Reflections

Investment in a brand is like any other investment. An organization either has enough cash in its kitty to be able to invest it in building the brand quity or the organization borrows from the bank. The ultimate objective of any investment is to generate return. How much the required rate of return is varies from market to market and form environment to environment. These are times of economic recession. Even the BRICs are now coming to around 7% GDP growth (with the exception of Russia which itself is heavily dependent on International Gas prices). Recessionary times are the true litmus test of marketers. Getting growth and developing market and categories are not easy. These are times of high interest rates in Pakistan with the discount rate being 10.5% and 1 year KIBOR at 12%. This means that an organization investing in the brand could alternatively invest in the risk free Banking sector and obtain a 12% return with the principal intact. So the investment in the brand should resul...

ECONOMIC SECTOR Poverty % The % below poverty line in Pakistan is actually much less as compared to other countries as per Unicef figures below. Similar income profile countries Regional countries Pak. Sudan Ghana Laos Nigeria BD India Srilanka Gdp per capita (ppp) $ 2787 2726 3083 2659 2578 1693 3694 5674 % below poverty line 23% 47% 30% 34% 64% 50% 42% 7% Internet users 17% 0 9% 7% 28% 4% 8% 12% Gini’s Coefficient As mentioned in earlier sections the report, the Gini’s coefficient is an indicator of the level of inequality in the society. Again surprisingly, similar to the poverty level%, the gini coefficient of Pakistan (as per CIA published figures) is amongst the best when compared to either the similar income countries or the regional economies. The worst in this list are Nigeria, Sudan and Srilanka where the Gini’s coefficient is between 0.44 and 0.49 Similar income profi...