Lenovo: Lenovo brand internationalization

The English name Legend that Lenovo has been using for many years has been terminated. The basic reason is that Legend has been registered in many countries and Lenovo Group cannot obtain a trademark. right. In order to promote internationalization, Lenovo used a new English name Lenovo.

When Lenovo changed its name, Liu Chuanzhi answered a question from a reporter from IT Times online: "If you compare me to Lenovo and the clothes I wear to the Lenovo logo, I think Lenovo's brand It has not changed. It’s like I, Liu Chuanzhi, have not changed. It’s just that the clothes I wear today are different from those of yesterday. Liu Chuanzhi is still Liu Chuanzhi. Liu Chuanzhi’s brand lies in this person.” We all know that Mr. Liu Chuanzhi likes to use vivid metaphors to explain things in simple terms. Express your profound management thoughts. However, this time it is a pity that the above metaphor is not appropriate enough:

1. Lenovo is Lenovo’s corporate name, not Lenovo’s corporate logo. The logo is represented by a graphic, while the name is represented by language. Mr. Liu likened the clothes he was wearing to the Lenovo logo, which I assume refers to Lenovo and not the square logo that often appears with the word Lenovo. It is inappropriate to compare the name of a company to clothes, because clothes are often changed, but names are not changed frequently. Frequent name changes will cause difficulties in public recognition and are not conducive to the implementation of the brand strategy. In fact, the name of a company is the invisible "face" of the company. This face does not change much, because this face bears unshirkable legal responsibility and the public's trust in its brand. In this sense, "Liu Chuanzhi is still Liu Chuanzhi" because the name has not changed.

2. Lenovo’s English name has changed, and Lenovo’s brand has changed. We know that from a cultural perspective, there are two necessary conditions for the existence of things: first, the existence of the thing itself, and second, the existence of the name of the thing, both of which are indispensable. That is to say, the existence of things must not only have its "reality", but also its "name". When Mr. Liu talked about Lenovo's brand, he only saw the "realness" of the Lenovo brand, but ignored the "name" of the brand. In this sense, "Liu Chuanzhi's brand lies in this person" and also in the name Liu Chuanzhi. The reason why we understand brands from a cultural perspective is because brands exist in the public's psychology, rather than purely objectively in nature. Perhaps it was Mr. Liu's technological background and objective thinking that caused him to ignore the humanistic significance of the brand.

3. Lenovo’s English name has been changed, and Lenovo’s brand has changed. But why does it say “Lenovo’s brand has not changed”? Why not say that Lenovo's brand will become more acceptable and approachable to the public? We all know that change is one of the most irresistible trends in the world. But why should we emphasize "unchanged"? Lenovo's explanation of Lenovo is also contradictory. "Le" implies the meaning of Legend and its legend, trying to retain Lenovo's good brand image of Legend over the years. "novo" implies Lenovo's continuous innovation and innovation. As for whether "novo" itself has the meaning of innovation, we don't know whether the general public can intuitively see the meaning of innovation from it. But we know that there is a word that means innovation, and that is "nova". "nova" is an astronomical word that means "new star". However, this word is risky as a brand word. It is said that General Motors of the United States once launched a new car under the nova brand. The sales of this brand of car in the Spanish market were not satisfactory because the word "nova" means "not to go" in Spanish. Although this meaning is fatal to the promotion of automobile brands, it does not mean that there is no risk in the sales and promotion of computer products. This leads us to another question: brand personality and universality in the process of internationalization. General Motors' "nova phenomenon" makes us feel that the Englishization of Chinese brands is only the beginning of the brand's internationalization strategy, not the end once and for all. The problem encountered by the American company Exxon is similar to this. According to Kenichi Ohmae, a famous Japanese strategic consulting master, in order to promote the internationalization of the brand, Exxon Corporation of the United States is determined to use a name that has no communication barriers to multiple national languages. The company spent a lot of money and hired a professional consulting agency. It took several years to comprehensively consider the pronunciation, shape and meaning from the perspective of multiple languages. It can be said that after exhausting all the efforts, the best was selected in the end, and the brand was recognized. Definitely Exxon.

However, the branch in Japan retained the old brand name "Esso". Because it is difficult for the Japanese upper class to accept the pronunciation of xon in Exxon.

Here, we would like to remind the owners of the Lenovo brand whether Lenovo can avoid the brand problems encountered by "nova" and "Exxon" in their international operations. If not, then Lenovo still has a problem of how to overcome its own communication obstacles.

In order to overcome the language problem in the international environment, can we try: not to use any national language, but to use a language that is more universal and normative than the national language, such as popular industry language, Mathematical language etc. If possible, why not register 1+1 as Lenovo’s global trademark and brand? From the perspective of the brand's own information, "1+1" as a brand is definitely more international than Lenovo.

2. Lenovo 1+1: Lenovo’s most valuable brand

While Lenovo started using Lenovo, it terminated the use of Lenovo 1+1 as a product brand. The main reasons are that Lenovo 1+1 will weaken Lenovo's brand promotion at the public level; second, Lenovo 1+1, as a single brand of Lenovo products, has become an obstacle to meeting the personalized needs of computers. Upon closer inspection, these reasons are difficult to hold:

1. Lenovo 1+1 will not weaken Lenovo’s brand promotion at the public level. Because Lenovo 1+1 is a product brand and Lenovo is an organizational brand. If the product brand is different from the organizational brand, then the product brand will naturally become the focus of brand promotion. The core of the company's operations is its business, that is, its products and services, and the focus of brand promotion should also be here. Lenovo has adopted a brand strategy similar to that of Procter & Gamble: multiple product brands operate independently, and the product brand has only a loose indirect relationship with the organizational brand. This means that Lenovo cannot become the focus of Lenovo's brand promotion, just like P&G does not become the focus of P&G's brand promotion. When Procter & Gamble advertises product brands such as "Rejoice", "Head & Shoulders" and "Pantene", it also mentions the organizational brand "Procter & Gamble". Practice has proven that product brand promotion will drive organizational brand promotion, not the other way around. Promotion of the organization's brand is only important if all or most of the product brand is identical to the organization's brand. Just like Haier, the product brand and organizational brand are the same, and there is no conflict in brand promotion. From a market perspective, the Chinese market is undoubtedly Lenovo's most important market. In the Chinese market, Lenovo 1+1 is obviously the focus of brand promotion, because Chinese consumers will feel closer to the Chinese character "Lenovo" than the English "Lenovo". This language habit and emotional proximity will greatly increase the market value of the brand. Therefore, the impact of abandoning the Lenovo 1+1 brand on Lenovo's Chinese market will mean significant losses. This loss is not only nominal, but also a market benefit.

In foreign markets, it is not necessary to translate "Lenovo 1+1" into "Lenovo1+1", and it achieves the organic integration of product brand and organizational brand. Judging from experience, if a brand wants to succeed in a new market, it will have more chances of success if it borrows the success of the brand in the local market than using a brand new brand.

Lenovo 1+1 is no longer used in products, but "Lenovo 1+1 is still in the sales channel because quite a number of store managers have a soft spot for this brand." This reflects the true value of Lenovo 1+1: emotional value. Brand value is not primarily a value in a legal sense, nor a value in a rational sense, but rather a psychological recognition in an emotional sense. It is a pity that such a valuable brand is abandoned!

2. Product personalization does not mean brand diversification.

Lenovo 1+1 has been tailored to the individual needs of consumers since the day it was born: "Different you, different Lenovo 1+1". The personalization of Lenovo 1+1 is achieved through product sub-brand diversification ("Scorpio," "Tianqi", etc.) rather than brand diversification. One of the adjustments to Lenovo's brand this time is to change from the past primary and secondary branding to a brand diversification strategy. Brand diversification means that a company registers and uses multiple independent brands, which have primary and secondary relationships with other brands, and the independent brand is the primary brand and the others are secondary brands. Brand diversification strategy means using multiple brands to provide solutions to consumers' personalized needs.

If multiple registered brands cannot be used independently, then they are not main brands but sub-brands. This is not brand diversification in the true sense, but primary and secondary branding. Dell's brand strategy is such a model. There are two brands on every advertisement and product packaging of Dell. The first is Dell, and the second corresponding to the specific product may be Dimension, Inspiron, or other brands. The first brand helps the public choose between companies, and the second brand helps the public choose between products. Putting two brands together strengthens the first brand and weakens the second brand. There is essentially only one real brand of Dell, and that is Dell. Compared with the first brand, the second brand is much weaker, but it is still more conducive to consumers' understanding and choice of products than the general product model.

We do not deny that brand diversification is an important way to increase market coverage, but primary and secondary branding is also an effective way, especially in the electronic field.

When answering reporters’ questions, Mr. Liu Jun, Lenovo’s vice president, argued: “Lenovo 1+1 is not completely unnecessary, but has become a channel brand.” Therefore, we raise the following questions for everyone to think about: Does Lenovo need a dedicated channel brand? Channel branding or product branding, which one is more important to a company?

We believe: Lenovo 1+1 is almost meaningless as a channel brand.

⑴The biggest role of a brand is to integrate products with similar styles to clearly distinguish them from other styles and corresponding products. So we have to ask, does Lenovo have so many channels that need to be integrated and differentiated? To what extent can the brand display of this channel guide consumers' shopping choices?

⑵ If channel characteristics can be displayed using product brands, is it necessary to establish a separate channel brand? Doesn’t this unnecessary branding only increase the cost of promotion?

⑶ Lenovo sells products, not channels. Why use a channel brand to interfere with the impact of the product brand on the market?

⑷Since Lenovo 1+1 can be used as a channel brand, why can’t it be used as a product brand? Is it a pity to give up a brand that has not shown signs of decline?

⑸Lenovo 1+1’s brand content has changed from products to channels, which can easily cause confusion in the public’s understanding of the Lenovo brand. Isn't this asking for trouble?

3. "Tianjiao", "Fengxing" and "Jiayue": multiple brands and multiple risks

The result of Lenovo's product brand integration is to eliminate "Lenovo 1+1" and retain "Lenovo 1+1". "Tianjiao", newly added "Fengxing" and "Jiayue". The trend of integration is very obvious, that is, changing from a single brand strategy to a multi-brand strategy. The original intention of integration may be as a senior person who has been immersed in the domestic home computer market for many years said: "If Lenovo still provides a single Lenovo 1+1 product to all consumers, it may be difficult to satisfy all consumers. To cover that special group of users, it is obviously not enough to use a separate Lenovo 1+1 brand.”

Lenovo’s brand diversification involves many risks for the following reasons:

1. Brand positioning should be based on customer characteristics rather than product performance. The motivation for Lenovo's brand adjustment this time was the expensive market research conducted by a consulting company. The result of the survey was that products with performance as the main buying point performed well in the market, so there was a re-division of product lines with product performance as the core. Anyone with common sense in marketing knows that the most important principle of market segmentation and brand integration is to focus on the customer, rather than on the performance of the company's products. The meaning of a brand is ultimately mainly reflected in the public's perception, understanding and trust, rather than in the product. Products can be similar, but brands can vary widely. Here, we cannot help but talk about Lenovo’s strategic misunderstandings. Perhaps due to reasons such as the company's history and the background of its leaders, Lenovo has always positioned itself in high technology, which was beneficial to Lenovo in the original domestic competition landscape. However, judging from the increasingly international competitive landscape and trends, Lenovo's positioning is not conducive to its participation in competition. Because Lenovo does not have high-tech advantages over its foreign rivals, and the essence of market competition is to compete for customers rather than competing on products. Brand positioning should focus on customers and position around the mainstream needs or valuable market segments of customers and the public. In this regard, we think Lenovo should learn from its rival Dell: strengthen services to win customers and reduce costs to ensure profits.

Dell's two successful experiences show the two most important "key success factors" in the computer industry.

2. Brand positioning should have unified division standards and should not be chaotic and disorderly. "Tianjiao" is positioned for fashion taste, "Fengxing" is positioned for computer gamers, and "Jiayue" is positioned for home computers. In fact, "Tianjiao" is positioned from the perspective of style, "Fengxing" is positioned from the perspective of technical grade, and "Jiayue" is positioned from the perspective of usage occasions. This multi-angle positioning strategy has caused the blurring of brand boundaries, which is not conducive for consumers to distinguish the style and characteristics of the brand.

3. It is much more difficult to create a new brand than to use an existing brand. Since "Jiayue" is positioned as a home computer, why not retain Lenovo 1+1? After all, creating a brand new brand is very difficult. What's more, Lenovo 1+1 is still a deeply rooted brand?

4. If Lenovo is not a core product brand, the Lenovo brand will be suspected of being ignored, and long-term efforts on the Lenovo brand may be in vain. Is it worth it?

5. Dell’s experience hints at the possibility that Lenovo’s “Tianjiao”, “Fengxing” and “Jiayue” will all become sub-brands in terms of their brand strength, while only Lenovo (Lenovo) will become sub-brands. ) can become a leading product brand. This possibility is best for Lenovo, because only Lenovo, which is a product brand rather than an organizational brand, can unify product brands such as "Tianjiao", "Fengxing" and "Jiayue". If Lenovo becomes the leader in product brands, Lenovo's brand strategy will improve greatly.

4. Lenovo brand internationalization: sailing against the current

There are two main methods of brand internationalization: one is "going with the current", that is, promoting successful brands in developed markets to less developed ones. National and regional markets. The second is to "sail against the current", that is, to promote brands that have succeeded in underdeveloped markets to developed countries and regional markets. From general experience, the former is relatively easy, while the latter is much more difficult. Lenovo's brand internationalization is like sailing against the current, and its steps are difficult. Liu Chuanzhi of Lenovo has elaborated on this point many times in public. In fact, it's not just Lenovo that's in trouble, it's also the case for companies in mainland China, and even for Taiwanese companies that entered the international market earlier. The experience of Acer (the ancient word for chess) computers is the most typical. Because Acer saw the huge value of the brand, it actively implemented the famous brand strategy in the international market. However, the effect was not very good, so it hesitated between creating a famous brand and OEM. The ones that are more successful in this regard are a very small number of Japanese companies, such as Honda and Sony. But they also made unremitting efforts for half a century. In comparison, Lenovo has a history of less than 20 years. The process of internationalization has just begun and the road is still far away. However, the "stable internationalization strategy" designed by Liu Chuanzhi for Lenovo is indeed ordinary but brilliant.

Lenovo’s internationalization has just begun because: 1. Some basic work has been done, such as Lenovo’s registration problem in other countries has been solved; 2. Some work has not yet been done, such as in The integration of the Lenovo brand in the Chinese market and how to consolidate Lenovo's consumer trust in the local market; third, some things have not yet been put on the agenda, such as how to solve the problem of personalized computer consumption needs in the international market.

In short, Lenovo, as one of China's flagship companies, has begun its difficult but promising internationalization process. I hope Liu Chuanzhi and his team will go well all the way, and that Lenovo's brand will be world-renowned.