Get Rid Of The "Smile Curve" And Let The Brand Represent China.

Macy's

A former Japanese Prime Minister said in a speech that TOYOTA was my left face and Panasonic was my right face. The importance of these two brands to Japan can be seen.

But in China, few industries have produced a brand that can represent the face of the country.

At the two ends of the famous smile curve, design and brand mean higher added value, but in China, most of the time, the situation is "smile curve", and design and brand are hidden under the shadow of manufacturing.

Stuck in the trap of low-end industries?

Even if you enter the big selling place such as Messi and Lord of Buddha, you can also see the "made in China" commodity, but unfortunately, China made its own contribution to the prosperity of the world market, and its brand has not been able to "get in the room" and enjoy courtesy in the international market, but it has been rejected by almost all the top marketing outlets. The "made in China" that is not big enough often appears in the international market, in 99 American branches and low-end supermarkets.

Middle Huaihai Road

Chinese brands, which are being squeezed out abroad, share the same fate in China's high-end shopping malls. You can see all kinds of high-end brands such as LV, Prada and other high-end brands in Beijing Wangfujing street, Shanghai Nanjing West Road and Huaihai Middle Road, but it is still hard to see the figure of Chinese brands. A head of clothing business in Ningbo, Zhejiang, hopes to enter a high-end shopping mall in Shanghai, but has been flatly rejected because the location of the mall is high-end luxury international famous brand. {page_break}

"Shopping centres are profit driven, and there is nothing wrong with that. But Chinese enterprises need more brand awareness to enhance their value as an international brand. Yu Ying, associate professor of Antai Institute of economics and management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University believes.

Over the past thirty years, Chinese enterprises have been mainly engaged in undertaking foreign trade orders year after year, working overtime to produce processed products, and exporting to foreign countries, earning "hard money". This kind of hard work is sometimes accompanied by the cost of resources and environment.

The controversial Foxconn is also at the bottom of the smile curve. An American market research agency has provided such data: Apple Corp's iPad computer sells for $499 and costs $260, while Foxconn assembles it at a cost of 11.2 US dollars, accounting for only 4% of its cost and a little more than 2% of its selling price.

According to the survey, China Export enterprises China has only 20% of its own brand, and its own brand exports account for about 1% of the total exports of the country. In the large-scale export of foreign-funded enterprises, China's real income is not high.

"Because the foreign side controls the most profitable design, research and development, brand and other links, excessive reliance on foreign capital enterprises' export and processing trade can not only bring corresponding benefits to the Chinese economy, but will create a hollowing trend in the domestic industry." Zhang Changlei, Deputy Secretary General of the brand China Industry Alliance and chairman of behams international public relations company, believes that this mode of economic growth may hold China's economy in the trap of low-end industries.

In light of R & D, light design, light brand and light service, the smile curve has turned into a "smile curve" in the Chinese enterprises that are only immersed in manufacturing.

Behind the "smile curve"

At the two ends of the famous smile curve, design and brand mean higher added value.

Although China is already the second largest economy in the world, Interbrand, the brand research institute, released its "global best brand list" in 2010. Chinese brands are still nowhere on the list of the best 100 brands in the world.

In Yu Ying's view, a brand must become a strong domestic brand if it wants to become an influential brand in the world. However, China's current economic structure and distribution structure make the domestic consumer market at an inappropriate level, and consumers can not afford to pay the premium of the brand.

Although China's luxury market is also growing, this shows that China's distribution mechanism is uneven, and although the growth of the Chinese market is high, its share in the global consumer market is still too small.

On the other hand, Ai Feng, a brand expert, also believes that this is beneficial. Independent brand The growth of laws and regulations system is not perfect, but also hampered the enthusiasm of enterprises to invest in brands. No matter macro system or micro system, there is no mechanism for the growth and development of independent brands. Large state-owned enterprises do not attach importance to brand, private enterprises often have the feeling of "no mother's children".

In fact, many enterprises know the benefits of brand creation to enterprises, but the journey is too difficult.

"The state should create an innovative environment and support enterprises with technological reputation." Yu Ying believes that, for example, in capital market access, we should give more support to enterprises with core technology and brand. Only in this way can we promote the emergence of independent knowledge products and brands.

According to his understanding, there are quite a few listed companies in the domestic stock market, which are dependent on state monopoly enterprises. The enterprises that make their own brands are hard to get the support of the capital market. In foreign countries, a commercial brand is built with an average investment of more than 50 million dollars.

He believes that the reason why the United States can become the world's first technology and economic power is bound to have a world's most functioning capital market system. The Nasdaq stock market has produced representatives of new economy and innovative enterprises such as Microsoft, Intel and apple. China's capital market should also support more brand enterprises with core technology. {page_break}

　　 Brand power How does the road go?

The Chinese enterprises in the "low smile" curve of low profit making are the trend of the times. Making China into China is the only way. Looking back at the history of economic development, this shift is indeed very difficult, but it is by no means an impossible one.

In fact, Western Europe and the United States have taken this road. Asia's Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea have gone through this road. The process of transformation of these countries and regions has experienced pain, but the final result has been more successful.

For example, the United States basically completed the industrial revolution around 1900 and became the largest and strongest manufacturing center in the world. With the industrialization of Japan and later Korea and Taiwan, the United States gradually lost its competitiveness in many manufacturing industries. However, since then, the US economy has been quietly undergoing another revolution. The computer and software industries, as the representative of the information and communication technology industry, have suddenly come to the fore, profoundly changing the economic structure of the United States, thoroughly refreshing the economic outlook of the United States, and continuing to be the leader of the global economy.

Look at Interbrand's list of the best brands in the world in 2010. The US technology brand continues to take the lead in the charts. IBM, Microsoft, Google, Intel and HP occupy half of the top ten. Apple (seventeenth) has surged 37% of its brand value due to its well controlled information dissemination and continued hot debate with the launch of new products.

"Do Chinese people always spend too much money on resources and work hard?" Therefore, we need a brand revolution! "In the view of Ai Feng, the brand revolution is not to overthrow and exclude foreign brands, not to complain that consumers are not patriotic, but to change their own lives, change themselves and improve themselves.

For example, in terms of quality, Chinese products have not yet got rid of "low end manufacturing", and Chinese famous brand products are often regrettable defects in reliability. Technically, manufacturing equipment is mostly imported by foreign countries, and manufacturing technology lacks independent intellectual property rights. The phenomenon of "Shanzhai" in the whole country has exposed China's weakness in intellectual property rights. From a market perspective, there are no sales channels in the international market.

Ai Feng believes that China's brands include national brand, regional brand, industrial brand, enterprise brand and product brand. Their rise in the world is the most important lever and the most important task and the most important symbol of China's development in the next 30 years.