Interview guest: Li Guangdou (famous brand strategy expert, founder of the brand competitiveness school, consultant of the CCTV advertising department, China's top ten planners, and a pioneer in China's event marketing)
Introduction to "Brand Dialogue": Brand Dialogue invites celebrities from all walks of life to analyze and study successful brand operation cases at home and abroad under the theme of brand, to serve as a reference for enterprises on the road to brand building, and to share brand wisdom together, *** Let’s discuss the future of the brand. Brand dialogue is a way of learning, especially for entrepreneurs, who need different voices and different concepts to inspire; brand dialogue is a platform for communication, where various thoughts, experiences and wisdom can be expressed Collide and share here.
Li Guangdou: my country proposed "brand strategy" for the first time in the "16th National Congress" report. Brand strategy is an important part of national strategy, and brand is an expression of national competitiveness. I proposed the concept of brand competitiveness in my book "Brand Competitiveness" and pointed out that brands are the source of national competitiveness.
I first proposed the concept of brand competitiveness at the end of 2003. It is now a critical moment for brand building. The brand awareness of Chinese enterprises still needs to be strengthened. Brand represents the competitiveness of a country and a region. In the selection of the 100 most valuable brands in the world, none of China was selected. This shows that China’s brand competitiveness is not yet strong, and Chinese entrepreneurs must have the courage and ambition to build brands.
Therefore, brands have extremely practical significance in China. Brands can be said to be an important magic weapon for enterprise development. According to statistics, the average profits of brand companies are 8% higher than those of pure manufacturing companies. In many industries, the top four brands alone account for 75% of the market share.
Li Guangdou: Brand is not a theory, but a practical science. Brand competitiveness is to guide practice and help Chinese companies create brands. If a company wants to create a brand, it must first know where the brand comes from. Brands are created by people and are spontaneous behaviors of enterprises. Brand is a passport to communicate with consumers, not a superior theory.
Currently, China's economy has reached a critical point. China cannot just produce and manufacture products, China also needs to build a world brand. Today, consumers lack the necessary loyalty to local brands. Consumers are only loyal to traditional consumer goods such as Moutai. However, in the high-tech field and in high value-added industries such as IT, automobiles, and aircraft, there is almost no place for Chinese brands.
Entrepreneurs must realize that brand is the relationship with consumers. Branding is an investment, not an expense. The brand awareness of Chinese consumers is already very strong, but the brand awareness of Chinese enterprises is relatively weak. Brand is not a tool to sell things, but the purpose of the enterprise. Enterprises must have brand management awareness among all employees. Li Ka-shing once said: Brand is something that is not shown on your company's balance sheet, invisible, but it is the most valuable thing of the company.
Li Guangdou: Western theory must be combined with Chinese practice. We know that the United States is the country with the most advanced marketing theory and practice. It has a history of more than 100 years. For example, Procter & Gamble was the first to propose and implement marketing. of. Western theories are step-by-step, but the Chinese market is advancing rapidly and the economy is growing at a rapid pace. Many Chinese companies have found that Western brand theories "cannot solve the fire near the water."
Chinese companies cannot copy Western theories. If we follow Western theories, it would take 10 years for Mengniu to become a brand, but Mengniu did it in 6 years. Western theories do not conform to Chinese practice, so we need to revise the theory, not the practice.
We have proposed a Chinese model of brand building. From insight into the true needs of consumers to brand differentiation, selection of benchmark companies, brand communication, etc., we have a complete set of effective theoretical systems.
Li Guangdou: Theory comes from practice, and comes from practice to practice. We use "interposition" to guide Guyue Longshan. In fact, marketing theorists all over the world are revising their own theories, such as Kotler's "horizontal marketing", Trout's "differentiation", and "blue ocean strategy". The practical source of "insertion" is the process of our consulting and planning. Another important source of ideas is Chinese philosophy, such as "jumping out of the three realms and not in the five elements" and so on.
Li Guangdou: Whether Western theory can solve China's problems, we should neither belittle ourselves nor be arrogant.
We know that market economy comes from the West, and even the country admits that China does not have the conditions for a market economy to emerge. However, the market economy has gradually matured in China. It can be said that under the current circumstances, Western theories are generally applicable in China. However, the Chinese people mainly learn marketing from the "technique" and use their strength in price and promotion. But many companies don’t know what marketing serves. Marketing actually serves the brand. It’s not that Western theory has failed in China, but it needs to be integrated with Chinese practice. The "insertion" strategy we proposed takes into account consumers' mental resources and local practice conditions.
Li Guangdou: I think it is a good thing that there is no unified point of view. For thousands of years, humans have not unified the definition of advertising and music, and any research is based on needs. The discipline of marketing has also emerged in recent years, and advertising does not even have a PhD degree.
Brand is a social phenomenon. The standard for evaluating the value of theory is to see whether "the theory is used consciously or unconsciously by enterprises in practice." Branding is a practical science, and there are many options for the development of any enterprise. I say that companies need to use brands to survive, but branding is not the only way for companies to survive, but branding is an important way for companies to survive longer. Why does Vanke live so long and have such a high brand reputation? That's because Vanke takes the lead in brand building. Whoever has brand awareness in an industry can do better, and the brand can also raise competition barriers.
The Chinese are overly superstitious about "techniques" and methods, and as a result, promotions and price wars are used everywhere. While using marketing techniques, P&G also carries out brand image building and long-term brand planning, so P&G can always maintain its leading position. However, many Chinese companies only use the brand as a stepping stone but do not maintain the brand, thus causing the brand to be short-lived. Therefore, brand is the strategy within the strategy, and brand strategy governs everything.
For example, Microsoft believes that talent is not the most important thing. When a personal brand threatens the corporate brand, Microsoft will ask the individual to leave. Brand is the most valuable asset of an enterprise. Brand is a lasting relationship with consumers. Brand requires that brand promises must be fulfilled and long-term stability of the brand is required.
Li Guangdou: If brand science is not integrated with corporate practice, it will be like "without skin, hair will be attached." Branding is not academic, but practical. Just like natural science requires the same conclusion to be drawn under the same conditions, social science requires that the same thing given to different people will produce completely different results. And the practice of branding cannot be repeated. When people ask Gates how to copy Microsoft, Gates wants 100 key people, and Coca-Cola wants its own trademark.
Brand is a practical science. Brand comes from management, economics, sociology, psychology and other disciplines. As the saying goes, "There is no stability without agriculture, and there is no wealth without workers." "Agriculture" is the product, "work" is the brand, the product is the carrier, and the brand is the foundation. The purpose of corporate training is to find ways to quickly build a brand and find ways to maintain the brand. The brand must be implemented and it must move from theory to practice.
Li Guangdou: If it takes at least ten years to be called a brand, then Mengniu is not a brand because Mengniu’s time is too short. But those Chinese time-honored brands have a history of hundreds of years and should be brands, but many of them are dying out. "A brand is a living fossil", and year is not a criterion for measuring a brand. When theory and practice conflict, it is necessary to revise theory rather than practice. I have a point of view: "China is the last virgin land in the world where brands can grow rapidly, and it is the last treasure land where brands can grow by leaps and bounds." Both Mengniu and Super Girl are products of China's special market.