TAI SIN – The Electric Solutions Specialist for Asia Since 1958
By Cheryl Tan, Consultant, StrategiCom Pte Ltd
27 Feb 2008

THE TAI SIN STORY

To anyone who knows Tai Sin, they know them as Tai Sin Electric Cables Manufacturer Limited, one of Singapore’s leading electric cables and wires manufacturer. They may also know that Tai Sin has been listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) since 1998 and as a legal entity, was only incorporated in 1980.

However, few know that the Tai Sin story began way before 1980, back into the mid-1900s with the founding of Lim Kim Hai, one of Singapore's first distributors of electrical equipment, components and accessories. Without Lim Kim Hai, the story of Tai Sin is incomplete. In its half a century of existence since 1958, Lim Kim Hai had grown into a group of companies and established a strong reputation in the electrical power distribution, control and instrumentation field – one that players in the industry still hold in high regard today.

The nature of the relationship between Lim Kim Hai and Tai Sin is unclear to many, even among some within the Tai Sin group. Few are aware that the founders of Lim Kim Hai and Tai Sin share a common bloodline. When Tai Sin acquired the Lim Kim Hai Group in 2003, the former essentially expanded the scale of the family business under the Tai Sin wing.

Together with the capabilities of the Lim Kim Hai Group, the Tai Sin Group has evolved into a manufacturing and distribution network where its core businesses span the 5 main areas of: Cable and Wire, Lamps and Lighting, Switchboards, Electrical Equipment and Sanitary Wares. The group serves customers ranging from end-users, contractors, electrical system integrators, electric power engineers and consultants in diverse industries, both locally and in the Asia region. Their geographical presence includes Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei as well as the Middle East.

While the group’s amassment of capabilities contributed to propelling Tai Sin’s growth in terms of diversity and geographical reach, the group experienced a string of related challenges surrounding the impact on both the Tai Sin and Lim Kim Hai brand:

1. As this article later discusses, a strong brand must stand for one idea only. A brand perception audit conducted by global B2B branding firm StrategiCom revealed that the Tai Sin brand owned the idea of being an “electric cable manufacturer” and is very strongly associated to “electric cables”. Further, the explicitness of Tai Sin’s legal name – Tai Sin Electric Cables Manufacturer Limited – strengthened its position in the electric cable manufacturing realm. However, it was apparent that Tai Sin’s strategic development had out-grown this one idea. A new idea had to be found to accurately position the evolved Tai Sin group. With Tai Sin’s entrance into businesses outside its core focus in cable manufacturing, the diversity of Tai Sin’s interests was a barrier to positioning the Tai Sin brand to the marketplace. The challenge was to determine this one idea amidst Tai Sin’s multiple businesses.
   
   
2. Related to the previous challenge on Tai Sin’s diversity of businesses, this next challenge involved aligning and integrating the core businesses of the Lim Kim Hai Group with the parent Tai Sin Group. Even after the acquisition, the Lim Kim Hai Group and the Tai Sin group continued to function autonomously despite the common share ownership of both groups. Both groups acknowledged the little connectivity in each of their business focus as a main contributing factor to this challenge. Tai Sin was renowned as a cable and wire manufacturer while Lim Kim Hai’s reputation was rooted as a distributor of electrical equipment, components and accessories. However, Tai Sin did not want both brands to exist mutually exclusively, but instead, the ownership of the Lim Kim Hai Group by Tai Sin – a public listed company, was intended to lend financial strength and operational mass to the former. This objective reinforced the need for the Tai Sin brand to be re-positioned in order to successfully align and integrate Lim Kim Hai into the group.
   
   
3. The last challenge has everything to do with the future strength of the Lim Kim Hai brand going forward. Tai Sin being the listed company was in comparison, always at the fore-front of the media and the financial industry. While this lent the impression of operational scale and financial stability to the Tai Sin group, Lim Kim Hai’s public awareness was shrinking in the shadow of Tai Sin’s mass and achievements. Save for industry players who continue to do business with Lim Kim Hai, there was concern that the Lim Kim Hai brand may soon be forgotten. Lim Kim Hai was far too important as a family legacy for Tai Sin to abandon and a strategy had to be found for the Lim Kim Hai brand to successfully co-exist and grow with the Tai Sin brand in spite of the ownership arrangement and differing status of both companies. As discussed subsequently in the article, the successful alignment and integration of Lim Kim Hai into the Tai Sin group would be an effective solution to this problem.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE TAI SIN BRAND

The Brand Position

A Brand Is A Single Idea In The Mind

Despite the many varied definitions according to both academics and industry professionals of what a brand is, the author and her branding strategy colleagues firmly endorse that all of these definitions have no significance in the real word. In fact, the way that brands are understood lie only in the mind – the minds of those who know or do not know the brand.

In 2005, Tenon, a leading UK provider of accounting and business advice to owner-managed and private businesses, was voted by B2B Marketing magazine as UK’s best B2B brand, beating high-profile brands including Accenture, HP and Cisco.
To those who have never heard of Tenon, it wouldn’t matter that the company had surpassed more renowned brands like Accenture in this ranking. Tenon simply does not even exist to those who don’t know it. That is why a brand exists only in the mind, not in the real world.

In addition to the notion that a brand only exists in the mind, the author attests that for a brand to exist, it needs to stand for one idea and one idea only. In the book “Transforming Your Business Into A Brand” by Jacky Tai and Wilson Chew, the authors reason that when the mind is presented with a brand, it immediately categorises it. In other words, the mind will try to associate a brand with AN idea. A simple recall-test of some of the world’s most renowned brands will prove this. Who wouldn’t just say elevators at the mention of OTIS, or coffee at the mention of Starbucks? No long explanations required.

As mentioned previously, a brand perception audit conducted by StrategiCom, the author’s branding team revealed that as an electric cable manufacturer, the Tai Sin brand owned the idea of “electric cables”. Tai Sin’s strategic move outside the realm of “electric cables” meant that in order for Tai Sin to strategically grow its business in tandem with the brand idea that they own in the minds of their stakeholders, a new single idea was pivotal. Tai Sin should no longer stand for “electric cables”.

Owning The Idea of “Electric Solutions”

A successful brand strategy is dependent on a clear and defined articulation of the business. In essence, the idea behind a brand is simply a reflection of the business focus. Just like how “micro-processors” comes to mind at the mention of “Intel”. This is because the Intel brand was built as a result of the company’s business focus of creating micro-processors. Micro-processors that are often described as revolutionary.

Thus, finding this new single idea required StrategiCom to comprehensively understand the strategic direction of the Tai Sin group of businesses going forward.

Intensive inquisition with Tai Sin’s management team ascertained that the group was to focus on the business of manufacturing and distribution of electrical and control products, devices and accessories; and as an integration provider. This included cable and wire, lamps and lighting as well as electrical equipment. This strategic direction meant that the Lim Kim Hai group of companies’ distribution capabilities in the areas of electrical equipment, components and accessories, will play a critical role in fulfilling the Tai Sin group’s focus. Management also made the important decision to divest their interest in sanitary wares as it was not consistent with the group’s focus.

With this, the recommendation was made for Tai Sin to own the idea of “Electric Solutions”. While the term “Electric Solutions” is commonly understood, its applications are diverse. For example, while some communicate “Electric Solutions” as the “distribution of electric motors and power transmission equipment”, others provide “Electric Solutions” in terms of “electrical services in the event of home black-out, no power/half power, home electrical addition or re-modeling and the servicing of sparking outlets or switches ” or “low-rise lifts and electronic mobility machines that is designed to reduce the manual handling risk in the industry”. This lack of a universal definition of the term “Electric Solutions” was considered beneficial in branding Tai Sin as it allows Tai Sin to define the aspect of “Electric Solutions” it is positioned in (i.e. the manufacture and distribution of electrical and control products, devices and accessories).

This idea of “electric solutions” accurately specifies the proposition of the Tai Sin group of businesses. “Electric solutions” well communicates the Tai Sin group’s comprehensive offering of various electric-related products and services. Cable and wire, lamps and lighting as well as electrical equipment would fall under this category. In addition, the group’s manufacturing and distribution capabilities also advocates credibility for Tai Sin to own this idea.

Positioning Tai Sin as “Asia’s Electric Solutions Group”

While the idea of “Electric Solutions” was an excellent match to the group’s business focus, if used to position the brand (i.e. defining the arena where the brand competes in) would be deemed as too ambitious.

In all aspects of size, capabilities, financial assets and especially brand awareness, Tai Sin cannot compete with large, global “electric” conglomerates like General Electric and ABB who are arguably, clear owners of this category. As such, Tai Sin is nowhere close to these giants in the international market. However, when the idea of “Electric Solutions” is coupled with a niche position of “Asia’s Electric Solutions Group”, this positioning becomes effective as it positions Tai Sin away from these huge international players. This allows Tai Sin to credibly own a distinct segment of the “Electric Solutions” market through its Asia geographical ownership.

Further, “Asia’s Electric Solutions Group” as a position, not only communicates Tai Sin’s Asian market focus and present involvement in fields within the electric industry, but also provides Tai Sin with the flexibility for organic growth into new related businesses in the “electric” arena.

DIFFERENTIATING THE TAI SIN BRAND

The Differentiation

Why Differentiate

According to StrategiCom’s principal consultants Jacky Tai and Wilson Chew, authors of “Transforming Your Business Into A Brand – The 10 Rules of Branding”, Rule No. 5: Differentiate of Sell Cheap, posits that when all else is equal, where a customer is unable to tell the difference between your brand and your competitor’s, it is not surprising that he/she will make the purchase decision based on the cheaper offering. Jack Trout agrees that because ‘choosing among multiple options is always based on differences, implicit or explicit’, differentiation is the reason why customers and stakeholders place their buck on your brand rather than your competitors; which also allows a differentiated brand to avoid competing on price. This why differentiation is at the heart of StrategiCom’s branding methodology. The author and her colleagues believe that identifying a brand’s differentiation sets it apart from the competition.

How To Differentiate

The author purports that there are 13 strategies that can be applied to differentiate a brand where different strategies are suited for different brands, depending on the brand’s profile, product/service type and the strategies currently adopted by the competition. In brief, these 13 differentiation strategies are:

1. Sales Leadership – Differentiating your brand as a sales leader works because of the herd-mentality theory – “If everyone else is using this brand, it is good enough for me”. F&N’s Ice Mountain Pure Drinking Water explicitly communicates its sales leadership on all of its bottles – “Singapore’s Number 1 Top Selling Drinking Water Brand”.
   
   
2. Technology Leadership – This strategy enables the brand to create a perception of being advanced in comparison to the competition. French cosmetic giant L’oreal is constantly at the forefront of revolutionizing the performance and effects of skincare products with technology. They would be the world’s to introduce light refraction (i.e. non-oil base) cosmetics products that leave no colour trace when the product is transferred to another surface.
   
   
3. Performance Leadership – This form of differentiation is especially powerful if the product / service category you are in is performance sensitive. Great examples are FedEx with their promise of overnight delivery and AMD with their delivery of processing speeds that outdo competitor Intel.
   
   
4. Next-Generation Product – Apple’s iPod practically put Sony out of the portable music business when they successfully made the mini-disc, discman and walkman appear obsolete with a revolutionary product of their own.
   
   
5. How It Is Made – The process which products / services are made and delivered can differentiate the brand from the rest of the competition. Marigold’s Peel Fresh uses the phrase “Any fresher, you’ll have to peel it yourself” to communicate that its tetra-packed juices are made fresher and healthier than the other brands in the market.
   
   
6. Where It Is Made – Using the country-of-origin to endorse your product is an excellent differentiation strategy when you want to penetrate into foreign markets. But only if the country-of-origin is reputed for producing the type of products that you are selling. Differentiating your new perfume brand as “made-in-India” is not likely to create the kind of desirable perceptions that one would expect with a perfume brand that is “made-in-France” or “made-in-Italy”.
   
   
7. Attribute Ownership – This means associating your brand to a particular attribute that is perceived as desirable for the type of products that you are offering. In the world of premium ice-cream brands, Swensen's owns the attribute of “traditional sundaes”, Häagen-Dazs the attribute of using “finest, purest ingredients”, while Ben & Jerry's differentiates itself through the attribute of “fun, home-made novelty flavours”.
   
   
8. Personality – This differentiation strategy involves building a personality for your brand that will create an appeal to a market that can relate to the personality of your brand. Brands like Harley Davidson and Virgin are oozing with personality that appeals to customers who like being associated as “rebellious” and “adventurous” respectively.  
   
   
9. The Opposite Position – This is an appropriate strategy if you are perceived as one of the 2 leading brands in your category. Singapore’s leading Telecommunications Company SingTel positions the brand for the market of business professionals who want a reliable service provider. Competitor MobileOne takes the opposite approach by differentiating the brand for the younger market who wants value and chic perks in their service provider. 
   
   
10. Specialisation – This strategy is a powerful one because as opposed to generalists, the world attributes specialists with being very good at what they do because they do one thing and one thing only. Successful specialist brands include consumer brand Gillette that do nothing else but shaving products making them one of the highest mindshare brands that own the category of “Shavers”.
    
    
11. Preference – When opinion leaders and relevant influencers of your type of product prefer to use your brand than any of the competing brands, this is a great strategy to bring credibility to your brand. Apple is undoubtedly the brand that designers and creative professionals prefer, while IBM is the brand that business professionals (especially consultants) swear by.
    
    
12. Heritage – The power of heritage lies in the perceived notion that the company is not only experienced, but must have done something right to sustain so long in the business. Companies who emphasises the establishment of their brands since so and so date, believe that differentiating themselves on heritage helps to enhance the credibility and competency of the brand.
    
    
13. Design – Utilising both superficial design differentiation as well as functional differentiation, Silhouette eyewear frame manufacturer has differentiated its brand through its unique proprietary design of rimless, hinge-less and screw-less frames, which makes their frames sleek, light-weight and maintenance easy.

Differentiating Tai Sin as “The Electric Solutions Specialist For Asia Since 1958”

Tai Sin’s differentiation had to support its position of being “Asia’s Electric Solutions Group”, and further set it apart as being in a league of its own. By analysing the strengths of the Tai Sin group and its competition, the team at StrategiCom uncovered that Tai Sin had 3 valuable competitive advantages which it could differentiate its brand with.

1. Being a Specialist: As discussed earlier, the industry of electric solutions has no lack of global players that in addition to General Electric and ABB, could also potentially include companies like Rexel Group and Sonepar from France, W.W. Grainger from the USA and Farnell-Newark InOne and RS Component from the UK. The scale of such giant brands instantly puts Tai Sin in a different fighting class. The light-weights. There was no way that Tai Sin could compete with them on their terms.
   
   What Tai Sin loses out in size, they make up for in terms of their focused skill sets and expertise in delivering electric solutions – Specialisation. Large conglomerates often tend to be diversified in their business where electric solutions may consist of one of the many other businesses that they do. Take GE for example, their business portfolio range from appliances, consumer electronics, lighting and electrical distribution to aviation, energy, finance, healthcare and media & entertainment. Would you consider GE as a specialist electric company?
   
   Similar to why cardiologists, rather than general practioners, are deemed as experts in heart diseases, the concept of being a “Specialist” evokes high regard in terms of their expertise, skills and experience, as opposed to “Generalists”. The use of the explicit term “Specialist” makes an impactful statement that communicates the specific focus of the Tai Sin group in providing electric solutions.
   
   
2. Preference: Tai Sin is not only specialized in their field. Their sales data also show that they are preferred by a select geographical market. Asian customers. To create a credible and sustainable competitive differentiation for Tai Sin, the recommendation was to explicitly dramatize Tai Sin as an electric solutions group that caters to the Asian market as opposed to the global market which is already being dominated by larger international players.
   
   
3. Heritage: This is where Lim Kim Hai plays a significant role in differentiating the group. Lim Kim Hai having been established for more than 20 years before Tai Sin, is prided for its strong heritage. This is an advantage that Tai Sin is unable to claim on its own. With Lim Kim Hai’s merger into the Tai Sin Group, Tai Sin operationally inherits all of Lim Kim Hai’s capabilities and strengths, including its half a century of established reputation and heritage. Thus, it was clear that Tai Sin’ should leverage on this acquired heritage and be differentiated for its electric solutions experience since 1958.

These 3 areas of differentiation form the rationale for Tai Sin to be differentiated as “The Electric Solutions Specialist For Asia Since 1958”. This differentiation is one that clearly sets Tai Sin apart from the competition, and one where few competitors can lay claim to. This tagline also implicitly communicates 2 of Tai Sin’s brand values of “Customer Commitment” through its continued dedication to the Asian market going forward; and “Reliability” through its focus on electric solutions since 1958.

Communicating Tai Sin’s Differentiation

Finding Tai Sin’s differentiation was not the end of the solution. The differentiation had to be communicated. It is pointless if only the brand themselves see how they are differentiated while the rest of their stakeholders don’t. Remember that a brand exists only in the mind. As long as the Tai Sin brand is out of sight, the brand is out of mind. Tai Sin must effectively communicate its differentiation as “The Electric Solutions Specialist For Asia Since 1958” in order for the brand to be successful.

One of the best ways to do this is to use this differentiation as the brand’s tagline. Thus, whenever the brand is communicated, the differentiation is communicated as well. This tactical execution must also be supported by consistent efforts to play up on the 3 aspects of Tai Sin’s differentiation – Specialisation, Preference and Heritage – at all communication touch-points.

BENEFITS OF THE NEW BRAND

Benefits In The Process

While the entire branding process solved the key aspects of positioning and differentiating required for a strong brand, other benefits were also derived in the process that supported the new Tai Sin brand:

1. A new company name: As the Tai Sin brand should now stand for being “Asia’s Electric Solutions Group”, its registered name “Tai Sin Electric Cables Manufacturer Limited” was clearly no longer appropriate. Continuously identifying the company as an “Electric Cables Manufacturer” conflict with the intention to re-brand the company as an “Electric Solutions Group”. Tai Sin subsequently changed its name to “Tai Sin Electric Limited”.
   
   
2. Clarity in the brand’s strategic direction going forward: Part of the branding process  adopted by StrategiCom involved crystalising the strategic direction of the group forward. This was crucial to successfully determining what the Tai Sin brand should be because as this article discussed earlier, the brand is simply a reflection on the business focus. Tai Sin can now articulate that its vision is “To be the leading electric company in the Asia Pacific region”. This is then supported by a complementing mission and set of objectives that would guide the group towards its vision. Brand values, corporate values, core values and value propositions were also identified as part of acknowledging how the desired image of the Tai Sin brand must be portrayed and delivered by its people.
   
   
3. Alignment of all companies under the Tai Sin group to the brand: This included aligning the companies of the Lim Kim Hai group under the Tai Sin brand as well. Through a brand architecture process that illustrated how each of the companies in the Tai Sin group played their part in contributing to the Tai Sin brand, the team at StrategiCom identified that all companies in the Tai Sin group contributed to the Tai Sin brand by being in one of four clusters: manufacturing, distribution, services or strategic investment. The clusters of manufacturing, distribution and services are synergistic corporate functions that collectively contribute to the functional delivery of the Tai Sin promise as Asia’s Electric Solutions Group. These three clusters structurally equip the group to meet the increasingly diversified needs of their customers with integrated electric solutions. The remaining strategic cluster focuses on generating value and financial asset capabilities by investing in successful enterprises that complement Tai Sin’s growth strategy. These companies are established in their industry and markets and further provide financial value to the corporate group.
   
   This brand architecture was the solution to aligning and integrating the core businesses of the Lim Kim Hai Group with the parent Tai Sin Group, creating a synergistic connection for both brands. Lim Kim Hai forms a crucial component of delivering the Tai Sin brand as Asia’s Electric Solutions Group through its distribution capabilities and expertise in the electrical equipment, components and accessories field. Tai Sin as the parent company will also continue to financially support the growth of Lim Kim Hai. This strategic placement of Lim Kim Hai within the Tai Sin group will enable the Lim Kim Hai to grow in tandem with the Tai Sin brand.
   
   This also solves the concern of the future of the Lim Kim Hai brand as its heritage is now reflected in Tai Sin’s differentiation. This reflection is a successful reminder of the legacy of the Lim Kim Hai brand and its association to Tai Sin.
   
   
4. Consistency in communicating the Tai Sin brand: The branding process also produced a set of brand concepts (i.e. personality of the brand) and communication guidelines that Tai Sin should judiciously adopt so that the brand is consistently communicated at all touch-points. From customized messages for Tai Sin’s various stakeholders to a brand and corporate identity guide that specifies how the Tai Sin brand and accompanying logo must be applied. As inconsistency only creates confusion, this consistent application and communication of the Tai Sin brand is crucial to enforcing its position and differentiation in the minds of the stakeholders and the marketplace.

A STRONGER TAI SIN BRAND FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Conclusion

The branding team at StrategiCom believes that a business is only as strong as the brand that fronts it because as this article illustrated earlier, people remember the brand (Starbucks) that fronts the business (coffee).  

It is thus important that Tai Sin stays dedicated to fulfilling the promise of its brand. A brand and its promise no matter how well and aggressively communicated is a failure if the company, especially its people, processes and products behind the brand fail to deliver on its promise. Branding practitioner Al Reis also suggest that consistency is paramount, not only in terms of communication, but also in the strategic direction and focus taken to grow the business in accordance with the brand. Tai Sin is differentiated as Asia’s electric solutions specialist. Tai Sin’s steps forward must be consistent to this. This requires focus and sacrifice.

While the branding process has brought this family business closer with the alignment of Lim Kim Hai and Tai Sin, Tai Sin’s key competitive advantage is this new platform it now has to grow the business and its brands. The knowledge and clear articulation of where the group is currently at, where it wants to be, how it is going to get there and what segment it wants to and is able to conquer amidst the competition, has already put Tai Sin at a competitive advantage.