Customers don’t just buy products or services; they buy particular brands that capture their self image.