Vice Chairman of Omnicom Group Inc. Michael Birkin gave speech to Tsinghua SEM students

Mr. Michael Birkin, Vice Chairman of Omnicom Group Inc. and Chairman and CEO of Omnicom Asia Pacific, visited Tsinghua and delivered a speech at School of Economics and Management on May 12, 2006. The topic of the speech was Global Branding - the Missing Piece of the Puzzle. Mr. Birkin was invited by McKinsey & Company to speak at our "McKinsey Quarterly Speech Series". Ms. Ruby Chen, Director of McKinsey Leadership Institute in China, hosted the lecture.

Before the lecture, Prof. CHEN Zhangwu, Senior Associate Dean of the Tsinghua SEM, met Mr. and Mrs. Birkin and Mr. Serge Dumont (Senior Vice President of Omnicom Group Inc. and President of Omnicom Group Asia Pacific).

Mr. Birkin began with a series of interesting TV commercials made by Omnicom. He defined a brand as a promise of an experience. It is a relationship between company and customer that secures future earnings by securing preference and loyalty. Then he took Starbucks as an example in successful brand-value building. He points out the three aspects of brand value, namely customer, business and legal. After that, Mr. Birkin demonstrated how to create a brand by introducing the Brand Opportunity Model TM and by citing Thai Air as an example.

After the one-hour speech, Mr. Birkin kindly answered questions about majors and career developments by sharing his personal experiences.