'With any good brand it needs to be a total experience with the way customers use your product and services - from shopping and taking the product home, to after-sales service,' Mr Lo said. 'Then there's the trade experience, where companies doing business can tell how positive the brand is, whether products are competitively priced and well-promoted.'

Though branding is risk inherent and a long-term investment, Mr Lo said Hong Kong companies were ideally placed geographically to seek opportunities in the mainland market.

Before seizing these opportunities, however, he said the tough competition in mainland and global markets made it vital that 'new players' incorporate design, branding and access to distribution channels into their operations at the earliest stages.

'You need a team to develop what some may call the DNA of the brand: the philosophies and the characteristics,' Mr Lo said. 'Then you'll need to look at product development because the characteristics are firstly demonstrated in the products of the brand and the company.'

The second phase demanded a first-class team 'very good at opening up channels of distribution'. Mr Lo said this was often overlooked to the detriment of businesses.

'And it's no good trying to manage it from a distance,' he said. 'When you're a new player you want to open up distribution on the ground.'

Companies such as Cathay Pacific, HSBC, Giordano and sauce maker Lee Kum Kee, have already made their brands global household names. But Mr Lo pointed out that being based in Hong Kong does have its disadvantages as it was a relatively small market. So thinking globally was vital for local companies, particularly for any original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that wants to become a recognisable brand.

'In the Hong Kong context, branding may not be everyone's cup of tea as a big percentage of our manufacturing industry has long been involved in OEM,' Mr Lo said. 'So switching from an OEM to a brand business is quite a big move - the business approach and the skill sets required are different, it can be capital intensive.'

Pointing to his own experience as chairman and chief executive of battery maker Gold Peak Industries, Mr Lo said: 'We saw it as long-term commitment and didn't see a big future for us to stay an OEM company forever. If you look at the market leaders in our industry, they are successful due to their own brand and distribution. If you don't have your own brand and direct access to distribution in our business, then you are always someone else's contractor with a limited future.

'If you look at the history of brands, they started with a sizeable domestic market - for example, the US, Japan, Germany,' Mr Lo said. 'Hong Kong companies almost all have to start with other people's markets and that's a bit more risky. Many overseas markets have all kinds of import duties and restrictions whereas we are one of the most open for foreign companies.

'Very few brands in the world start with an export market, that is the biggest challenge, but there is an opportunity with China. We should think of China as our sizeable domestic market, but it's also highly competitive with all the big brands around the world wanting to have a share, and many mainland brands wanting to get bigger.'

One comfort local companies can take from competing in such a competitive environment is that Hong Kong is steadily taking on the shape of a brand management centre. Some of the world's leading companies involved in design and marketing have established a base here to give local businesses access to a pool of talent.

'More companies are realising they have to put more into design at the beginning of a process rather than the end,' Mr Lo said. 'Overall, Hong Kong companies are fairly new to the branding game and it has a relatively short history with a limited number of successful brands up till now.

'But we are a very free economy, so nicely situated to establish ourselves as a brand management centre for local and global companies. As Hong Kong continues as a hub for design and advertising, it will increase our competitiveness as a client management centre.'