The Bangladesh Brand Forum 2009 is taking a bold step in telling its corporate leaders and marketers that it is time to make their mark through brands, says a press release.

The two-day forum began Saturday at Hotel Sheraton in the city under the theme 'Surviving Hyper Competition'. Seven global speakers will provide inspiration to Bangladeshi leaders on how to build strong emotional connections with customers.

Bangladesh Brand Forum is a unique initiative. It started its journey in 2007 with the vision of 'Transforming Bangladesh through the application of branding principles'.

Bangladesh Brand Forum believes that strong brands need to offer a contract immensely functional as well as emotional. This is the theme for Bangladesh Brand Forum 2009.

Speakers at the forum observed that within the hyper competition of today, global economy, 'brands' will have to offer more than just product promises and functional benefits.

All enduring and powerful brands offer unique emotional value in addition to the defined functional benefits of their category. But in Bangladesh, the majority of local brands play only through the functional facet, leaving the emotional part silent.

Some of the speakers who are attending this year's seminar are - Unilever (North Africa And Middle East) Chairman Sanjiv Mehta, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising (Asia Pacific) President David Mayo, Boeing Managing Director (Marketing Services) Jeff Cacy, Future Brands (India) CEO-cum-Managing Director Santosh Desai, TMRC China Managing Director Holger Metzer, Wild Courage UK Founder Elle Harrison, Emerging Asia Nokia General Manager Prem Prakash Chand and Rahimafrooz Group Director Munawar M Moin. Besides, a unique separate session based on emotional theme will be carried out by French Visual Artist Jun'Ichiro Ishii.