Split: The distance between brand conflict and reconciliation
For the marketing industry, this summer is destined to be uneventful. The two recently concluded trademark cases have added color to the hot summer. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court recently issued a verdict on the Wong Lo Kat (Weibo) brand dispute. The verdict ended with GPHL winning. Similarly, the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court also announced that Shenzhen Proview (Weibo) and Apple reached a settlement over the iPad trademark dispute. Apple paid a package of US$60 million to resolve the iPad trademark ownership dispute. At this point, the two iconic trademark disputes in the business world have come to an end for the time being. From the two trademark cases, we can get a glimpse of the strategic wisdom of Chinese and foreign companies.
Reconciliation between the same roots and the same brand
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court ruled that Jiaduobao lost the lawsuit, and the Wanglaoji trademark belonged to GPHL. However, if Guangzhou Pharmaceutical wins the lawsuit, it may not necessarily win the market. For GPHL, with GPHL's current marketing and management capabilities, taking over a brand with annual sales of over 16 billion yuan is obviously not an easy task. In addition to requiring a large amount of funds to maintain the Wong Lo Kat brand, learning the essence of Jiaduobao's operation of the Wong Lao Kat brand is even more critical. The snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman gains. Just when Jiaduobao and Guangyao were in a quarrel, the second-tier brands "Deng Lao Herbal Tea", "Deng Lao Herbal Tea", "He Qizheng", which were originally overwhelmed, began to take advantage of the situation. The era of red canned Wonglaoji dominating the Chinese herbal tea market is coming to an end. Wonglaoji will encounter more competitors, especially Jiaduobao, which brought it up single-handedly. In the face of strong competition in the market, it may be difficult for Wong Lao Kat to maintain its past glory. A lose-lose situation will be the final outcome of the Wong Lao Kat trademark case.
Similar to the Wong Lo Kat trademark case, the two parties in the iPad trademark case are the founder of the trademark and the other party, the cultivator of the trademark, namely Shenzhen Proview and Apple. But the ending was different from Wong Lo Kat. The iPad ended with the two parties reaching a settlement, and Apple paid US$60 million as the purchase fee for the iPad trademark in mainland China. The lawsuit between Apple and Proview has been very simple from the beginning. It mainly revolves around the price of compensation for the iPad trademark. Proview hopes to sell the iPad at a good price, while Apple hopes to pay less. Once both parties reach an agreement on the financial issues, reconciliation is natural. The settlement is a win-win outcome for Apple and Proview. After the settlement, the ownership of the iPad trademark belongs to Apple, which can effectively ensure the commercial value of the iPad trademark. At the same time, Proview also got the benefits it wanted.
Differences in brand strategies between Chinese and foreign companies
Brand awareness. There is a common misunderstanding among Chinese enterprises in their understanding of brands. They often regard brands as a symbol of goods and believe that establishing a brand means registering a few more trademarks. They do not see the deep meaning of the brand. Brands have rich connotations. Brand is not just a sign of differentiation between products. The reason why a brand can attract consumers is that in addition to its own product quality and some product features, there are many intangible values ??behind the brand. These intangible values Including history, culture, lifestyle, personality expression, etc. Brand is the intangible value of an enterprise. It allows consumers to clearly and clearly identify and remember the interests and personality of the brand. It is the main force that drives consumers to identify, like and even fall in love with a brand. Foreign companies have very strong brand awareness. They believe that brands can increase the added value of company products and are an important way for companies to obtain more benefits.
Brand strategy. Most Chinese companies lack a clear brand development strategy. The company's brand positioning is disconnected from its core capabilities. The company's brand building fails to be effectively combined with the company's core competitiveness building, resulting in misplaced brand development. The Wong Lao Kat trademark case shows that Jiaduobao did not make a long-term brand strategic plan when leasing the Wong Lo Kat trademark in the early days. After the Wong Lao Kat brand was successfully operated, it was too late to discover that the trademark did not belong to it. Apple attaches great importance to brand and intellectual property protection and has a long-term brand strategic vision. Before Apple launches a product, it must attribute the product's trademark ownership to itself. iPad trademark rights are a good example. It can be seen from the Wong Lo Kat and Apple trademark cases that Chinese companies often only focus on the actual marketing of products in the early stages of development and do not consider the planning and development of the brand. However, foreign companies are already planning the brand before launching new products. development strategy. This is the difference in brand strategic vision between Chinese and foreign companies.
Branding.
The creation of some well-known international brands basically takes more than 50 years, or even hundreds of years. With this kind of brand effect accumulated through time and word-of-mouth, it is impossible for our domestic companies to catch up within three to five years. Brand building is a systematic project. Behind a successful brand there must be historical accumulation and comprehensive capabilities. When it comes to brand establishment and shaping, foreign companies can often calm down, refuse to be impetuous, and focus on making good products and establishing reputation, and build their brands through advertising and word-of-mouth communication. The brand has experienced the baptism of time and accumulated rich historical connotation, which will form many intangible values. It takes 15 years for a Swiss watchmaker to go from apprentice to master, and it often takes one or two years to make an excellent watch. This is why the world only loves Swiss brand watches.
Brand management philosophy. Most Chinese companies are still in the product management stage, while foreign companies focus on brand management. Brand management is different from product management. The life cycle of a brand is much longer than that of a product, and products are often only relative to a specific demand period. Product management is mainly to ensure the quality and function of the product, and to provide consumers with a sense of satisfaction and value when using the product. Brand management is a core concept and value that runs through the entire enterprise, forming the core of corporate culture and embodying it. The strength of the enterprise. Therefore, brand competition is an advanced stage of enterprise competition after pure product competition, price competition, technology competition, and service competition. It is a comprehensive competition of multiple capabilities. Product management and brand management represent two different business philosophies and two different ideas of the enterprise. Brand management can better meet the higher-level needs of consumers than product management, and is actually a sign of corporate maturity.
Future Enlightenment and Early Warning
Strengthen brand strategic planning. Brand strategy is the core strategy of an enterprise. Its core lies in establishing a distinctive brand identity and elevating brand building to the level of corporate business strategy. A brand is definitely not just a trademark or symbol. It is a concentrated expression of a company's personality and image. It is a complex with rich connotations. This also determines that brand planning is not simply to determine the market behavior of a product in a certain period. It should be a long-term, comprehensive and systematic project to shape the product's personality and image. It is a visionary project. Enterprises should impart their own culture, values ??and corporate spirit to the brand to fully reflect consumers' demands for the brand and build a bridge of mutual trust between consumers and enterprises. Products can be imitated, but brands are unique and can be used as an important means of product identification when products are homogeneous. Famous foreign brands such as Apple, IBM (Weibo), GE, Ford, etc. all regard brand assets as the most important intangible assets of the company, and are directly managed by the top management of the company. Chinese companies need to learn from the West, pay attention to brand value, formulate good brand strategies and plans, and regard brand building as a long-term task.
Strengthen corporate brand management capabilities. After Chinese companies develop to a certain stage, they need to change their product-centric business philosophy to brand management. Brands have intangible value and can enhance the premium capabilities of products. The life cycle of a brand is long, which requires companies to continuously inject funds and energy into brand building and strengthen the intangible value of the brand. At present, the brand management capabilities of many Chinese companies are very weak, and some companies are still in the "three no" state of no brand management organization, no brand management system, and no brand operation management model. The "Three Nothings" state has led to insufficient product premium capabilities of Chinese enterprises and low added value of products. Many of our country's home appliances are at the same level as foreign brands in terms of product quality and performance, but the premium capability of our products is lower than that of foreign brands. This is a reflection of the current reality of the brands of our country's home appliance companies. Therefore, improving brand management capabilities and enhancing brand value will be what Chinese companies need to do.
Establish awareness of brand legal protection. Brands can improve a company's product premium capabilities and bring huge economic value to the company. The dispute between the iPad trademark and the Wanglaoji trademark has taught Apple and Jiaduobao a profound legal lesson. The protection of intellectual property rights is very important. The creation of a brand is the basis for brand effectiveness, but effective protection of the brand is also needed to ensure the effectiveness of the brand. If the company's reputation is low, or if the brand is used by others, it will be difficult to establish brand credibility.
Although some companies use trademarks on their products, they fail to register or hold them in time. Instead, they are registered or withdrawn by other companies first. All the brand accumulation only ends in the embarrassing ending of "making wedding clothes for others"; some companies only If a trademark is registered in China but not abroad, the well-known brand will be registered abroad, making it difficult for the brand to go global. Therefore, enterprises need to establish awareness of trademark protection and strengthen legal protection of brand trademarks.
Share brand success and demonstrate corporate confidence. From the perspective of foreign companies, the founder of a brand and the cultivator of a brand are not contradictory. Both parties recognize the contribution made by the other to the success of the brand. Without the efforts of either party, the brand will not exist, and its popularity and reputation will be even greater. There is no way to talk about it. The success of the Wanglaoji trademark is the result of the joint efforts of GPHL and Jiaduobao, but in the end one family is happy and the other is sad. This shows that Chinese companies are not strong enough in terms of cooperation, especially the awareness of pursuing mutual development. China Enterprises are not good at sharing success, so Jiaduobao Company made a wedding dress for Guangzhou Pharmaceutical. Foreign companies are completely different from Chinese companies in terms of brand sharing and strategic layout. Before Apple launched the iPad product, the iPad trademark did not belong to itself, so it spent money to acquire it in 2009. However, due to improper consideration, the acquisition The iPad global trademark does not include trademark rights in mainland China. In July 2012, Apple paid another US$60 million to Shenzhen Proview as funding for a package agreement to acquire the mainland iPad trademark. Apple has spent two sums of money to acquire the iPad trademark rights, which reflects that foreign companies respect intellectual property rights, respect the value of trademarks, and are willing to communicate and cooperate with the original owners of the trademarks. Chinese enterprises lack such courage and broad-mindedness, and even less such self-confidence.
Brand success does not happen overnight. It requires companies to spend a lot of energy and money, and it also requires companies to have a long-term strategic vision and business wisdom. Behind the success of a brand is often the efficient operation of the entire system of the enterprise. Looking at the development history of domestic and foreign companies, companies that can survive for a long time must have good business strategies