ABSTRACT
As economies in Asia develop and mature, the importance and significance of its services sector has risen markedly. But just as its rising influence and specific characteristics have been under-estimated in the Asian brand literature to date, so too are the brand-related challenges it brings forth. One aspect key to the building of services-centred brands concerns the overarching need for consistency across the external customer/consumer interface. Services interactions are delivered to the end-user primarily through organizational employees, and frontline, customer-facing staff in particular. This remains the same be it a bank, a hotel, a hospital or an airline; in each case it is the frontliners who are the critical determinant in the consumer experience, and need to be treated as such.
