Book Review: Rethinking how to Market to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Book review by Bob Brown 

Think ASEAN – Rethinking Marketing to the ASEAN Community 2015

Authors: Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya, Hooi Den Huan

For those of you who don’t know, ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.  It was formed in 1967 by five countries.  ASEAN now has 10 members and is a diverse market of 540 million people.  The member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.  The “ASEAN Community 2015” of the book’s sub-title, is the vision to create a single market along EU lines by 2015.  The economic and political success of the EU provide a compelling model from which to build an economic community that fosters trade, and strives for peace and stability. 

This book provides basic information about the formation of ASEAN, the organisation’s goals and history – plus insights into the economies and cultures of the member countries.  There are also a number of case studies.  For IT professionals, the explanation of the role of technology in globalisation in the early part of the book is unnecessary.

I imagine that those working in this region will already be familiar with much of the overview country information contained within the book.  However, if you are about to be assigned to a new role covering the region, then this book should prove a useful primer.

If you are looking for a resource to help make market entry or campaign decisions in region, I think you will find that the selective nature of the content and the level of detail would be disappointing.