IE Singapore and Interbrands estimated its brand value to be S$51.6 million in 2006, but its management believe its brand value today is worth much more.
After all, sales in FY08 of S$300 million was 42% more than in FY06.
To find out exactly how much brand value should be adding to its asset value, Super Coffeemix intends to do a brand revaluation in 2011, but not before a rebranding exercise.
”The rebranding exercise will strengthen our foothold in existing markets,” said the group’s general manager, Elaine Teo, at an analyst briefing on Wed (Nov 25).
An example of successful rebranding was its Malaysian brand, Ipoh White Coffee, which sold around 10,000 cartons in 2007.
After introducing new packaging and a new advertising message, the product now sells around 10,000 cartons a month – a 12-fold increase.
Ipoh White Coffee’s image was designed and packaged by Super Coffeemix’s brand management team.
However, it is now looking at hiring an external branding consultancy as it wants a consistent image in every Southeast Asian country.
Half of the consultancy fees incurred by the rebranding exercise are to be funded by IE.
Super Coffeemix hopes to take its new image to international food exhibitions and find new distributors for new markets.
Most expenses will be on educating people on the change in Super Coffeemix, he said.
Super Coffeemix is one of the few all-in-1 coffee brands that manufacture ingredients used in its coffee mix, instead of just packing.
”We want to better control coffee quality and food safety,” said its business development manager, Darren Teo.
Here is a summary of the management discussion last Wed:
Q: What is your advertising and promotion (A&P) budget?
Historically, it has hovered from 11% to 13% of revenues. We have yet to determine the A&P budget post rebranding.
We are expecting a small increase in A&P allocation. However, even 1% of our revenues is a sizable sum (S$3 million based on FY08).
Q: What’s the difference between a branding exercise and A&P?
Advertising promotes an existing brand, but a branding exercise changes the existing brand.
Branding involves giving the brand a proper meaning and creating a strong affinity between the brand and consumers. For example, a new logo reflects energy and quality for a tea product.
A cohesive rebranding program involves interviewing the different stakeholders, partners, consumers and focus groups across countries to identify what the brand elements should be.
Results are measureable. One successful example of a branding program was Café Nova, which increased our coffee drinkers from the age group of 18-35.
Q: How’s your collaboration with Yeo Hiap Seng?
We are targeting to increase points of sales. Yeo Hiap Seng has a strong coffee shop presence in Malaysia, and we hope to leverage on this.
Q: What market will you focus on, going forward?
We have two legs of sales drivers - retail products and ingredients for instant coffee.
In addition to the earlier discussion of increasing the presence of retail products in new and existing markets, for ingredient sales, we will want to increase sales contribution from countries like China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Q: How much does China contribute to topline?
Less than 10% of revenues currently.
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