er

m
nsu

Co

Mastering

NOON NOPI

NOON NOPI

Mastering

io
t
a
z
i
l
oba

Gl

gy
Strate

Product

Culture
Pricing

Ch
an
ne
ls

on

Visi

Brands

Segme

ntatio

Positioning

Loca

Dae Ryun Chang

Dae Ryun Chang is Professor of Marketing at Yonsei School of
Business. He received his Doctorate from Harvard University,
and his MBA from Columbia University. He has held visiting
faculty appointments at Helsinki School of Economics, Hong
Kong University of Science & Technology, Australian National

lizat

ion

University, Singapore Management University and Nanyang

Technology University. He is a contributing blogger at Harvard
Business Review Online where he opines about marketing,
branding, entertainment, sports, and Asian business-related
issues. He has launched a MOOC course, International

DAE RYUN CHANG

Mastering

NOON NOPI
The Art & Science of Marketing in Asia

DAE RYUN CHANG

www.yonsei.ac.kr/press

YONSEI UNIVERSITY PRESS

Marketing in Asia on Coursera.org.

Dae Ryun Chang

Dae Ryun Chang is Professor of Marketing at Yonsei School of
Business. He received his Doctorate from Harvard University,
and his MBA from Columbia University. He has held visiting
faculty appointments at Helsinki School of Economics, Hong
Kong University of Science & Technology, Australian National
University, Singapore Management University and Nanyang
Technology University. He is a contributing blogger at Harvard
Business Review Online where he opines about marketing,
branding, entertainment, sports, and Asian business-related
issues. He has launched a MOOC course, International
Marketing in Asia on Coursera.org.

Foreword

Where is Asia? Thats a question I

throw at my audience when I lecture
about Asian brands in non-Asian
places like Europe, North America or
South America.
It is meant to be a stupid question.
To make it even more banal, I then
proceed to show my audience a
typical map of the world. Guess where
Asia is? It is, of course, in the Far
East. South Korea, where I live, can
be found in the extreme right side of
the picture.
Well folks, I have some news for you.
Asias position in the map is likely to
change very soon. Thats because
Asian countries, most notably China,
named that way to connote its Central
Kingdom status, are becoming the
focal hotbed of global business. I
predict therefore that global maps in
the future will have Asia positioned
squarely in the middle.
This book brings together two topics
that have shaped my professional life

Marketing and Asia. I began studying

marketing as an undergraduate at the
University of British Columbia. Id like
to say that it seems like yesterday, but
it feels more like in my past life. Thats
because many facets of marketing
have changed so much. That change
is so much more evident here in
Asia where I have spent most of my
teaching life.
Marketing has brought me not only a
career but a perspective on life itself.
For me there is no such thing as life
work balance. Instead, my work has
been my life and vice versa as they
both help each other.
I attempt in this book to bring a
personal touch to the concept and
practice of marketing in Asia. As
someone who was brought up as
a child of diplomats, I was forced to
learn how to adapt quickly to new
surroundings and new languages.
That skill has helped me to value the
philosophy of marketing because it too

is about understanding new markets

and consumers. As an Asian who
from early on has lived many years in
many countries, I can safely say that
I have a deep appreciation for cultural
differences.
That said, I have low tolerance for
people who overuse that factor
to explain international marketing
successes and failures. Therefore
one of the key aims of this book is
to debunk the notion that cultural
understanding is the overriding
concern in marketing in Asia.

students and practitioners who are

interested in marketing in Asia. Anyone
new to the marketing discipline can
find value in learning its underlying
philosophy. Readers who have already
studied marketing can benefit from
understanding how marketing practice
here can differ.
I make it a point of explaining later
that marketing in Asia can be both
in-bound and out-bound. Therefore
students and practitioners coming to
or out from Asia can gain knowledge
of how that can be done better.

The tone of the book is deliberately

informal as I want to adopt the style
that I prefer when I teach make the
topic approachable and allow the
user to personalize it. An important
tenet in marketing is that people are
also products. Any reader of this book
should think in that way. They must
ask themselves how they can become
better products through marketing.

As a marketer I do not want Noon

Nopi to be labeled a niche book not
just because it limits its readership
but more so since the concepts and
practices that I introduce here are
meant to be useful beyond just a
single region. Let me gently remind
you that Asia is becoming central
again, and Asian marketing ultimately
should equate to global marketing.

The target audience for this book is

July, 2015

Contents

PART I

WHAT IS MARKETING

8
10

CHAPTER 1. WHAT IS MARKETING 

CHAPTER 2. INTERNATIONAL MARKETING & Noon

21
Nopi
CHAPTER 3. Big-time Noon Nopi Failure and Come
30
back: Walmart in Asia 

PART II

MARKETING STRATEGY
CHAPTER 4. Marketing Strategy: Dinosaurs,
Monkeys and Cockroaches 

52

CHAPTER 5. The VSA Framework: a company

navigational system 

54
61

Contents
CHAPTER 6. TRANSING 

68

CHAPTER 7. VSA and Transing with Starbucks:

Beyond Coffee 

90

CHAPTER 8. PERSONAL VSA and TRANSING 

97

PART III

CUSTOMER CATEGORIES in
Asian Marketing

106

CHAPTER 9. Marketing CSI: Marketing Consumer

108
Science Investigation 
CHAPTER 10. Business to business Marketing 

129

PART IV

MARKET SELECTION
CHAPTER 11. MARKET SELECTION

142
144

CHAPTER 12. Market Landing Strategy Matters 

151

CHAPTER 13. Final Market Segment Selection 

164

PART V

Marketing Action in Asia

CHAPTER 14. Complete the VSA 

182
184

CHAPTER 15. The 7Ss of Innovative Marketing

in Asia 

209

PART VI / APPENDIX

HBR BLOGS & READINGS

CHAPTER 16. In Asia, Marketing 101
Doesnt Work

234
236

CHAPTER 17. THE WE-ME CULTURE: MARKETING

279
TO KOREAN CONSUMERS 
CHAPTER 18. THE GOLD MISSES IN SOUTH KOREA:
ICONS IN MARKETING TO
302
GANGNAM 

Index

320

Mastering Noon Nopi:

The Art & Science of Marketing in Asia

PART I

WHAT IS
MARKETING

10

Mastering Noon Nopi

WHAT IS

CHAPTER 1

MARKETING
The Meaning of
Marketing is
Noon Nopi

hat is marketing? For more than half

my life, I have lived with that question
ever since I first learned of this strange word
as an undergraduate student. But now after
all these years, it has become almost like
asking what is life? Marketing has become
my life but like life itself, I am still searching
for its true meaning.
To be honest, I have never been a big fan
of wordy definitions. That is because I believe
definitions should be like brands short and
sweet. Think about it, how many brands do
you really remember that are long?

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

11

So with all that in mind let me also throw my hat into the ring of analready jumbled array of definitions in the marketing world. I would like
to explain that marketing is simply the quest for Noon Nopi. What is
that you might ask? It is a Korean word which translates literally as Eye
Level.
My favorite anecdote about Noon Nopi involves my son when he
was about 3 years old. He loved to eat chocolate bonbons but since
I feared that he liked them too much I finally decided to stash them
inside a refrigerator where I could access them for him (or for myself,
ha ha) when needed. At first I didnt notice that these bonbons were
disappearing but at some point it was clear that they were. From my
vantage point, they still looked well-hidden but when I stooped to my
little sons viewpoint I realized that from there those bonbons were very
easy to pick out and reach even by him.
That in a nutshell is what occurs daily between a seller and a buyer
the seller thinks he knows the consumer from some perched level only
to find out that down below there may be a very different perspective. A
car manufacturer assumes that a potential driver is interested in going
very fast whereas in fact many car owners care more about how fancy
or just how fast it looks.
Looking fast and actually going fast is a crucial difference that
influences important engineering decisions by an auto company
and can affect tens of millions of dollars in added investment or cost
savings. That gap can be hard to bridge without precise Noon Nopi
management.
In that sense, marketing is somewhat like filmmaking since both, at
the core, are heavily related to having a perspective, not only your own
but at times taking on someone elses. Framing becomes an important

12

Mastering Noon Nopi

word for marketing management as well as for filmmaking.

In addition to being a professor of marketing I have also had a
lifetime passion for studying film and of late I am even endeavoring
to make documentaries and fictional shorts. In fact, with professional
independent movie makers I have developed and teach a filmmaking
course for my MBAs at my school. Yes, my MBAs are taught how to
script, shoot and edit film using a professional video camera.
I would recommend that all marketing managers try to make a film,
a documentary or even a fictional narrative, about their consumers and
the world they live in. This process forces managers to see how their
consumers view them and perhaps their competitors. A warning is
that the picture that they eventually see about themselves may not be
entirely a flattering one.
Marketing, in both a literal but more importantly in a figurative sense,
is trying to match the Noon Nopi between parties. Most often that would
be between a seller and a buyer but the two parties can be any two or
even more entities.
Lets think about why matching the Eye Level between a seller and
a buyer is harder than we might think. Unlike in economics where there
is usually only a single type of buyer, in reality there is much more variety
among consumers. What these different consumers expect from a seller
can indeed be significantly varied.
In other words, for some consumers their Noon Nopi may be quite
high whereas for others that Noon Nopi can be much lower. It would be
a mistake for a seller to assume that one Noon Nopi will fit all whether
we are talking about a product or a service.

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

13

Fig. 1.1 Modern Coffee House in Asia

A simple example of Noon Nopi is Starbucks that has for many years
tried to spread the Coffee House experience imported from Europe to
other regions in the world including to Asia.
At Starbucks one can order different types of coffee or tea and also
try to customize them in terms of size, water, additional flavoring or the
style of service and delivery.1 They have also tried to customize the
store interior and exterior going as far as writing the brand name in the
local language. You might argue that it is a higher order of Noon Nopi.
The differences among sellers may not be as extreme but
nonetheless exist. For consumers, they too have to go out and try to
select the product that is appropriate for them. For high school students,
the selection of the right college can be a daunting task as now in the
global age, its not just the hundreds of schools in their native countries
but also the tens of thousands schools abroad. Against this backdrop
where you have many consumers here and many sellers there, in the
end, to solve the problem of finding that right consumer for that right
seller requires a meeting of the eye, i.e. Noon Nopi.

14

Mastering Noon Nopi

Marketing is both a business concept and a business practice. The

concept explains the essence of what businesses have to pursue to be
successful. The practice, in turn, spells out the executional details of
how it can be done. So for marketing, the Noon Nopi is both a concept
and a practice, i.e. we have to match the eye level between the
seller and the consumer and we have to determine exactly the ways to
achieve that.

The Marketing Mix

his book will get into some details, especially in Part V, about
the various tools that a company has at its disposal to execute
its marketing concept. These elements are often referred to as the
Marketing Mix and this term stems from the right cocktail of the
ingredients that need to be added to make the marketing strategy
effective. The primary elements are typically separated into four main
categories, product, price, place and promotion. Since all of them start
with the letter P, they are collectively called the four Ps.
We can think about the 4 P marketing mix of Starbucks as with
the following diagram. At the top of the diagram we see the guiding
principles for the specific execution which is Starbucks marketing and
brand concept A Third Place.
This refers to creating a space that is not home nor work but a
haven to which a user can feel comfortable and relax. To make sure
that this does not remain just an abstract motto, it has to be made real
in a number of different ways. The product is to offer not only the best
coffee available but also customized service as that is where the brand
objective of differentiation is achieved.

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

15

Fig. 1.2 The marketing mix of starbucks

For pricing, Starbucks has premium prices that are aligned to the
high quality of the coffee beans and the service. It is sensitive, however,
to the recessionary pressures that inflict many countries and therefore
they make sure that the most affordable size is always available.
Place, which means distribution, is very important for Starbucks
since, after all, providing A Third Place is their Brand Mantra. They
make sure that these stores are accessible and as discussed above
fit into the style of the neighborhood both from the inside and out. The
interior layout is designed to heighten ones mood for relaxation and is
helped by consistent lighting and music invariably jazz.
What is perhaps the most unconventional marketing mix execution for
Starbucks is promotion or the lack of it. To make their brand feel more
individualized they avoid mass outlets such as television or newspapers
and instead rely on word of mouth between consumers.

16

Mastering Noon Nopi

Brand Concept and Brand Management

n integral component of both the concept and practice of marketing

and Noon Nopi is the brand. What is a brand? It is well known that
the term originates from the practice of branding cattle in the United
States to identify ownership. In many respects that function still holds
true today. The only difference is that instead of using a branding iron
we use other tools like great advertising to imprint positive associations
that act as locations in the perceptual maps of people.
These locations, real or imagined, may last a very long time such
as the famous misconception that existed of California being an island
that is explained in the related MIX (short for Marketing Info eXample)
below. Perceptual maps become like physical maps where a company
or a persons images function as locations, and once they are firmly
ingrained they may be hard to change.
A key authority on brands is Kevin Keller and he refers to them (using
the Amercian Marketing Associations definition) as follows:
a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them,
intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of
sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.3
This definition helps us to understand why brands are so important
for marketing both as a concept and a practice. As a concept, brands
help companies achieve the key objective of marketing which is to
create preferential demand for their products.
As a practice, we see that a brand is more than just a name. As is
true with people, a name is important but when integrated with other
elements a company, or an individual, is much better able to create a

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

Marketing Info Example

17

California Island

As far fetched as it may sound, when Spanish explorers first discovered

California they had to cross a seemingly endless sea stretching all along the
coast line. Therefore they called California an Isla, meaning an Island and drew
their maps accordingly.

Of course now it is clear that the long Baja Pennisula of California prompted these
early visitors to commit that misconception but what is much more surprising is
that, despite evidence collected to the contrary, it lasted for a few centuries.2
Johannes Vingboons, California Island Vinckeboons 5, 1650, Library of Congress,
Wikimedia Commons, <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:California_island_
Vinckeboons5.jpg>

18

Mastering Noon Nopi

stronger personality.
A well-accepted principle in marketing is that brands develop
personalities with whom people enter into and try to maintain
relationships.4 Like with the California map, these perceived brand
personalities sometimes endure for a long time.
For companies to become like that they need to not only establish the
reasons why consumers should believe their brands are the right choice
at the outset but also keep or even enhance those beliefs. It boils down
to precise Noon Nopi management since customer expectations may
change over time.
Again the brand as a person analogy helps us to understand
that relationships often evolve whether it is between a couple, family
members, or friends. Relationships can only last as long as the parties
involved mutually agree that they are worth keeping. In the case of
incumbent brands, consumer loyalty is tested by the lure of challenger
brands. If their loyalty is not rewarded consumers then may be swayed
to shift allegiances.
The three key questions that companies need to ask regarding the
Brand Noon Nopi are the following:
1. Is the Brand Concept still relevant?
2. If the existing concept is outdated, what then is the renewable
concept?
3. What are the key Brand Associations needed to communicate
the new Brand Concept?

The first two questions deal with the conceptual aspect of the Brand
Noon Nopi whereas the third one involves the practical and detailed

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

Marketing Info Example

19

The GAP Logo social backlash

GAP, the giant apparel company found out how powerful social media can be
when they unintentionally encouraged a viral campaign to withdraw their new
logo. Ten of thousands of consumers loyal to the old GAP logo tweeted and
Facebooked their friends to demand that GAP go back to their familiar logo. After
about a week after the launch, GAP retracted and restored their logo much to the
relief of their faithful customers.

Brand Noon Nopi management.

Many companies are often too quick to experiment with various
new branding elements even when there is nothing about the brand
concept that needs to be fixed. In essence they are flipping the order
of questioning that I recommend above. The danger with that kind of
brand management is that consumers may become confused about the
brands personality.
Lets imagine that without any notice your parents suddenly and
drastically change their appearances in order to look much younger.
This transformation could be welcomed by some children but for others
they may prefer the familiarity of the older version of their parents.
For some brands, consumers enter into a life long relationship that
is built on images that are conveyed by key dependable branding
elements such as the name or logo. It could be McDonalds if that was
your favorite fast food restaurant as a child. As an adult you may earn
more money but you may still take your family there even though you can
afford much more expensive restaurants. The McDonalds brand reminds
you of all those pleasant memories about yourself, friends and family.

20

Mastering Noon Nopi

When I attended primary school in New York City, our familys go to

restaurant was Howard Johnsons. There were certain menu items that I
always liked such as the Roast Beef Set, with a Coke of course. I can
recall even to this day what my parents and siblings ordered and I found
it interesting that this whole eating out process became a predictable
routine and family tradition.
That is the power of a brand whether it is McDonalds for some
consumers or Howard Johnsons for our family it involves many people
who are happy in a very set patterns of life. Thus, by changing a brand
there is a danger that you will make them very unhappy because they
have to break that pattern.

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

INTERNATIONAL
MARKETING &

21

CHAPTER 2

Noon Nopi
A

s we learned in Chapter 1, marketing is

a concept and an execution. The Noon
Nopi or the matching of the eyes is achieved
when the two levels are the same as we
see in the diagram below. Even within a
country (here labelled A) that is not always
guaranteed but achieved through experience
and insight into the market. If there is a
mismatch, then a company has to adjust its
eye level downward to level 2 (or upward
depending on the situation) to the originally
mismatched level to then see eye to eye.

22

Mastering Noon Nopi

Conceptual
Eye Level

Executional
Eye Level

Fig. 2.1 Noon Nopi matching in One Country

We can reapply this paradigm to understand the essence of

international marketing. If Noon Nopi for one country (e.g. the home
market) is the baseline, then international marketing is determining how
to achieve Noon Nopi between the conceptual and executional eye
level across multiple countries.
The age-old debate about international marketing has always
been whether it is really any different from your regular (i.e. domestic
consumer oriented) marketing. The question is not a fair one since
it doesnt preface whether one is talking about the concept or about
the execution of marketing. This is an important issue as you can be
simultaneously similar at the conceptual level but in terms of how the
Noon Nopi matching is executed, many differences, small or large, may
be needed across countries.
In the diagram below, we see a derivation of Noon Nopi but instead
of one country market we have four that are labeled from A to D.
For some countries, their level matches ours, that country being here

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

Conceptual
Eye Level

23

Executional
Eye Level

Fig. 2.2 Noon Nopi matching in multiple countries

labeled C. Therefore, we can hope that, many environmental factors

being relatively equal, the marketing between countries A and C can
be standardized. If you are starting from A it allows an extension to C.
In this diagram, however, we also see that some of the countries are
different from the home country in terms of their executional eye level.
For example, an Asian brand that is well known and positively regarded
in the Asian region may carry negative associations in Europe. That is
because the Made in may infer lower quality to some consumers. In
essence, the country is acting as another brand.
If a company wants to attain a better response there the implication is
that a localized adjustment to that eye level is needed. The consolation
here is that since country B and D are similar in their mismatch, this
localization strategy can be scaled across a group of similar countries.
I will explain at length the importance of scalability of international
marketing strategies and executions later in Chapter 11.

24

Mastering Noon Nopi

We need to think of international marketing in this kind of very

simplistic way. There are many preconceived notions about international
marketing that make it much more complex than it should be. More than
anything, international marketing is just asking the fundamental and
empirical question about your Noon Nopi situation how similar or how
different are your various markets?
If the answer to that question is that they are similar, then there is no
need to reinvent the wheel for all of your foreign markets. In my youth
traveling with my diplomat parents and later on as an undergraduate
at the University of British Columbia, I spent a great deal of time living
in Canada. This country, from a land mass standpoint, is the second
biggest country in the world. But it has a population that is smaller than
Korea and 75% of them live within 100 miles of their border with the U.S.
I remember watching broadcasted channels from Seattle as much as I
did from Vancouver.
Canada has its own cultural traditions but as for consumption
patterns for many products, at least back then, it was hard to identify
what the differences were. The boxes in the diagram above for A
and C might as well as stand for America and Canada. Some
minor executional differences could be labeling such as the need for
packaging with dual languages since the country is officially bilingual
(English and French). Aside from that, marketing from the U.S. or vice
versa would be transferable.
If other markets are different in what they want from a product or how
they perceive the product or brand, then you as a marketer need to
adjust the Noon Nopi to achieve a match.
Global marketing is an extension of this notion that argues that there
is a convergence of consumers across borders. For the diagram above,

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

Conceptual
Eye Level

25

Executional
Eye Level

Fig. 2.3 Noon Nopi with Global marketing

it would be arguing that all four countries, despite superficial differences,

are becoming similar. A key proponent of that business philosophy was
legendary marketing guru Theodore Levitt of whom I will talk about more
in Chapter 4.
As expressed in a realignment of the original diagram, we can see
the advantages and potential disadvantages of global marketing. At the
executional level since there is just one approach it makes life simple for
marketers. This can lead to operational efficiency such as in reducing
production costs. Enormous economies of scale can be created that
result in significant cost competitiveness for a company.
The disadvantage of a global marketing perspective is that the Noon
Nopi may be somewhat off for each of the individual country markets.
Even though the disparity between countries has been reduced, they
have not been completely eliminated. The offering of a global company
(e.g. level 1 in the diagram above) is like the average matching to the
individual demand levels of the target set of countries. This average
brings it closer to some countries (e.g. B and D) as compared to before
but takes it farther away set against a completely localized strategy. The

26

Mastering Noon Nopi

global marketing company may leave itself vulnerable to competitors,

both foreign and local, that are able to match the local Noon Nopi better
and use this as their point of difference (POD).
In some markets high quality and competitive prices, two of the
hallmarks of global marketing are becoming necessary conditions but
do not sufficiently create a competitive advantage. In marketing terms
they are merely points of parity (POP). More is demanded by consumers
in the individual markets.
That is why I have decided to write this book, to concentrate more on
how marketing can be more customized to deal with companies coming
to or out of Asia. The timing is right because not only is Asian business
now big and growing, the various functions of business such as finance,
production, and yes, marketing is becoming more sophisticated there.
I think the softer business disciplines such as Human Resource
Management and marketing have been treated as less important in Asia
by Asians. Maybe I can say that as an Asian myself without sounding
patronizing, and I hope, not overly self-critical. Here I will use my status
as an academic to suggest that it has been my objective observation
that the less quantitative business fields have been regarded as being
too subjective by managers and even students alike.
If that stepchild treatment of the marketing department was true in
the past, I think over the last decade or so, it is changing for the better.
The financial crises that Asian countries suffered in the late 1990s
signaled the frailty of finance-only business and country success. Asian
companies, many of them Korean like Samsung and Hyundai, started
investing in intangible assets such as brand equity. As we will see later,
other Asian companies have followed suit.

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

27

The importance of marketing has been driven home because Asian

markets, like elsewhere, with more open markets face intensified
marketing competition from global companies coming in but also local
companies who use it to gain an edge.
Marketing, also like its supposedly more quantitative rival functions
has become itself more data-driven. Companies are using marketing
research, analytics, and finance-interrelated metrics to make marketing
decisions in more objective ways. Marketing in Asia is hardly just
touchy-feely anymore but is now quite geeky. How ironic! No wonder
then that I recommend to my marketing students that if they want to
succeed in marketing, the key is to study finance and accounting.

The Nairobi-via-London syndrome

ne of my fathers diplomatic posts was in Ethiopia during the

mid 1970s. I was still in high school then and so my attention at
such an age was not as worldly as it would later become. Even so, I
was struck by the natural beauty of the country and the kindness of its
people despite how desperately poor they were. Also having moved
there from our last post, Canada, the comparison in terms of the social
infrastructure was stark. Yet, after a few months, in many ways for a
foreigner, I could see life was actually not that inconvenient. The Noon
Nopi was definitely different but not necessarily worse.

One of the surprising, almost shocking facts that I learned while living
there was that intra-continental air travel in Africa was relatively new. For
someone to travel from Nairobi Kenya to Lagos (now Abuja) Nigeria,
they had to take a transfer in London as in London, Great Britain. As
ridiculous as this may sound, if you factor in the total air travel time (lets

28

Mastering Noon Nopi

assume it can be 2 days with no layover) of the trip involved, this makes
sense when compared to the many more days that traveling on land,
such as by train, would require.
When I talk about Asian marketing outside of this region, I mention
this old way of intra-continental travel as an analogy of how Asians
regard marketing in Asia. We have had, and still do in some measure,
a Nairobi via London syndrome. We assume that a marketing best
practice has to be vetted and acknowledged in the U.S. or in Europe
before it can be accepted here at home or in the region.
There can still be global marketing in Asia that looks like Figure 2.3
above where only one type of marketing exists for all regions. The big
difference that I expect to see, however, is that rather than having Asia
follow the lead of other regions, Asia can be in the drivers seat and be
the initiator of innovative marketing, whether it is by companies or by
consumers.
Like Marco Polo and Columbus coming to Asia oh so many years
ago, marketing in Asia can be not just about western companies
coming here to tap the fast growing consumer demand for their
products and brands, it should also be about learning business and
marketing from Asia. So instead of describing Alibaba as the Facebook
of China or the Google of China, in the near future we may see more
western companies being called the Alibaba of the U.S. or of some
other western country.5
From an international marketing perspective, the branding becomes
very important since it affects both the concept and practice of Noon
Nopi and how a company adapts to a new market. The three simple
steps outlined above about branding can and should be re-applied
in new markets such as Asia or by Asian companies contemplating

PART I . WHAT IS MARKETING

29

expanded reach to foreign consumers. The only change required

would be to substitute outdated and renewable in step number 2
with inappropriate and revised but the other steps remain intact.
If the existing brand concept is perceived by the local market as
inappropriate, then a revised concept should be considered.
For Starbucks discussed above, the brand concept of A Third
Place and the various executional details of the marketing mix that act
like branding elements can be tested not only from an a inter-temporal
standpoint for their timelessness but also from an international basis to
assess whether consumers elsewhere find the concept and practice as
resonant as at home. It will be safe to assume that consumers in most
countries care about relaxation but in terms of how that is done, that is
where more adaptation of the Noon Nopi may be required.