Unprecedented change is sweeping industry in the Middle East. In a climate of complexity, both existing companies and new entrants who face the challenge of the future are involved in identifying the key drivers of success in a rapidly evolving environment.

Branding plays an important role in developing these drivers, especially for evolving companies, and helps steer work along lines particularly relevant to industry participants. Building and growing brand equity is rapidly becoming a very important organisational issue for regional businesses. As markets undergo dramatic changes, a company's brand identity is increasingly called upon to play an important role as a strategic marketing asset. Companies are being challenged to converge their brand-building activities in an effort to leverage all the impressions they make every day, and on every one. And nowhere is this being called upon as a more important task than in the region's many industries where brand building has been hitherto considered meaningless.

By its nature, brand building for industry faces some peculiar challenges: building and maintaining a strong brand can be more difficult for unknown industrial services or non-consumer products; limitations in creating a strong brand equity sometimes originate from the inherent characteristics of an industry and, finally, developing branding infrastructure requires knowledge of the targeted marketplace, brand management experience, and marketplace vision. Grace Yacoub, president of Dubai-based Zaman Marketing Consultancy, runs one of the region's dedicated brand management operations, and she is firm in her belief: "Brand building is not rocket science, it is a management discipline that requires a commitment from senior staff, a common language, repeatable processes, a singular focus on the marketplace, and the simple desire to be bigger, bolder and better."

Zaman Marketing specialises in holistic brand building and this is best showcased in its four-year-long ongoing management exercise with Tabreed, the region's first and only district cooling company.

In 1998, when Tabreed, formally registered as the National Central Cooling Company (PJSC) and went public, they appointed Yacoub's company, Zaman, to develop a new brand for them. Zaman has, since then, been the gatekeeper of Tabreed's corporate identity.

Tabreed is the first and only district cooling service provider in the Middle East region and is perceived as one of the UAE's fastest growing torchbearers for the region. The company's wind tower logo in its pale blue avatar is distinct enough for audiences from all walks of life to understand their core service of cooling. Dany Safi, managing director of Tabreed, elaborates on the creation and concept of the distinct logo: "By using the very strong and localised image of the wind tower, Tabreed has enjoyed a high public recognition from the start. Tabreed also means 'cooling' in Arabic, offering a double indication of the company's activities." He also explains how, in the process of working with Tabreed's management to create the identity, Zaman considered all of these issues before the logo and name were delivered. "Those first initial steps were strong enough to ensure that Tabreed is now in an enviable position to increase and improve public awareness of our brand and service."

Yacoub explains the thought and action engaged by Zaman, saying, "District cooling is an ancient global concept, while simultaneously being groundbreaking in its appearance in the Gulf region. Traditional wind towers called barjeel, have existed in the Middle East for many years and we wanted to build on that heritage while weaving in the modernity of the district-cooling concept.

"Tabreed is above everything else, a UAE-based company, and their logo was carefully developed keeping in mind the rich Arabic heritage. District cooling offers modern and energy efficient air-conditioning systems, but at the same time, preserves these ancestral traditions, and our interpretation of the wind tower logo represents this marriage between ancient and modern, between environment and industry," she explains.

Effective brand management however, has two components - building the brand, and living the brand. While building the brand is the process of creating external communications like the logo, which address various elements of the brand promise, living the brand reinforces the brand promise and involves everyone in the organisation. And actions definitely speak louder than words.

Tabreed's distinguished blue cooling tower has not remained on paper. "All aspects of our communication follow the identity guidelines established by Zaman almost four years ago. And they have ensured, even at times when we have not deemed it really necessary, that our brand is reinforced to significant consequences," says Safi.

"Most of our activity is very targeted and focused and we have a limited amount of consumer communication but we have constantly maximised the use of our corporate livery - at our exhibitions, seminars, in magazine advertisements, plant room signage, brochures, invitations and various other applications, that left on our own, we would not necessarily have considered important," he states.

And Yacoub knows why. Many companies in the Gulf face a formidable brand-building challenge. Some of the peculiarities surrounding the brand-building process faced in the region include creating and implementing brand impressions that, while perhaps meeting short-term needs, do not build the consistent, co-ordinated brand required in a global marketplace. "Addressing this challenge requires a thorough understanding of marketplace perceptions, a focused brand strategy, and a commitment by the entire company to 'live the brand'," she explains.

"A change of this magnitude requires that the company has a clear view on brand building, understand how brands are built and appreciate the payoffs from building a strong brand."

Yacoub observes that most companies do not successfully link the importance of brand management to consistent, relevant and memorable identity implementation. "For some companies, brand building merely means 'using a logo' and for many, brand management is not considered really critical to growing the business. But in reality, brand-building measures the value of the pre-emptive marketplace relationships owned by an organisation. These relationships are valuable because they maintain competitive advantage, leverage business development, and maintain strong visibility among various audiences," she points out. Safi elaborates on some of the brand-building exercises that Zaman has developed for his company over the last few years including advertisements that use imagery to generate an emotive response from audiences.

"District cooling is not a familiar concept, and while the business is only now emerging from its early stages, our initial objective was to link Tabreed with cool, clean, environmental imagery.

"The ads were also complementary to our public relations strategy to develop awareness of the concept of district cooling along with the company itself," says Safi.

Tabreed is nearing completion of its scheme to supply cooling to residential properties on either side of Shaikh Zayed Road in Dubai. "Zaman helped in providing us with a strong visual presence during the construction phase. They designed and created branded hoardings to surround the facility behind Al Wasl Tower while work was in progress, alerting landlords and residents to the impending service.

"It is no surprise that all our initial capacity for the scheme has already been purchased," announced Safi. Various other Tabreed schemes are currently in place in Zayed Military City, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Al Ain, Dubai and other industry sites, and Zaman is involved in various projects to support the marketing of these schemes.

And Yacoub does not exaggerate while she constantly emphasises that branding is a company's most significant intangible asset.

Global research indicates that companies with strong brands consistently earn two to five percentage points higher total returns to shareholders than their industry counterparts who do not have strong brands. For superior returns, brands must deliver superbly, enhance continually and expand on their promise at all customer and employee touch points.

Safi has the last word: "Continuity in working together with Zaman means that we both understand each other well. We work closely and this shows in the results we deliver."