'Made in Singapore, coveted abroad, shunned at home'

Personal Reflection:

This article by Tessa Wong depicts a painful reality of the Singaporean mentality – we’re just not proud of ourselves. When I was reading the article, I was thinking to myself, is there really a brand called Kwanpen? I have definitely heard of brands like Louis Vuitton and Prada – handbag labels that immediately ring a bell to me. But as a Singaporean, being unaware of my country’s own label left me rather abashed.

There are two sides of a coin. Both consumers as well as the brands themselves have their parts to play in this societal debacle. For one, consumers have always had the mindset that foreign brands are more superior than local brands for the simple reason that labels from abroad, most of the time, carry a much deeper history and background that give the brand credibility. On the other hand, brands themselves, as mentioned in the article, are apprehensive of marketing themselves as Singapore brands. This implies that they are naturally filtering out locals in their target audience. Hence, we see a vicious circle – local consumers turn to foreign brands because local marketers turn to foreign buyers, and vice versa.

The solution that is being devised – the Get-Singapore drive, leaves me feeling skeptical. Is this really the answer to our flawed mentality? Is this drive attempting to reverse a collective mindset that has already been comfortably nestling for too long? It will no doubt be an uphill task but yes, it is too easy for me to pass comments. I think a change of mindset is not impossible but it will be a long and winding process that we will all have to be massaged into, slowly.

Begin with supporting local football, perhaps?