Commentary

Legendary former Singaporean PM Lee Kuan Yew was way ahead of his time. He was the world’s very first Marketing Director for a country brand. He believed in the power of country marketing long before the Mad Men of Madison Avenue even thought about it. I was reading the Hotel Association of Singapore’s book on the history of hospitality which has fascinating stories and pictures of old Singapore. An anecdote about Lee Kuan Yew stood out. The former PM spoke passionately in speeches in the 60’s and 70’s of his vision of seeing Singapore as being one of the most visited tourism destinations of the world. At one event he was asked by a journalist why anyone would want to come to Singapore, there was nothing to see said the inquisitor, no sites, no culture, no activities, no hotels and no infrastructure. Without missing a beat Lee Kuan Yew said “Perception. It’s not about what’s here it’s about what people think is here. It’s all about marketing.” The former PM then set about enabling the creation of a series of tourist friendly initiatives from the Night Safari to the Flyer, the Esplanade to Marina Bay Sands and marketed them and the country as a place a tourist should come. He even enabled the building of the country’s own airline which only much larger countries had ever tried to do before and he made them make it profitable from the start unlike other state funded airlines. With a global airline Lee Kuan Yew could not only bring people to Singapore on the route to other places (a trick that Emirates use many years later) but was able to use the airline to showcase why people should visit Singapore itself. He did this through global marketing campaigns and using visible and attractive icons such as the legendary Singapore Girl on airlines to market the country’s sexiness for example. Lee Kuan Yew believed in the power of tourisms long before economic studies the world over have proved his point. In a country with no natural resources Singapore has been amazingly creative and innovative in generating business and creating a tourism brand that pays off financially and commercially from both a consumer and a business perspective. Tourists bring jobs and money. Tourists stay at hotels and eat in restaurants. Tourists visit galleries and leisure attractions. Tourists spend in shops and buy things they would never do when they are not being tourists. Tourists bring word of mouth marketing and share memories with the world. Tourists are a country’s greatest brand ambassadors sharing the story of a country with the world. Tourism also markets a country and city as a business centre. Singapore is now one of the greatest financial hubs in the world. Much of the reason why businesses locate to Singapore is the attractiveness of the city to companies and their personnel. That is down to the positive tourism marketing effect. It works on business leaders as much as it does on consumers. In an interview with the New York Times Lew Kuan Yew said he seeks to make Singapore "a first world oasis in a third world region." "We built up the infrastructure," he said. "The difficult part was getting the people to change their habits so that they behaved more like first world citizens, not like third world citizens spitting and littering all over the place."

Generally, Singaporeans are poor communicators. Most of us, born and bred in Singapore, cannot claim that we have a native tongue. What is our native language? For the ethnic Chinese, is it Mandarin? For the ethnic Malays, is it Bahasa Melayu? For the ethnic Indians, is it Tamil or Hindi? And, for the Eurasians, what is it? So, don’t blame us if we speak Singlish. Because we are not native English speakers, even though we may speak the language at home, at work and went through the whole education system in English. And, we are similarly not native in the other languages as well.

A few years ago, I made the decision to jump into the more specialized and ‘boring’ world of B2B public relations. While I knew that this would probably mean no sexy clients or fun parties, I sought the opportunity to learn more about a client’s business and PR requirements. I wanted to challenge myself to drive quality content and strategy over just getting more pieces of coverage from endless product launches.

MYTH: The more the number of fan likes, the better is your business.

Body language reveals more of ourselves and then we sometimes wish to. Often, even the untrained person can pick up subtle signals from the gestures we display during a negotiation. Our actions are the personification of our emotions, and our emotions is the embodiment of our thoughts. When we get excited, the excitement actually starts from our thoughts. An emotion of excitement is displayed through what we call reflectors, or what many were call Body Language.

Integrity is a little-understood feature of organisations and the individuals they employ. Yet it is much desired. The public, customers, clients – they all expect businesses, organisations and individuals to act with integrity.

Heading to Singapore I didn’t know what to expect. Asia? I’d never even been out of my country (the US) but Asia? That seemed extensive. At least my mother thought so. But after my first morning I knew that I had come to the right place. In fact, I had determined pretty quickly that Singapore was easily the coolest place I’d ever been.There are multiple reasons I have come to this conclusion, but at the forefront is the fact that Singapore is beyond innovative, beyond progressive, beyond cool. For example, the architecture? There are new buildings everywhere, and they continue to get both more interesting looking as well as more efficient and innovative. The giant shopping malls, with multiple levels underground and many of them interconnected? Brilliant. Orchard Road is beautiful. It puts my hometown of Chicago’s equivalent, Michigan Avenue, nicknamed “The Magnificent Mile,” to shame. Not only this, but Singapore has undoubtedly become a HUB of technology start-ups. This might actually be the most obvious area in which Singapore has become increasingly forward- thinking and acknowledged for world-wide. John Bittleston, Singapore permanent resident for more than thirty years and British businessman who sold his company, Cerebos Pacific Ltd (CPL) in 1990 to Suntory of Japan concedes that Singapore is a remarkable phenomenon but also believes that the country didn’t really have a choice. “It was do or die,” Bittleston said. “Singapore had no option but to do something really dramatic or it wasn’t going to exist.” This is when I began to look for answers. What has Singapore been doing since its birth 47 years ago to be so progressive and forward-thinking? For one, there is the loud construction that I have woken up to every morning and have heard from every office building I have attended a meeting in while being here. The construction in Singapore seems to be endless. Old buildings are constantly getting torn down and new ones are being put in their place. Unlike Chicago however, almost every new architectural project here seems to be bigger, better, and more beautiful. In the states, developers are most often concerned with functionality; maximizing space and profit. This might get a good turn-around, but it doesn’t make for the same awe you experience when looking up at Singapore’s CBD at night. To put it into perspective, it was a big deal when the Trump Tower was built in Chicago and since then there have been intermittent projects of the same sort, but not at a constant rate as they are undertaken here. There is one ultimate goal here in Singapore that seems to be on everyone’s mind: progress. In US cities, progress and innovation are certainly valued, but they are not nearly as stressed as they are here in Singapore. If that were the case, there would be tons of brand new, architecturally creative and efficient buildings in cities across the US. When you look at New York City for example, you think of a history, as opposed to the future (as you do here in Singapore). Not only is progress heavily encouraged and aided by the government (through grants like those allotted by MDA), but Singapore has been noted as number one in the world for innovation, well ahead of the US. This is where the cyclical movement comes in. The numerous projects here and innovations that all seem to trump each other can be partially attributed to the cyclical movement of people that Singapore witnesses. Often times it seems that a person of interest will come to Singapore with plans for another architectural endeavor or to invest in the latest tech start-up, and will then move on and leave Singapore. This is just what happens when you become a world destination for business and technology. So why should any of this even matter to business in Singapore? To me, it seems important to be informed when you are doing something right. So this is me doing exactly that. Singapore business should only continue to do what it is already doing. It should push for the next best thing every single day because it will only attract more business and more excited participants as a result. As a student I am currently considering what I want to do in the world, and where I want to be doing it. Singapore has changed a lot for me. Coming here has made me excited about where our world is headed. It is refreshing to see a place so full of energy and forward momentum. Singapore should only hope to continue on its already innovative path as I can easily see an exodus of US students coming here. Singapore business can expect an influx of young people in the upcoming years coming to Singapore to participate in the next best thing. 

These days, there are companies set up that uses social networking to market products and services online. It works especially in Singapore where almost everyone carries a smartphone. Smartphone users either have a social network account or a messaging service which allows advertisers / marketers to reach potential customers. Businesses want to get on this bandwagon because of its low cost and wide reach.

Let’s face it; the world we live in is a lot different from the one we grew up in. The science fiction that we grew up reading is becoming reality, Apple’s recently launched personal assistant, Siri being one such example. We are no longer just ‘consumers’ of information, media or entertainment; we are ‘creators’ or ‘collaborators’ now. Ownership of an asset or product is not the end goal anymore – we value instant, anywhere access to all our services.

Global businesses and modern technology are fuelling an increase in remote working across Singapore, which could lead to greater employee satisfaction and lower operating costs.

An annuity scheme is a type of mutual help programme: a group of people pay a lump sum into a common fund and are then entitled to receive a monthly payment for life; those who die early would receive less total payment than they put in, thus subsidizing those who live long. In other words, it is the reverse of life insurance, in which those who live long subsidize those who die early, just as in health insurance those who stay healthy subsidize those who incur greater medical expenses and need to claim more than they pay into the plan.

Earlier this year, National University of Singapore (NUS) confirmed that hackers had infiltrated the university’s backend systems and stolen a trove of information – including staff usernames, domain information and hashed passwords. Even though the affected data was not deemed confidential by NUS, the university had to work carefully to inform the public and reset the passwords of all the affected accounts.

The new realities

Singapore has experienced a surge of anti-foreigner resentment over the past decade leading some media outlets to claim a trend in rising xenophobia. However, citing xenophobia glosses over some very real social and economic anxieties and misses an opportunity to address the concerns of Singapore’s long-term residents.

Singapore’s two new casino resorts are no strangers to controversy. But with tourist numbers and GDP having seen significant increases since they opened for business, it’s also clear they’ve had a positive economic impact on Singapore. And with Asia’s casino sector currently standing up well in the face of growing economic uncertainty, things are looking positive for the future, too.

In my conversations with the Marketing Directors of many Singapore businesses, I am often told that Social Media Marketing is either ineffective or too costly and hence not worth the investment.