In China, the embodiment of brand importance is different from some aspects abroad, and it is more special.
First of all, in terms of customers, China is a completely new market with new products and new standards. Therefore, in this case, the significance of the brand is to help you seize the newborn opportunity. Some products did not exist 2 years ago or 25 years ago. In fact, it was in these 2 years that China developed a real consumer market, which can be said to be the largest and fastest growing in the history of the world.
Take cars as an example. In 22, 8% of China consumers bought them for the first time, while in Japan, the proportion of first-time purchases was only 5%. For this kind of consumers, brand has become a very important purchasing factor, because they attach great importance to brand to simplify or reduce risks. At the same time, the current brand is the foundation for the future development of the enterprise, and these consumers who have just appeared at present will be the very important foundation for the brand in ten or twenty years.
the second is the price. In recent years, the prices of products in various industries in China have been decreasing, and the profits have also been decreasing. For example, from 1999 to 23, according to our statistics, the price of consumer goods dropped by more than 4%, and the industrial products also reached 1%-2%, so the survival pressure of enterprises was very high. So in this case, the premium role of the brand is even more important.
the third is market share. China is probably the most competitive market in the world. In such a fierce competition, a strong brand can help enterprises seize market share. For example, comparing Lenovo with Great Wall, Lenovo is 4% and Great Wall is 11%. From this point of view, Lenovo is much more attractive than the Great Wall. Of course, this is not to say that because of the brand, we can seize the profit growth point, but Lenovo's market share has increased a lot in recent years, in which the brand really plays a very important role.
Opportunities and Challenges of Brand Building in China
At present, there are actually few real brands in China. The concept of brand can be divided into four levels, taking fast food industry as an example to analyze: the first level is goods, such as hamburgers; The second layer is the name, so-and-so hamburger. Some people will remember it and know it, but they don't care what its name is. A higher level is the brand, such as the Burger King brand, which already has the brand value that can be used; The highest level is a strong brand, such as McDonald's. At present, the brand management of most enterprises in China still stays at the level of "name", and many people make a mistake about the difference between name and brand.
So, there are good opportunities for brand building in China, but it is not easy to build a strong brand. I think there are challenges from four aspects: consumers, competition, expenses and marketing skills.
although there are some differences among industries, consumer loyalty is generally low in China, and this situation will not change much for a long time. Some people think that with the development of economy, some people and groups will continue to move towards the characteristics of developed countries and have relatively high brand loyalty. But at the same time, a large crowd will emerge, and their consumption patterns will be the same as those of these consumers who just appeared today. For example, in 22, the number of families with an annual income of more than 3, will increase by 1.5 times, exceeding 1 million. But at the same time, at least two-thirds of families will still be below this line; The education level is similar. By 212, the number of people with higher education will double to more than 1 million, but there are still more than 9% people without higher education. That is to say, even by 22, the China market may be more China-oriented than it is now. Therefore, the challenge of low consumer loyalty will be a long-term existence.
the second aspect is the pressure from competition. Everyone is familiar with this point. In 1998, there were still a lot of gaps in the China market. By 24, many brands and products without brands had been added to all walks of life. On the other hand, some changes have taken place in the target customer base that the existing brands want to capture. Some foreign companies, in order to increase sales, extended to the low-end market; And some local enterprises in China have developed to the high end in order to increase profits. Therefore, more and more direct contact and competition is an inevitable phenomenon. This also gives the brand another very special problem: what should I do if my brand is aimed at both high-end customers and mid-end customers? Do you want to extend it with the same brand? Or create another brand?
the third challenge is that the cost will continue to rise. In recent years, the marketing expenses of all aspects of the brand have been greatly increased, especially in medicine and health care industry. According to statistics, in 24, the total advertising in the whole China market almost reached 2 billion.
the fourth challenge is the lack of marketing ability. Ability includes two aspects, one is knowledge and the other is skill. Mckinsey has also conducted a survey in this respect: In China market, what capabilities do CEOs of both local and foreign companies think are the most important, and what capabilities do they self-evaluate the most lacking? The results show that the marketing ability of the first importance; And they think that what enterprises lack most is marketing, so this ability is an aspect that brand enterprises need to improve most.
in terms of marketing skills, what each market needs is different. For example, there are differences between China and Japan: China people buy family cars, and their mentality is similar to that of Japanese people buying luxury cars, and the process is very emotional; But in Japan, buying a family car pays more attention to the actual function. Therefore, to improve marketing skills, we must first have a full understanding of different markets and consumers.
The key to brand success in China
Just now, some unique challenges of brand management in China were introduced, but the key is how to deal with them in order to make the brand successful.
maybe I can't come up with a complete solution today, but there are five aspects that deserve your serious consideration.
first question, is your brand strategy in harmony with the company's business development goals? At first, it sounds like the language of "consulting experts", which is relatively macro. In fact, it is to analyze which target customer groups your brand should target, and what kind of strategy you should adopt in order to target these customer groups. Then, the brand strategy should be consistent with the business objectives. For example, if your brand strategy is to provide the highest-end experience for high-income high-end customers, then your business goal cannot be to increase the market share among all customer groups; If your brand strategy is to become a high-end brand in the world, you can't have a big price reduction because of a short-term profit. This truth is actually very simple, but it must be implemented very strictly, and the brand strategy must be formulated according to its own business strategy.
the second question is, can your brand really create value in the face of increasing competition? After careful analysis, why do you need a brand? If this brand wants to create value for you, how is it created? By what means? There are generally two kinds of value creation: first, current value, which can directly bring sales performance, or improve its influence among customers and increase market share; The second is future value, such as helping you to expand new markets or further promote new products. Either way, you must be very clear about how your brand creates value. If you don't know how the brand can add value to the existing business in China, please don't be busy with blind investment.
The third question is about expenditure. Is the expenditure allocation reasonable and targeted? The brand marketing of many China enterprises is not only aimed at the target customers. Many marketing directors or CEOs often say, "My brand building costs a lot of money, but the profit is not very high." Then ask yourself further, where did the money go and which link is the key now?
Especially in China, this problem should be treated in different regions. Customers in different regional markets are in different environments, such as East China market and North China market, and their loyalty is likely to be different. We should invest money in high-loyalty markets and valuable brands. Nowadays, brand building needs more and more investment, so it is very important to plan, spend and monitor reasonably and spend money on the cutting edge.
The fourth question is about monitoring. Have you monitored the results of brand spending? Brand performance should be monitored very strictly, and then appropriate and rapid measures should be taken according to the monitoring results. This is particularly important, because the market pace in China is faster than that in any other country. Many foreign companies have been in China for more than ten years and have not really realized this.
As we all know, it is very difficult to find very reliable data in China market, so many people think that the analysis of basic data, value analysis and strategic analysis are very complicated, and it is impossible or ineffective. In fact, even if the indigenous method is adopted, even if the data is incomplete, it is very beneficial to business management and strategic planning. This should be of great concern to all marketers and the top management of the company. I hope that everyone will continue to monitor and improve, and there will never be a situation where no one checks and no one changes after checking.
The fifth question is about marketing ability. Have you taken internal measures to improve your marketing ability? Marketing ability includes two aspects: data market knowledge and marketing quality. The data can be obtained through a third party, and you should also establish a clear understanding of the inside and the market, and try to be as detailed as possible. The key point of marketing quality lies in the cultivation of people, and it is necessary to link the best skills and knowledge in the world with the market in China. If you have the right people, the right team to analyze, with clear decision-making understanding and rigorous planning, the brand can move forward very rationally under monitoring.
It takes a lot of time to improve marketing ability. If you haven't started it yet, don't always complain, but start from customer data and talent training, which is the way to solve brand problems.