[Abstract] Competition among enterprises will not only be competition between domestic enterprises, but competition on a larger scale, and the focus of competition will also be focused on brands. Brand extension is an important strategy that has been widely used in many countries. However, the time for Chinese enterprises to fully participate in market competition is still short, and due to various reasons such as institutional, cognitive, and operational levels, the brand awareness, understanding of brand marketing, and brand management in the domestic business community are still in the exploratory stage. . This article starts from the current situation of my country's brands, analyzes the problems in the development process of my country's brands, especially the many deficiencies in the brand strategies of Chinese companies, explores their causes, and gives suggestions and opinions.
[Keywords] Brand brand strategy, brand positioning, brand personality
With the increasing trend of economic globalization, the new economy is surging. The "new economy" is mainly characterized by information technology and network technology. "The connotation and denotation of modern brands have undergone qualitative changes. It has been given increasingly rich and extensive meanings, and has become a complex information identification system. It represents the company's products, the company's important intangible assets and the company's image. The power of a brand is mainly reflected in the fact that it is based on quality, technological content and advanced culture. Relying on the advantages of this technology and culture, brand products establish familiar and cordial connections with consumers, thus Have a larger market and can earn much higher profits than non-branded products.
1. Current situation of brand development in my country
Market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and companies are gradually realizing the important role of brands in market competition. Chinese enterprises have gradually entered the era of brand competition, and brand competition has taken a qualitative leap in our country: my country's most valuable brands have realized the transition from product brands to corporate brands. However, the current situation of brand development in our country is not optimistic, and there is still a long way to go compared to world brands.
1. The gap between Chinese brands and world brands. Brand is an important intangible asset of a company. The quality and added value embodied by the brand have become important reasons for consumers to purchase. There is a huge gap between Chinese brands and world brands, which is reflected in the following: First, world famous brands have reached a monopoly position in the market, but they still maintain high growth based on high levels. Secondly, the operating profits of world brands have grown steadily, and our profit growth lags far behind the growth of sales revenue. Furthermore, the world's brand revenue mainly comes from overseas, while our country's revenue is mainly domestic. A typical example is the clothing industry. In the international market, 90% of the clothing is produced in China, but we do not have a famous brand and can only earn processing fees. Although China has become an undisputed manufacturing power, and the output and quality of many products have become globally competitive, a large number of companies do OEM for international famous brands. In the international market, Chinese products are equivalent to cheap and low-quality products. There has been no fundamental change, and the situation of weak brand competitiveness has not fundamentally changed.
2. The current situation of my country’s brands. First, there is a lack of high-level, high-quality, and large-scale internationally renowned brands. Our country's economy is developing rapidly. The output of a considerable number of products has ranked among the top in the world, but the value created ranks behind other major exporting countries. The reason is that there are too few well-known brands. The scale of industrial organization represents the international competitiveness of an enterprise and is reflected by industry or product concentration, that is, the proportion of the output or factor input of the largest enterprises in a certain industry in the market to the entire industry factor index. The higher the concentration, the The stronger the brand competitiveness. As market competition intensifies and deepens, brands are increasingly concentrated. Judging from the statistical results in recent years, the scale of my country's well-known brands is getting larger and larger.
Second, domestic brands present weak competition in the domestic market. Since the 1990s, almost all the world's famous multinational companies have poured into our country. With their own brand advantages, financial strength and strong technology, these large companies are marching into our country's commodity market and unabashedly launching positive attacks on our companies and brands. Attack, its market share increases sharply at a rate of about 10 every year. In the domestic market, international famous brands from developed countries fill every corner of the market.
The competition of foreign capital in the Chinese market is essentially the competition of brands in the market, and Chinese brands are facing severe challenges. Most Chinese companies and commodity brands were squeezed out before they had time to take necessary protective measures. Some companies are struggling. More and more Chinese brands are disappearing from the market and falling into their own homes. The reason for this is mainly that state-owned enterprises have a weak brand concept and have not taken necessary preventive measures against foreign products entering and occupying our market on a large scale. Domestic brands are facing a huge impact from foreign brands with advanced technology, reliable quality, high reputation and strong fashion.
Third, brand loss and counterfeit infringement are serious. When Chinese companies have little awareness of brand protection, they rush to register Chinese export brand trademarks abroad, hindering the entry of genuine Chinese products while enjoying the benefits brought by Chinese brands, resulting in serious loss of Chinese brands. In addition, the proliferation of some domestic counterfeit brand products has caused Chinese companies and brands to lack credibility. The Chinese people are worried about domestic products, and the seriousness of the brand loss is staggering. We have lost the pass to enter the market, the long-term development and protection of the enterprise in the market, and the establishment of the brand image.
Fourth, the concept of brand strategy is vague. They do not have a comprehensive and mature concept of brand strategy, and regard brand creation as advertising. They simply pursue brand awareness and ignore the construction and management of other and even more important aspects of the brand. Think of brand equity simply as the awareness of your brand. Focusing only on brand awareness and neglecting brand reputation, blindly relying on advertising to become famous is tantamount to seeking a fish in a tree. Even if you become famous, it will be like a soap bubble, swelling and bursting only very quickly.
2. Research on the causes of the current situation of brand crisis in Chinese enterprises
1. The brand awareness of Chinese enterprises is weak. In the process of Sino-foreign cooperation, many companies are greedy for immediate profits and are unwilling to create their own brands. They would rather pay to rent other people's brands. Many foreign companies rely on this strategy to gradually make their brands enter people's homes in the Chinese market. And our company is invisibly promoting other people's brands (such as Coca-Cola). We already live in a brand era, but there are still too many companies in China that still focus on product concepts and ignore the creation of brands. There are still many "laymans" in brand management. Many companies generally believe that building a brand is a long process, and the investment is to make a wedding dress for people. They cannot wait until the day of harvest. The weak brand awareness leads to the company only earning a small amount of processing fees. 2. Treat brand strategy as a short-term behavior and lack long-term strategic planning. Brand building is a long-term process that requires persistent cultivation. However, due to the personnel appointment mechanism, operators want to pursue greater economic benefits in a short period of time during their tenure and are unwilling to make long-term investments in brand building. The result is that haste makes waste, causing immeasurable harm to the enterprise. Or potential losses and troubles. Under this mechanism, the development prospects of the brand can be imagined.
3. Brand competition relies mainly on price wars and neglects to improve its core competitiveness. Among my country's brands, most companies rely on price wars, which have evolved into vicious competition. Due to thin profit margins, companies have difficulty in innovating technology, improving quality, and upgrading products. Brand value has plummeted in price wars one after another, ultimately leading to the defeat of many well-known brands in disorderly market competition. A real brand is not created by cutting prices, nor is its vitality maintained by cutting prices. In contrast, successful brands rarely fluctuate frequently in price. High quality is the fundamental guarantee for creating a world-famous brand. Quality is the life of the brand and the source of competitiveness.
4. Lack of scientific and efficient brand management. Companies that already have famous brand products do not pay attention to consolidating their position in the famous brand market, and lack the advantages to protect product quality and reputation. As a result, the status of famous brands declines, and foreign brands take advantage of the opportunity. Chinese enterprises lack marketing functions and capabilities, have incomplete marketing organizational structures, lack necessary marketing means to promote product brands, and do not pay attention to using advertising to increase brand awareness. Moreover, many products lack new ideas, and existing brand-name products are just extensions of the past.
3. Enlightenment and suggestions of brand strategy for Chinese enterprises
1. Implementing brand strategy is an inevitable requirement for the development of Chinese enterprises due to market competition. For Chinese companies, it is unwise to avoid or ignore brand strategy. The absence of world brands will not only make enterprises less competitive, but more seriously, it will ultimately make the entire country's economy lose its competitiveness. The developed countries in the world still regard China as a cheap assembly workshop and sales hypermarket in their economic positioning. If we don’t seize the time to grow into a world-class brand, we may even be deprived of the opportunity to serve as a processing workshop for the world.
2. Learn from the successful experience of international commercial brands and actively explore brand strategies suitable for its own development. It is inevitable to learn from advanced experience from world brands, but we cannot copy them completely. After all, China's national conditions determine the development of Chinese enterprises. Chinese companies should also actively explore and find brand strategies suitable for their own development while learning from the advanced experiences of other countries.
3. The importance of incorporating strategic management into corporate management. Although my country's brand enterprises have taken many measures to improve management efficiency in the management process, most of them are carried out within the enterprise or within the enterprise's departments, without considering it from the perspective of the entire economic resource alliance. Most enterprises still do not understand the management of alliance enterprises, let alone the current situation abroad. The traditional departmental functions within the enterprise can no longer adapt to the current business environment, and there is an urgent need to reform the management concept.
4. Have the courage to carry out brand innovation and take the road of brand development with Chinese characteristics. Brand innovation is inevitable for social and economic development. As long as the socio-economic environment is developing and changing, people's demand characteristics are becoming diversified, and social fashions are changing, there will be no one-and-done brand. Only by constantly designing brands that meet the needs of the times can brands have vitality. Brand value is a part that is highly related to culture. If Chinese wisdom and the essence of Chinese culture are injected into brand value, we will have priceless effects. Whether Chinese cultural elements can be transformed into the value of Chinese brands is a major challenge, but this is an important strategic goal that is worth trying and worth doing. In brand building, we must turn China's most valuable things into brand assets, so that we can become unique in the world and have our own personality. We want to transform from China's time-honored brands to internationally competitive international brands. This path we choose requires not only learning important Western professional methods and important management experience, but also using Chinese Kung Fu. If we do this, we can transcend, and we can be dedicated to the world's community of nations.
In short, from our analysis of the development of Chinese corporate brands, we found that Chinese companies’ knowledge and understanding of brands is still at the perception stage. If they want to truly keep pace with world-class brand “aircraft carriers” or There is still a long way to go to surpass them. After all, the growth and maturity of a brand does not happen overnight. It requires the accumulation of time and experience, and it also requires reference and learning.
References:
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