In the 1980s and early 1990s, "brand" was largely just a buzzword in China. Many Chinese companies start their own brand building journey by imitating the advertising methods of established brands. Building brand awareness—the number of consumers who are aware of a brand—is the initial focus. Many Chinese companies simply believe that as long as the number of consumers familiar with their brands rises, they can rest easy. However, they soon realized that creating brand value through investment in the brand meant more than just raising awareness. Changes in the market environment, competition landscape and consumer behavior have brought many new challenges to China's brand creation work.

Challenges of Branding in China

With the increasing geographical scope and the emergence of new sales channels, more and more consumers in less developed areas can afford the products that in the past were only available in large-scale markets. Products only available in cities. This means that companies must further strengthen their brand investment to cover a broader market. Likewise, due to the diversity of the Chinese market, companies must carefully study various consumer groups and tailor brand plans for consumer groups in each region. If necessary, a business may even need to focus on a relatively small, specific customer segment. At the same time, as new sales channels (such as supermarkets, convenience stores, online shopping, telemarketing, etc.) and consumer interfaces (SMS, direct mail, etc.) continue to emerge, consumers can continue to obtain New and different shopping experience. Therefore, in brand building, companies need to consider more carefully how to better utilize these factors so that they can provide consumers with the best consumption experience as possible.

More intense competition According to a report from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce of China, the number of trademark applications in 2003 reached 405,000, an increase of 26.4% from the previous year. This figure reflects the rapid growth of Chinese brands since the mid-1990s. And due to the increasing number of competitors, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out. The same growth is also reflected in the investment in advertising by individual companies: China has now surpassed China and become the second largest TV media advertising market in the world after the United States. Every year, many companies compete for prime-time TV advertising time on CCTV. Therefore, in order to stand out in such a fierce market, companies have no choice but to increase investment while working hard to ensure the effectiveness of media placement.

Growing Mature Consumers Chinese consumers, especially those in big cities who have access to many brands, are becoming increasingly mature when making purchase decisions. These consumers usually have high expectations and will do their homework and make comparisons before deciding to make a purchase, especially for big-ticket items that involve a large amount of money. To attract these consumers, companies must be able to deliver both emotional and functional benefits. They not only need to provide a super "brand experience" including advertising, but also need to focus on product performance, the value of sales advice and the quality of after-sales service. For industries such as home appliances and automobiles, the importance of service is particularly evident. Now, consumers will clearly ask manufacturers and their dealers what kind of services they will provide before making a purchase decision. Mature consumers are increasingly placing their trust in brands that not only make promises but also deliver on them. Blindly publishing advertisements and promises cannot effectively allow consumers to develop from cognition to trial, and then eventually become "brand advocates" who are willing to introduce the advantages of their favorite brands to their relatives and friends.

Due to these challenges, whether a company can have an in-depth understanding of how to achieve excellent brand value through brand investment is crucial to whether the company can remain invincible in brand competition.

Achieving Brand Value through Brand Investment Branding can be a particularly complex topic. Many experienced brand experts and business managers have been trying to understand the true meaning of a brand and how investment in a brand can ultimately be transformed into brand value. Different people will have different views.

However, Boston Consulting Group believes that ultimately realizing value through brand investment requires a systematic approach.

Brand Strategy The first step companies need to take is to develop a clear brand strategy for each of their brands and their brand portfolio. Brand: Civic responsibility cannot be ignored. A business needs to have a very good understanding of its target customer base, including their preferences, dreams, expectations, needs, and dissatisfactions. Customers are diverse, so it is critical to segment customers with the same characteristics into a group. With a deep understanding of customers, companies can position their brands, that is, define their commitment to target customer groups.

Positioning is an art that defines how consumers view a company's brand from a rational and emotional perspective. The connotation of a brand is far greater than a trademark or a product. A brand is a true promise to consumers in terms of technology, performance and emotional benefits to consumers. Positioning is the process of identifying this commitment. There are quite a few Chinese companies that only focus on product features and performance advantages. Companies that are building strong brands in China have made (and maintained) commitments that connect a deep understanding of consumer desires and motivations and translate that understanding into products that truly connect with them emotionally. Brand promise. This emotional connection allows these powerful brands to successfully develop loyal customers who are willing to buy more products and often pay higher prices. Some of your most loyal customers are also willing to become brand advocates - telling their friends and family about the various benefits of the brand.

If a company has many brands, it should define the overall brand portfolio strategy - how each independent brand should be positioned, how each independent brand is related to each other, and how to define a parent brand , and be able to unify each sub-brand under the support of the parent brand. Brand Drivers Having the right brand strategy is only the beginning of brand value creation. Sergio Zyman, the former marketing officer of Coca-Cola Company, wrote in his famous "The End of Marketing As We Know It": Brand strategy is about promising, delivering, and sometimes overdelivering. , and finally the concept. Successful brands deliver on their brand promise through a set of brand drivers.

There are many ways to deliver on your brand promise. A brand typically has five core brand drivers. The first is the product, which is the key component of the brand, including innovation, design, features, quality and credibility; the second is the service, when customers buy a product, they also buy related services; third The third is advertising. A brand needs to convey its technical, functional and emotional advantages through various channels of advertising; the fourth is customer relationship management (CRM). The cost of attracting new customers has become very expensive nowadays, but if a certain If customers can become loyal customers, the value obtained through brand investment will rise sharply. Therefore, customer relationship management has become an important factor driving brand value; fifth is the customer's "comprehensive experience" of the brand, and the comprehensive experience is reflected in the customer Every contact interface with the product includes the function and reliability of the product, but the "comprehensive experience" is by no means limited to this. It also includes the design, layout and atmosphere of the retail store, contact and communication with sales staff, service hotline and any possible contact with customers in their daily lives.

Each brand driver requires investment. Deciding how much to invest overall, how much to invest in each brand driver, and how to effectively utilize the investment in each brand driver are core contents in the brand creation process. The best companies often have a wealth of experience, tools, methods and data to make decisions. At the same time, the ability to make correct, fact-based investment decisions is also the core of realizing brand value through brand investment.

Brand Equity Brand equity is a term used to define the strength of a brand and is the result of investment in each brand driver.

PepsiCo entered the Chinese market in the early 1980s. In the late 1990s, Pepsi adopted "Aspirations for Infinity" as its positioning in China to appeal to young people. Pepsi believes that "desire for unlimited" will resonate with young people's expectations for the future - more independence, more freedom, more opportunities... Pepsi uses two methods to build its brand around this positioning. First, it launched a series of television ads featuring the most popular stars in entertainment, mostly in the form of music videos. Secondly, it has launched a series of marketing activities in major markets, such as sponsoring the Chinese Football League, street basketball games, campus concerts, etc. All of these activities target young people—Pepsi's core customer base. Pepsi's brand-building efforts paid off as it successfully gained a larger market share among the youth market, the main consumer group for Coke products.

Create an extraordinary brand experience Not long ago, perhaps no one would have believed that Chinese consumers would be willing to spend 30 yuan for a cup of coffee. But just a few years later, Starbucks in China, as in other countries, proved once again that it was possible—many Chinese were willing to do it, and the numbers were rising. What is the magic of the Starbucks brand?

Starbucks Chairman and CEO Schultz explained: "At Starbucks, our product is not only delicious coffee, but also what we call the 'Starbucks Experience': in our stores There is an inviting, fulfilling atmosphere that is not only comfortable but also stylish and elegant. Starbucks not only represents good coffee, there is a romantic coffee experience with a sense of warmth and enjoyment..." The strong brand of Starbucks. The positioning comes from the Starbucks experience that can give the "five senses" a romantic feeling: the first is the sense of smell, Starbucks uses 100% Arabica coffee beans, and you cannot smell the second fragrance in any Starbucks chain store; the second is the sense of sight , every Starbucks chain store will give you the same visual impression - unified logo, color, furniture and design, all tastefully designed to create a comfortable, elegant and pleasant atmosphere. In the eyes of consumers, Shanghai Huaihai There is no difference between the Starbucks on the street and the Starbucks on the Champs Elysées in Paris. The third thing is hearing. The wonderful sound of making Espresso and the sound of metal shovel rubbing coffee beans make you feel that everything is specially for you. The fourth is the sense of touch. The uniformity of the materials of cups, cup covers, paper towels, and furniture makes Starbucks a comfortable social gathering place outside of work and home. The last is taste. 100% Arabica coffee beans give you a For an authentic Italian taste, its "18 to 24 second rule" guarantees you'll have freshly hot coffee whenever you want it. Starbucks' success in China, as it does in other countries around the world, is a testament to the brand value that can be achieved by creating a unique brand experience.

Organizing for brand management

The companies mentioned above have each built distinctive brands in unique ways, but they all have one thing in common: organizing around the brand. . Many companies in China are still more content to organize around products, regions or channels, and therefore do not pay enough attention to brand management in the company's various activities. Companies that have established strong brands in China, such as Motorola, BMW, KFC, Pepsi and Starbucks, have made brand management the centerpiece of their companies. They do not solely delegate brand work to marketing departments or advertising agencies, because they recognize that formulating brand strategy and investment decisions on various brand drivers must include all aspects of the company - research and development, product development, production, marketing , sales and distribution. The best companies organize around the brand to ensure that implementation in every region and every consumer touchpoint is consistent with the brand strategy and that innovations consistent with the core brand positioning are continuously generated. Therefore, organizing for brand management is one of the most important lessons learned by companies that are achieving superior brand value.

In China's complex and increasingly competitive market, achieving excellent brand value through brand investment will become the key to the success or failure of an enterprise. This is where the success or failure of the brand campaign lies. Increasing production capacity, reducing costs, launching new products and broadening sales channels are necessary, but not sufficient. While these are high demands in themselves, they should not diminish the importance of investing wisely in building a strong brand. Because only in this way can companies truly win the hearts of Chinese customers