[Abstract] This article studies the relationship between industrial clusters and regional brands, conducts an empirical analysis of the Chenghai toy industry cluster, and believes that the legal status of regional brands should be established and the identification and evaluation of regional brands should be constructed. system, set the access conditions for regional brands, and promote the healthy development of industrial clusters and regional economies.

[Keywords] Regional brand, industrial cluster, Chenghai Toys

Industrial cluster refers to the spatial agglomeration of a large number of interrelated enterprises and supporting institutions in a specific industrial field. The spatial agglomeration of industrial clusters gives cluster enterprises advantages in production costs, marketing costs, transportation costs, transaction costs, information costs and learning costs. The division of labor in clusters improves efficiency, competition promotes innovation, joint improvement and expansion of influence. So that the added value of cluster enterprises can be fully reflected.

However, the development of industrial clusters also faces some bottlenecks that need to be solved urgently, such as the lack of internal coordination mechanisms and external platforms, lack of cluster identity awareness and innovation motivation, etc. This not only restricts the healthy development of industrial clusters, but also greatly shortens the life cycle of industrial clusters. Building a regional brand with theoretical and practical significance is an effective way to break through these bottlenecks.

1. Regional brand strategy of industrial clusters

1. Growth path of regional brands

Many companies have experienced the growth from OEM to corporate brand process. Brand clusters in the region reveal a good trend in the development of industrial clusters. Compared with single brands, they are more conducive to the market's preference and recognition of cluster enterprises, and have a positive role in promoting the development of regions and industrial clusters. On this basis, promoted by the local government or industry organizations, with the participation of most enterprises in the industrial cluster, and through the relevant legal procedures, a brand with legal status, unified form and content, and a public significance - a region is formed. brand.

2. The connotation and characteristics of regional brands

Regional brands are a kind of public resource. They are created with industrial clusters as the carrier and regional history and culture as the carrier. Background: Taking international registered trademarks as the way of existence, market-oriented operations as the basic model, and integrating and optimizing resources and unifying standards and specifications as means to promote the improvement of the international comprehensive competitiveness of industrial clusters. Regional brands have the following characteristics:

(1) Have legal status. It is a legally registered trademark with a regional or local name plus characteristic products, and is an intellectual property protected by law.

(2) Fairness and compounding in use. It is a public resource within a certain range, owned by government-authorized organizations or industry management organizations, and is shared by approved users. When used, it is more of a regional brand and A combination of corporate brands and product brands.

(3) Carrying rich regional information. It takes regional culture as its soul, and through the inheritance and exploration of regional culture, history and traditions, it extracts the cultural value of industrial clusters and is recognized and promoted by society.

Cooperative marketing requires enterprises in industrial clusters to achieve complementary resource advantages, enhance market development, penetration and competitiveness, share marketing expenses through mutual cooperation, and coordinate marketing communication, brand building, product promotion, etc.

II. Identification and operation of regional brands

1. Evaluation system of regional brands

As an important symbol of the development level of a regional industrial cluster, regional brands It needs to be evaluated through certain indicators and set certain entry thresholds to maintain the authority and credibility of regional brands. According to the construction goals of regional brands and the significance of existing economic indicators, the following indicators should be used as evaluation indicators for regional brands of industrial clusters (with industrial clusters as accounting units):

(1) Industrial cluster related The industry contribution rate indicator refers to the proportion and growth rate of the output value of the industries and services that constitute the cluster to the regional economic total, and the proportion and growth rate of industrial tax revenue, employment, etc. to the corresponding regional total.

(2) The market share index of industrial cluster-related products, that is, the proportion and growth rate of the domestic market share and export volume of industrial cluster-related products in the total export volume of similar products.

(3) Evaluation of the scientific and technological innovation capabilities of industrial clusters, including the composition of scientific and technological personnel in the cluster, the number of patent applications and authorizations, and the scientific and technological investment of enterprises and government finances, etc.

(4) Evaluation of the sustainable development capabilities of industrial clusters, including land consumption and energy consumption per unit output of the industry.

(5) Evaluation of the strategic development status of industrial clusters driven by famous brands, including the number of national and provincial famous brand products of enterprises and products in the cluster, the number of Chinese well-known trademarks and provincial famous trademarks, the number of national inspection-free products, registration The total number of trademarks and the number of foreign registered trademarks, etc.

2. Operation and management of regional brands

(1) The nature of regional brand management institutions. Brand management agencies are independent corporate legal persons, have independent civil rights, bear independent civil responsibilities, and are subject to government supervision. Brand management agencies can be intermediaries with certain authority and credibility, such as industry associations or chambers of commerce.

(2) Basic functions of brand management agencies. The brand management agency determines the brand's positioning, application scope, cooperation planning, image design and access conditions based on regional economic development plans and industrial policies. It is responsible for creating, maintaining and managing the brand, reviewing and approving the qualifications for using the brand, and maintaining the cluster. The legitimate rights and interests of domestic brand enterprises, assist in combating counterfeiting and brand infringement, and be responsible for the promotion and dissemination of regional brands and the development of brand value.

(3) Management of regional brands. The management of regional international brands includes daily management and strategic management. Daily management mainly includes the supervision of the standardized use of trademarks by member companies, the implementation of various standards for industrial clusters, the guarantee of service platforms, etc. Strategic management is mainly reflected in the construction of core products, core technologies, core businesses and core operating capabilities of industrial clusters, and the cultivation and improvement of regional international brand competitiveness.

(4) The role and function of the government. As an important model for regional economic development, local governments play a very important role in the process of building regional brands, which is mainly reflected in formulating industrial development plans, promulgating industrial development support policies, establishing market competition mechanisms that comply with the laws of market economy, and The institutional system provides basic and guaranteed information, R&D, standards, logistics, talents and other public facilities platform construction for industrial clusters.

3. Regional brand building practice in Chenghai toy industry cluster

The famous American management scientist Michael Porter proposed that the success of a country does not come from the success of a certain industry, but from the success of a certain industry. From vertically and horizontally intertwined industrial clusters. As an effective development strategy model to improve regional competitiveness, industrial clusters have received widespread attention at home and abroad. The development of industrial clusters must be linked to the construction of regional brands.

1. The development path of Chenghai toy industry cluster

The output value of Chenghai toy and gift industry accounts for more than half of the total regional industrial output value, reaching nearly 15 billion yuan in 2006, ranking first in the region There are more than 3,000 companies engaged in the production of toys and gifts. It is the most important toy and gift production and export base in the country. It has formed a professional division of labor in raw material supply, styling design, mold processing, parts manufacturing, assembly molding, packaging and decoration, product sales, and transportation. A collaborative production system forms an industrial cluster with a certain scale and influence.

The development of Chenghai’s toy industry is due to two factors in terms of regional characteristics: First, profound cultural accumulation. The second is rich humanistic resources.

2. Chenghai toy regional brand construction

Chenghai District has taken various measures to build a regional brand for the toy industry cluster. Chenghai International Toys and Gifts Expo has been held for nine consecutive years and has become a business card and window for the development of industrial clusters. It has cultivated a number of leading enterprises such as "Audi" and "Huawei" and nationally known trademarks and national famous brand products. The output value of more than a dozen enterprises has exceeded 100 million yuan, and the industrial scale has continued to expand. Focusing on technological innovation and intellectual property protection, it has become one of the national patent work pilots. Strengthen cooperation with university research institutes. Create an industrial public service platform, and set up service institutions such as a toy process engineering technology research and development center, a toy testing center, and a patented technology market. Establish industry associations and formulate industry rights protection conventions to promote industry self-regulation and self-restraint. After years of joint efforts by the government, industry and enterprises, the district has been awarded the title of "China Toys and Gifts City" and has been identified as one of the pilot projects for creating regional international brands in Guangdong Province.

3. Some inspirations

The regional brand building of industrial clusters is crucial to the development of industrial clusters. The development of Chenghai toy industry cluster and the current upgrade bottlenecks are of great significance to us. It is instructive to think about further standardized construction of regional brands.

(1) We must actively utilize the accumulation effect of industrial clusters. It takes decades or even hundreds of years for a single corporate brand, and the economic scale needs to reach billions of dollars, to build an influential international brand. However, an industrial cluster with an output value of tens of billions of thousands of companies is equivalent to an International multinational enterprises can greatly narrow the gap with international brands by bundling the enterprises in the cluster together through regional brand ties and using their special functions to reintegrate the industrial cluster.

(2) The legal status of regional brands should be implemented. According to my country's original relevant laws, trademarks cannot contain place names. After joining the WTO, the trademark law should be revised to achieve integration with relevant international laws, so that collective regional brands can achieve extensive domestic and international registration and obtain protection under national laws.

(3) Certain access conditions should be set for the registration and approval of regional brands. Generally, corporate trademarks are registered in order of priority. As long as they meet the relevant requirements and there is no duplication or innuendo, they will be approved. However, in addition to the uniqueness of the region, regional brands should be awarded to industrial clusters, with an intermediary organization or industry organization or leading enterprise as the owner, and certain access standards should be set, especially the access threshold for economic indicators. Ensure the authority and credibility of regional brands.

(4) Strengthen the maintenance and management of regional brands. In particular, the illegal and infringing behavior of "free riding" must be seriously investigated and dealt with through the law enforcement of relevant departments. Due to the legal status of regional brands, companies in the same region that have not joined the brand organization cannot use regional brands to prevent duplicity and counterfeiting, prevent the lemon effect of some maliciously competing companies or products with substandard quality, and damage the reputation of regional brands.

The construction of regional brands of industrial clusters is a new economic development measure. It is a highly professional, technical and systematic work. It must adhere to the principle of government guidance and promotion, and enterprise-led participation. With the support of relevant standardization strategies, intellectual property strategies and technological innovation strategies, there must be long-term planning and clear and standardized operating methods, and regional development can be promoted by integrating regional economic, cultural and historical resources.

References:

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