The award was conferred by the prime minister on Nov 30 at a ceremony held on behalf of the Brands Award Council and was received by Capt Mohammad Aijaz Haroon, managing director of the national carrier, as reported in Dawn’s advertisement supplement of ‘Brand of the Year Award’ (Dec 8).
The ‘Brand of the Year Award’ has been organised by a Brands Award Council of Pakistan (BCP) in collaboration with the Brands Bureau International Ltd, UK, and the first awards were distributed in the year 2007.
The selection criteria for nomination are: a) Company profile, b) Current Year Brand Market Standing and c) Nationwide Consumer Survey. Of course there is no free lunch as the aspiring company has to pay Rs35,000 as fee and subsequently Rs65,000 (net of all taxes) through cheque in favour of ‘The Exhibitor (Pvt) Ltd’, which organises the whole show, just to find place of its ‘success story’ in the brands year book.
The condition for prequalification is prior registration along with submission of complete company profile, which is to be reviewed by the BCP according to the selection criteria which will be forwarded to the Brands University for Focus Group and Survey.
This organization, in collaboration with Brands Bureau International, London, will then conduct a nationwide consumer survey to determine current market standing of the brands and their popularity amongst the consumers. The report prepared on the basis of the survey shall then be handed over to the Brands Awards Council which will congratulate the successful candidates for achieving the ‘The Most Acclaimed Brands of Pakistan’.
At least from a consumer satisfaction point of view no company in Pakistan, barring some exceptions (if there are any), can satisfy the ‘Nationwide Consumer Survey’ if the assessment is conducted transparently.
Here, because of the nonavailability of effective consumer protection societies and proper regulatory systems, the companies find themselves at liberty to make as much profit as they can without maintaining even the required health standards; they feel hardly any moral and ethical duty in providing standard goods to the people.
The resistance of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association towards installing equipment to purify sugar, as referred to by Badar Jatoi in his letter, “Pakistan’s standard enforced on sugar quality” (Nov 26 and Dec 7), is a case in point.
Similarly, the BCP’s selection of an organisation like PIA on the basis of ‘quality’, ‘familiarity’, ‘affordability’, ‘availability’ and ‘brand market standing’ as the best airline leaves much to be desired. How the loss-incurring airline that has lost its most lucrative European market recently for not maintaining aviation standards can turn out to be the best in 2008 is quite baffling. Besides, adverse reports published sporadically through the Letters to the Editor coloumn about poor consumer services is an everyday affair.
I think it is time we accepted our failures instead of living in cocoons by saying that “the winning of this award is a proud reflection of PIA’s popularity”.
This is the only recipe to put an end to self-delusions so that right decisions can be taken to come out of the serious and multiple predicaments the organisation is suffering from.
The ‘Brands of the Year Award’ group, claiming to be associated with a UK-based organisation, having registered with the Chamber of Commerce, Stock Market, IPO Pakistan and, above all, the organisation like the Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority can only prove its worth and credibility if it selects those businesses/companies which are providing best quality services to the people of Pakistan.
Picked from Letters to the Editor, Daily Dawn (Monday, December 15, 2008)
ALTAF HUSSAIN QURESHI
Hyderabad
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