AOKANG, A Private Shoe Company, Witness China's Thirty Year Legend

In the past 30 years of reform and opening up, Chinese brand awareness has been gradually enhanced. Under the guidance of this constantly strengthened brand awareness, a number of independent brands that Chinese people are proud of have come into being.

The development and growth of independent brands will witness the legendary rise of China after reform and opening up.

Data show that in recent years, the output value of China's private economy has increased by 71% per year, and private enterprises have contributed more than 50% in China's GDP.

After 30 years of reform and opening up, these outstanding brands, such as Haier, Lenovo, HUAWEI and so on, have been burned up in these private enterprises that have benefited from the changes. These national brands have stepped onto the international stage and have been recognized by the world's consumers.

In addition, some brands are thriving, such as AOKANG, CHINT, and good bird. These brands, which have been born in the forefront of reform and opening up, have also entered the vision of international consumers, and are being accepted and loved.

Since 1978, the spring breeze of reform and opening up has been coming. This marks the beginning of China's pition from a traditional planned economy to a modern market economy.

However, during this period, the production capacity of Chinese enterprises was relatively weak, smaller and less powerful, and the number and type of products produced were relatively small.

What they seek is only the tangible inputs and outputs that can be seen and touched in the short term, and are still in the stage of no brand awareness.

In 1992, Deng Xiaoping encouraged Chinese enterprises in his speech on the South inspection tour: "we should have our own fist products and create our own brand names, otherwise we will be bullied."

In the following period, Chinese enterprises began to realize the importance of brand building.

As a result, brand slogans which can greatly enrich brand connotation, convey brand ideas and increase brand added value emerge as the times require.

Two years later, AOKANG issued a more standard brand slogan.

Simple, simple and unadorned "AOKANG belongs to everyone, you and I," the birth of a symbol of AOKANG officially entered the stage of popular brand promotion.

It seems that although the slogan of this slogan is ambiguous, it shows AOKANG's exploration in the brand creation stage to a great extent. It also reflects the emergence of Chinese brands in the early 90s of last century.

In the mid and late 90s of last century, due to the achievements of the previous stage of reform and opening up, most of the country solved the problem of food and clothing and began to pursue a well-off life.

After more than ten years of development, coastal open areas are superior to the mainland in all aspects.

As a result, the tide of work towards the coastal areas is increasingly turbulent.

The stations, railway stations and wharfs are all hasty drivers.

Han Lei's singing of people's bitter bitterness has become popular.

AOKANG borrowed Han Lei as spokesperson for the image, and produced the slogan of the second generation of brands -- "wear AOKANG and go all directions".

This is not only the Manifesto of AOKANG's brand, but also the declaration of people who go all the way to the "well-off" life at that time.

The perfect match and seamless connection between brand slogan and the characteristics of the times let AOKANG brand win the hearts of the people.

In November 2002, the sixteen major reports of the party clearly pointed out: "we need to form a batch of powerful multinational enterprises and famous brands."

Subsequently, the state gradually began to encourage Chinese enterprises to carry out independent innovation and create their own brands.

AOKANG's brand has gained the recognition of Chinese consumers after previous efforts. But if we want to enter the international market and win the recognition and purchase of international consumers, AOKANG's original brand image must be renewed.

A year later, in November, China AOKANG group announced that it had completely abandoned the brand slogan "wear AOKANG and go all directions" which has been used for many years. Instead, it is a "dream come out" that promotes upward and new times.

AOKANG's brand and slogan change is no accident.

In 2003, China's leading enterprises in the industry are at the critical moment of international pformation.

When China's economy is increasingly separated from the rest of the world, the replacement is just the beginning.

At the beginning of the year, Coca-Cola changed its brand image in China. In early April, the banner of Lenovo of China's IT industry changed its "Legend" to "Lenovo". The new group changed its name to "Xia Xin", and patriots, Huaqi Information, BenQ and melon seeds followed up.

With the deepening of reform and opening up, enterprises are changing their minds to conform to the trend.

The industry pointed out that, like other Chinese enterprises, AOKANG's brand innovation is in line with the level and intensity of China's reform and opening up.

Since twenty-first Century, the direction of China's reform and opening up has been to go out.

What is interesting is that after the renovation of AOKANG LOGO, there is an extension of the K letter. According to Jiang Yihan, director of AOKANG brand management, its implication is that AOKANG is moving towards internationalization.

It is noteworthy that Chinese brands are also suffering from some internal and external factors at the same time of rapid development.

"Trapped inside" lies in the blind pursuit of interests, such as Erie, Mengniu and other famous brands made mistakes on this issue; "external disturbance" lies in some regional and national local protection policies, such as the European Union recently announced to maintain anti-dumping duties on China's footwear industry.

In the face of "internal difficulties and external disturbances", we still have a lot of homework to do.

Some media commented that the national brand is the advanced representative of the national industry, the deep accumulation of the national culture and the direct embodiment of the national competitiveness.

Looking back, China's decision to reform and open policy was not easy at that time. After the difficult steps of reform and opening up, it was not easy to establish a brand awareness and successfully create a number of well-known brands.

In view of the importance of national brands and the difficulty of creating national brands, we only need to use patriotism and moral principles to better manage the brand and to bring it to the world successfully.