Promoting Global Sharing of Chinese Brands
Beijing International Brand Week Launching Ceremony (Photo taken on September 25)
◇Nowadays, the "national trend" is surging, if China Time-honored Brands can be transformed into Chinese style and Chinese trend by combining Chinese culture, it is a shortcut for Chinese brands to enter the international arena.
◇There is an "unwritten contract" between every brand and consumer, which may involve various aspects, but the core must be "quality first, customer first".
On September 25, a new platform to gather Chinese brands to the world - Beijing International Brand Week was launched in Beijing. For the first time, the Beijing International Brand Week Organizing Committee released to the society the 2021 List of Best International Communications for Chinese Corporate Brands.
Brand is an important embodiment of the comprehensive strength of an enterprise or even a country. Brand value has become a symbol of a country's competitiveness and an important indicator of a country's economic strength and development potential.
After decades of brand building, the quality of China's products and services has continued to improve, and more and more Chinese brand enterprises have emerged in the world as "main players". The brand value of many brand enterprises with wide popularity, reputation and influence, such as Huawei, Gree, Haier and Hengyuanxiang, has been rising in the international market.
At the same time, we should also see that the level of brand building in China is still lagging behind economic and social development. How to create more world-renowned Chinese brands needs to be actively explored in the new era.
Striving to catch up with strong brand countries
The World Brand Lab, an organization that publishes a list of the world's top 500 brands for 17 consecutive years, unveiled its list of the top 500 world brands for 2020 last December, with the United States having 204 brands on the list, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom having 45, 44, and 40 each, and China having 43.
In January of this year, BrandFinance, a leading global brand valuation and consulting organization, released the "Global 500 2021: the annual report on the most valuable and strongest global brands", in terms of the brand value of countries (regions), the United States and China dominate, accounting for 2/3 of the total value of the brand. among them, the cumulative value of China's brands is 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for about 20% of the total value of the ranked brands, which is less than half the value of the U.S. brands.
"These brand rankings are obviously very disproportionate to China's position as the top manufacturing country and the world's second largest economy." Guo Xiaoyong, vice president of the China International Public Relations Association (CIPRA) and former executive deputy director of the China International Communication Group, said.
As an indispensable part of China's brand going out, China Time-honored Brand also face a lot of challenges. Data shows that in the 1950s, there were about 8,000 China Time-honored Brands in China, while the total number of officially recognised China Time-honored Brands in 2006 and 2010 was less than 1,000. "This means not only the loss of the market, but also the loss of certain traditional skills." Guo Xiaoyong said.
In addition, the world's top 500 brands in 2020 list shows that only three China Time-honored Brands were listed in the top 100: Moutai, Wuliangye, Tsingtao Beer. "We see Marlboro, Disney and other old American brands expanding their markets globally, driving a cultural trend, as well as McDonald's, KFC and other old American brands Sinicised and integrated into the lives of Chinese people. In contrast, the revitalisation of China Time-honored Brand still have a long way to go." Guo Xiaoyong said.
Promoting national brands to break the circle
If we want Made in China to gain a foothold in the international market, we should upgrade China's brand in all aspects, and comprehensively improve the communication power and competitiveness of China's brand in the international market. One of the keys is to deal with the relationship between tradition and modernity.
In this regard, the development of China Time-honored Brands is even more representative. The valuable connotations of high quality, integrity and traditional culture embedded in China Time-honored Brands are one of the most beautiful business cards for Chinese culture to go global.
Guo Xiaoyong said that China Time-honored Brands should inherit their unique craftsmanship, ensure excellent quality and good reputation, and continue their unique brand culture. At the same time, we should beware of the disadvantages inherent in its traditions, in particular cultural conservatism, reliance on the old, stuck in their ways; technological limitations, lack of product research and development, reluctance to eliminate obsolete processes; narrowness of the business, the small scale of operation, backward business techniques, the lack of modern awareness of the dissemination of information, and so on.
It is necessary to seize the new opportunities of the Internet era and the "Belt and Road" initiative to strengthen brand creativity, core values and marketing innovation. This not only calls for innovation in technology, institutions, services, refining the cultural essence of the old brand, so that its value connotation with the times, but also requires the use of the Internet, self-media and other new media, combined with the chain, hypermarkets, e-commerce and other multi-channels, so that the old brand can enter the lives of more ordinary people.
Guo Xiaoyong emphasised that no matter how you innovate, it has to be based on consumer demand. "Consumers are both the guardian and the gravedigger of the brand. There is an unwritten contract between every brand and consumer, which may involve various aspects, but the core must be quality first, customer first."
In 2018, "China Li Ning" stepped on the stage of New York Fashion Week, reversed the concept of rejuvenation, changed the image of the past, and conquered the international show with a new Oriental aesthetic and Chinese philosophical concepts. It has formalised the status of Chinese trend internationally and led the topic of Chinese trend home from abroad, setting off a new wave of Chinese trend. The Baidu 2021 National Trend Pride Search Big Data shows that over the past decade, the heat of Chinese trend-related searches has risen by 528%, and the attention of national brands in 2021 has reached three times that of foreign brands.
"It is a leap for China's local brands from Chinese brands to Chinese trend, which is favourable for the old brands to show their new charms." Guo Xiaoyong said that if China Time-honored Brands can be transformed into Chinese style and Chinese trend by combining Chinese culture, it is a shortcut for Chinese brands to enter the international arena.
Creating international brand communication incubators
It is crucial to upgrade Chinese brands in all aspects and build a high-quality international platform for brand communication, exchange, exhibition, cooperation and innovation.
The reporter learnt that there is still a lack of a special brand communication platform oriented to the international market, which to a certain extent restricts the international development of Chinese brands.
In order to explore and practice the international communication of brands, and to cultivate products, enterprises and national brands with independent intellectual property rights and unique characteristics, Beijing International Brand Week has come into being.
Liu Xiaoning, the initiator of Beijing International Brand Week, said that Beijing International Brand Week will integrate high-quality and high-end resources in all aspects of brand communication and provide all-round and series of professional services for brand communication.
It is reported that this platform has been supported by China International Public Relations Association (CIPRA), China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC), Beijing International Design Week Organising Committee, Communication University of China (CUC) and other organisations, and initially brought together the advantageous professional forces of foreign brand creation, communication, design and research.
As an important component of the brand innovation exchange and cooperation platform, Beijing International Brand Week will organise four activities annually, namely authoritative release, high-end forum, competition and award, and display and trading, around brand figures, brand organisations and brand regions, said Liu Xiaoning. “We hope to make it an incubator for the internationalisation of Chinese brands and help Chinese brands go global.” Liu Xiaoning said.