The Leading Brands of Spain Forum took park in the recent Exporta 2008 conference with a seminar entitled Brands and Innovation Processes in Global Markets, focusing on the contribution of Spanish brands to innovation. The conference was organised by the Spanish Foreign Trade Institute (ICEX) and PromoMadrid and held on 4 June.

The seminar was chaired by Jaime Montalvo, the Promotion Managing Director of the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade. Other participants included three Leading Brands of Spain companies (Armand Basi, Colonel Tapiocca and GMV), the General Manager of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum and the General Manager of the COTEC Foundation, Juan Mulet. From the business world, the participants were Francisco Garcia, Manager of Armand Basi, Fernando Maudo, CEO of Coronel Tapiocca, and Miguel Ángel Martinez Olagüe, Corporate Development Manager at GMV.

The organisers of ICEX aimed to centre this seminar on two themes: human capital and innovation, with special emphasis on the latter. The interventions of the participants stressed that innovation usually goes hand in hand with brands in the internationalisation process of Spanish companies.

Brands need to be attractive to increase their level of recognition and relevance in different markets and innovation is one of the best ways to achieve this in new markets. Innovative initiatives are often vital for brands wishing to build a stronger image, to gain recognition and to stand out from the competition. And this does not only apply to hi-tech sectors; it applies to all sectors. Novel, original and pioneering processes, whether in marketing, product development or any other business area, give brands a big competitive advantage.

After a short introduction by Mr Montalvo, the General Manager of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum, Miguel Otero, gave a presentation on the importance of innovation for brand development and shared some of his experience in this field. The General Manager of the COTEC Foundation, Juan Mulet, then took an in-depth look at the concept of innovation and presented data on the position of the different European countries in terms of innovation and brand.

Finally, representatives from the three Leading Brand companies gave a more company-specific focus on implementing the concept of innovation in the business world through presenting their different success stories. They all agreed on the important role innovation has played in their companies’ production and marketing processes.