A large number of Asian companies are moving from OEMs _ Original Equipment Manufacturers to OBM - Original Brand Management. But it is a challenging road ahead.

Japan-based Sony and Canon shifted their focus from manufacturing consumer electronics for other brands to promoting their products as genuine brands during the early 1980s. Further, in the 1990s South Korea's Samsung and LG Corp. did the same. There are many such manufacturers who are craving to build global brands, but they lack the expertise of brand building. This is creating an enormous opportunity for brand-development agencies to build big contracts in Asia. Philippe Starck, the best-known brand and design consultant and the Chief Vision Officer of Paris-based brand consultancy, The Key, in an interview with Far Eastern Economic Review said, "The Asian manufacturers are the real companies of the future. They have almost all the parameters to become brandsthey just don't know how to do it."

Despite being aware of this fact, not all of the Asian OEMs are enthusiastic about transforming into global brand manufacturers. One major reason that can be attributed to this is that branding requires reinvestment of profits over a period of time. Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consultants, Bangalore, says, "To create a brand today, it is investment ahead of the profit curve. Very few in the OEM sector look forward into the next five years and say that they are willing to invest and wait for the fruits of the investment to mature."

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