Culture Promotes The Internationalization Of Chinese Shoe Brands

Chinese manufacturing enterprises are often told that one of the ways to increase profit margins is to develop their own brands and enhance investment in product design.

At a recent design meeting held in Hongkong, some experts were interested in developing.

They say a problem facing Chinese enterprises is that China has been known as the "world factory" for 30 years, and has been undertaking production orders such as NOKIA and Apple Corp.

Peter Heskett, a brand management expert who spoke at the Asia China Design Conference in Hongkong in June 22nd, suggested that this is understandable to a certain extent, because in many cases, "made in China" is still equivalent to low quality for consumers, at least in Western markets.

He said, for example, JWT, a multinational advertising agency with its headquarters in New York, and the United States.

Heskett said that in addition, more than half of consumers surveyed believed that they would not buy Chinese brands in stores.

He said: "consumers' willingness to buy Chinese brands is not strong.

This is clearly a challenge. "

However, at the meeting hosted by the Hongkong design centre, he and other speakers offered a solution that is not to hide the cultural elements of China, but to actively explore the attractions.

For example, the survey found that Western consumers are very interested in the traditional essence of Chinese medicine or martial arts.

Heskett, Southeast Asian Planning Director of J. Walter Thompson Singapore Pte. Ltd., believes that for mass market consumer products, a positive attitude should be taken to deal with quality problems.

Heskett recommends that Chinese enterprises focus on brand development in India, Southeast Asia and China.

He mentioned the famous footwear brands in China.

At first, the inspectors made a big laugh at Lining shoes, but then they put on their shoes and tested their bouncing performance on the basketball court. After that, they praised Lining shoes, which means that they were qualified enough to enter the American market.

At the same time, he also mentioned the footwear brand Ospop of New Jersey, which was sold to western countries after the improvement of the popular "liberation card" canvas shoes which was once popular in China.

Ospop uses the Chinese character "Gong", which is surrounded by red circles, as one of the logo of the enterprise, fully displaying its Chinese elements.

The company wrote on its website with a striking position, "proud of the fact that its shoes are made in China", and "hardworking and optimistic Chinese people create important opportunities for themselves and future development."

Ospop is the initials of One Small Point of Pride. The brand also produced a series of promotional videos showing its shoe making factories and shoe making methods, and introduced in detail the brand's contribution to community education.

Chen Bingpeng, an industrial designer who was born in Guangdong and studied in the US, said that Chinese designers always like to follow the model of western countries, "lack of trust and confidence in themselves."

He said that Chinese enterprises should attach importance to their cultural heritage and find elements that are competitive in the world market from the profound Chinese culture.

He is the head of New York Ecco Design company in the industry.

He said: "it is necessary for Chinese enterprises to develop their own personalities. Why do they always imitate others? Anyone can produce products based on the culture of other countries based on imitation, but the real essence is imitation.

Under the visible surface, we need to rely more on culture and thinking.

In addition, he said, many Asian enterprises are not aware of the consumer's use of their products, so they can't make a big difference in innovation. He said: "this is an important issue that most Asian enterprises need to improve."

Another expert who has studied the brand development of Chinese enterprises said that Chinese enterprises are making great strides.

Jan Stael von Holstein, a professor at the school of design and creativity at Tongji University in Shanghai, said that for example, Haier group, an electrical appliance manufacturer based in Qingdao, Shandong, now accounts for about 15% of the market share in the microwave oven market in the United States, which is a "great improvement".

According to statistics from consulting firm Euromonitor International Ltd., Haier occupies the first place in the world market in the past two years, and the market share in 2010 is 6.1%.

In addition, other Chinese companies, such as carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited, bought Volvo Sweden in 2010, also foreshadowed the arrival of new opportunities, as long as Geely could win the trust of global consumers, he said.

He said that China's booming auto industry, coupled with the Chinese government's efforts to develop new technologies such as electric vehicles, to make up for its shortcomings in oil production, will boost innovation.

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Von Holstein said: "there is no reason why China will not be able to get the most amazing car design in 10 years.

What Chinese need is different cars based on different energy needs.

This is just an example for Chinese enterprises to enter the world and influence the world. "

However, he and other speakers also pointed out many problems that hampered the innovation and brand development of Chinese enterprises.

Von Holstein quoted Chinese local newspapers as saying that the rampant infringement of intellectual property rights has hurt innovation, especially in industrial goods.

He cited the data released by the State Intellectual Property Office of China. It is estimated that only 10% of the 16000 brands registered in China are profitable. He said that the ineffective protection of intellectual property rights is the main reason for this phenomenon.

Another speaker argued that China's manufacturing enterprises lacked some soft skills to attract consumers from the world market.

British designer Michael Young came to Hongkong in 2006 to set up an industrial design studio to provide services for Chinese manufacturing enterprises. He said that these enterprises were willing to spend money on advanced manufacturing technology.

He said, but these enterprises do not know how to deal with customers in developed markets such as Europe, and there is no clue how to use media power to publicize their products.

So Young's job is to provide these services for these enterprises.

Von Holstein said that the lack of certain soft skills can be seen from the ranking of global brands.

Although China has become the second largest economy in the world, no Chinese enterprise ranks among the top ten in the world in terms of brand value.

Even big domestic brands like Lining seem to have a lack of trust in their culture, he said.

At the meeting, he showed a picture of two Lining stores and Nike stores in Beijing. It can be seen that Lining's brand logo is very similar to Nike's logo.

He said: "Lining has not really created a Chinese brand with local characteristics.

It still looks like it is copying Nike, though it has changed slightly on the brand logo.

Lining did not add Chinese elements to his own logo.