Foreign Trade Enterprises Want To Take Advantage Of "Brand Wings" To Fly Higher

The most important clothing At the professional exhibition Dusseldorf Fashion Show in Germany, models were showing in Ningbo enterprise Self designed clothing.

　　 Core tips

"Third rate enterprises sell products, second rate enterprises sell technology, and first-class enterprises sell brand ”。

In the current international competition, whoever masters the brand will master the source of profits; Whoever owns the brand will have the right to speak in integrating the industrial chain. Without a brand, we can only stoop to the bottom of the "smile curve", work for others and earn meager "hard money".

In recent years, Ningbo has actively built an international and ministerial, provincial, municipal and county export brand cultivation system. Up to now, there are 20 export famous brands that the Ministry of Commerce has focused on cultivating and developing, 104 export famous brands in Zhejiang, 125 export famous brands in Ningbo, and 133 county (city) and district level export famous brands in the city.

Although the city's export brand work has achieved some results, there are still a considerable number of foreign trade enterprises without brand awareness. According to the data of the Municipal Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, there are less than 5000 enterprises with overseas registered trademarks among the 11000 enterprises with export performance in the city. Ningbo has a long way to go on the road of accelerating the strategy of promoting trade through brands.

　　 Stories of Two Winners

Yaotai Electric Appliance:

Hire "foreign shooters" to promote their own brands

At the beginning of the establishment of Ningbo Yaotai Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd., the export market was limited to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with an annual export volume of only more than 1 million dollars. Although there are occasionally orders from Europe, the company's products have never been able to enter the mainstream market due to the differences in market management concepts between the East and the West.

Through efforts, the company has set up an office in Paris, France, and hired two local salesmen to take charge of the development European market Due to the full understanding of the local cultural background and business philosophy, the French office has opened a solid "fortress" in the European market by relying only on these two "foreign gunmen", with an annual export of nearly ten million dollars.

After tasting the benefits, the company has successively set up offices in Germany, North America and the Middle East, and set up a sales branch in Germany controlled by Yaotai Electric Appliances. The German sales branch mainly serves the local market, including the collection of early market information, the maintenance of foreign patents, the service of supermarket terminals, and the operation of private brands. At present, the "UME" private brand sold through the German branch accounts for 15% of the company's total sales, and the profit generated by private brand accounts for more than 30%.

Last year, the company took advantage of its success to sign exclusive agency with customers in Mexico, Ukraine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Africa and other places, which not only protected the interests of customers, but also ensured the sales of the company's own brand in the country.

　　 Youngor:

Start brand internationalization through cross-border mergers and acquisitions

In 2008, Youngor Group invested 120 million US dollars to acquire the men's clothing business of KELLWOOD, which became the largest international M&A case in China's textile and clothing industry. This acquisition is regarded as the first stop of Youngor brand internationalization.

"Since the promotion of the 'YOUNGOR' brand in the mid-1990s, Youngor has experienced many setbacks in the process of creating an international brand in China. At the beginning of this century, Youngor hesitated. Now, looking back, the idea that we wanted to spread the Youngor brand around the world is a bit unrealistic, because consumers in Europe and the United States do not recognize Youngor at all." Li Rucheng, the chairman of Youngor, explained that this was Youngor's original intention to start brand internationalization through cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Since the acquisition of Singapore Malaysians, Youngor's performance in the international market, especially in the United States, has greatly improved. "We built Youngor's platform abroad through mergers and acquisitions, opening the way for Youngor to go global." In Li Rucheng's view, brands have no borders, and the team and talents of Singapore and Malaysia are also an important platform for Youngor's international development. According to him, after nearly three years of running in, Singapore and Malaysia have applied to Youngor to promote the Youngor brand to the American market. {page_break}

　　 Accelerate the cultivation of brand competitiveness

The competitiveness of enterprises is ultimately reflected in the competitiveness of brands, which can be described as the soul of the market. It is imperative for foreign trade enterprises to go abroad, participate in international competition, and implement the brand strategy.

Since 1999, Ningbo has actively guided enterprises to build their own export brands. At present, it has become one of the famous export brand economic cities in China. By the end of 2010, the city had 6845 overseas registered trademarks, an increase of more than 20 times over the 300 in 1999, of which 669 were added last year.

At present, our city has 20 "export famous brands mainly cultivated and developed by the Ministry of Commerce", accounting for more than 10% of the national total, ranking first in all cities in China. In addition, there are 104 Zhejiang export famous brands, 125 Ningbo export famous brands and 133 county-level export famous brands in Ningbo.

From "Made in Ningbo" sweeping the world to Ningbo brand emerging in the international market, a number of pioneers have tasted the benefits of independent brand exports.

Since 2002, Ningbo Mengheng Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. has registered the trademark "MH" in more than 50 countries and regions. At present, the brand has gained high popularity in many countries. In Nigeria, "MH" brand clothing accessories products account for more than 80% of the country's clothing accessories market share. In the garment accessories market of Bangladesh, Ghana, Morocco and other countries, Mengheng Industry and Trade's product market share reached 60%. In Egypt, Russia and other countries, the export of "MH" self owned brand products continues to maintain a rising momentum.

In recent years, Deli Group has set up overseas branches in Thailand, India, Malaysia and other countries, mainly responsible for the all-round operation of the "Deli" brand overseas. At present, Deli Group has established brand agency relationships with customers in major countries and regions around the world. Private brands are sold to more than 100 countries and regions, with an annual growth rate of more than 50%.

　　 More than half of the enterprises have no overseas trademarks

"Last year, there were about 11000 enterprises with export business performance in our city, but fewer than 5000 enterprises registered trademarks overseas, which means that more than half of Ningbo's foreign trade enterprises have not registered trademarks overseas, which should be given high attention." Ding Haibin, Deputy Director of the Municipal Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, shouted at the recent work conference on export brands and quality inspection in the city.

Not only that, although a considerable number of foreign trade enterprises have registered trademarks, they can not grasp the rules of the market game very well, and few enterprises have truly established their own brands in the international market. According to relevant statistics, the export amount of Ningbo under its own brand is less than 20% of the total export amount. In the field of textiles, clothing, household appliances and other consumer goods, the export proportion of the city's own brands is less than 10%.

According to Ding Haibin's analysis, the main reasons for the above phenomenon are:

First of all, enterprises focus on creating brands rather than using them, and do not pay close attention to the export of their own brands. For example, although some brand goods in our city rank first in terms of individual export volume in the country and have a certain international popularity and market share, because they are basically exported under the brand name, few are exported with their own trademarks, and the added value of the products is low, in the long run, the brands still have no popularity.

Secondly, the brand awareness is low, and international buyers do not accept Chinese brands. According to the enterprise, the importers focus on the quality and price of goods, especially the importers from Europe and the United States, who regard China as a cheap supply market for goods and do not recognize Chinese private brands at all.

Third, the high cost of international marketing makes it difficult for SMEs to bear. Creating a brand in the international market is always several million yuan or even hundreds of millions of yuan, and the huge cost caused by this has deterred many brand enterprises in our city. For household appliances, machinery and other goods, if they enter the European and American markets with their own brands, they need to establish corresponding marketing networks and after-sales service systems. These operating costs are unbearable for SMEs.

In addition, the high cost of international exhibitions also affects the enthusiasm of enterprises in our city to promote their own brands in the international market. It is reported that in addition to the normal exhibition fees, the special decoration fees for brand image display are very expensive. {page_break}

　　 How to make "Wings of Brand" fly higher

At the National Business Conference held earlier this year, Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce, pointed out that in 2011, we should accelerate the implementation of brand strategy, encourage enterprises to rent, buy, create and use brands, and promote the transformation of foreign trade growth mode. Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and other eight departments jointly issued a notice on carrying out the 2011 "Year of Improving Quality Inspection of Foreign Trade Commodities", calling for accelerating the construction of independent export brand system.

Experts believe that technological innovation and marketing innovation are the key for foreign trade enterprises to implement independent export brand strategy, which is like two wings of an aircraft. Without one of them, independent export brands are difficult to fly freely in the sky of the international market.

Huayu Group has a deep understanding of this. In recent years, the company has established a long-term technical cooperation relationship with Zhejiang University, the Provincial Institute of Home Appliances, France Dumina Design Company, Italy Delong Company and other domestic and foreign universities and institutions, with an annual investment of more than 10 million yuan, focusing on the research and development of intelligent, energy-saving and environmental protection products. At the same time, they actively try to localize the brand design. For example, according to Russian preferences, the "Huayu/HUAYU" trademark sold in the local market is Chinese red, and the fuselage is mainly white gray. Through several years' efforts, the ratio of the company's own brand to the OEM product export has risen from 0 ∶ 100 at the beginning to 13 ∶ 87 now.

"Powerful large enterprise groups, such as Youngor and Shanshan, should focus on brand management, marketing channels, innovative business models and other high value-added parts, strengthen 2 to 3 consumer brands in the region, and master independently controlled sales channels." Chen Guoqiang, deputy secretary general of the municipal government, believes that different enterprises should focus on building brands, The majority of small and medium-sized enterprises are mainly responsible for supporting processing and other links to make brands.

The unique business model of Spanish clothing brand Zara is worthy of learning and reference for enterprises in our city. Relying on hundreds of designers, Zara launches more than 10000 design styles every year. It only takes 10 to 15 days for a product to be designed and put on the shelf, which is in sharp contrast to the 6-month cycle of domestic garment enterprises. In addition, the number and model of each Zara style in the same store are very limited, and the new model's shelf life does not exceed two weeks.

On the other hand, Zara also controls every business link through the effective use of information technology. "It's hard to imagine an international clothing brand like Zara. A flagship store on Nanjing Road in Shanghai alone has a daily sales of more than 1 million yuan, winning nearly 400 million yuan in the women's clothing market in a year." Chen Guoqiang said with emotion.

For enterprises that have not yet registered overseas trademarks, the top priority is to start overseas trademark registration. "An independent brand is a Chinese brand, which is a trademark registered by Chinese enterprises themselves." Wang Hanwu, chairman of the China Brand Management Research Center, believes that registered trademarks, especially foreign trademarks, are the first step in brand building for SMEs. Take Beifa Group as an example. At present, the company's "BEIFA" trademark has been registered overseas in 175 countries and regions around the world.