A Study on the Strategy of Cultivating China’s Self-Owned Brands

Self-owned brand reflects the national innovation. It is the essence of national culture and the hope of China economy. At present, the construction of self-owned brand in China faces a lot of problems, such as the small quantity of brands, the weak brand consciousness, the lack of brand-protection consciousness, the short life cycle of brand, the less added value, and the poor competence. In order to cultivate China’s self-owned brands, we should improve the brand loyalty, create brand association, execute brand innovation, enhance brand protection, and stress on the effect of government.


The importance of developing self-owned brands in China
1.1 Self-owned brands reflect the state innovation.
Self-innovation is the focus of economic and social development during the period of the "11th five-year plan" in China.The national innovation system includes four aspects: knowledge innovation system, technology innovation system, fruit prevalence and pervasion system, government and social support system.The development of self-owned brands has to depend on the four systems at the same time.Therefore, the final representation of the state innovation system is the company's self-brand.
1.2 Self-owned brands are the essence of the national culture.
Culture is an important element that distinguishes one nation from other nations in the world.Besides, culture is the key of a brand gaining success in the international market."Half of the brand is culture."Brands are impressed with culture.As consumers accept a brand, they accept the special culture reflected by the brand.Brands display the national culture for the world delicately and completely.As the products with certain brand enter the domestic market, people choose them because of the quality and service.As the products enter the international market, people choose them not only because of the quality and service but also the culture of the country.

Self-owned brands are the hope of China economy.
Brands directly reflect the economy and development of regions and countries.In certain region, the quantity and quality of brands can not only reflect the development of regional economy, but also create directly abundant material wealth for the region.

The present situation of China developing self-owned brands and the problems
Since the execution of reform and open policy, China's self-brand construction has already achieved historical breakthrough, gaining marvelous achievements.The influences of well-know brands have been extended gradually and the innovation capability of self-owned brands has been improved constantly.Hair, Lenovo, and many other self-owned brands have entered the world market.In 2001, no Chinese brand was in the list of "World Brand Top 500".But in 2005, four Chinese brands, Hair, Lenovo, CCTV, and Changhong were in the list.And in 2006, the number was 6, accounting for 1.2% of the list.In 2007, the number reached 12.And China Mobile, CCTV, and Hair entered the list of Top 100.Although the number is still small, it reflects the continuous growth and development of China brands.At present, the construction of China's self-owned brands faces these problems as follow.

The number of brands is small and less are world-known brands.
At present, China is the No.4 in the world manufacturing field.More than one hundred products generate the largest output in the world.China is worthy of the name of huge manufacturer.However, concerning with brands, China is trivial.China does not have advantages over world-famous brands in prices, classes, marketing, and research and development ability, what can not match China's position of being a giant in trade and exporting filed.As a result, it affects China's world competence severely.In China, corporate brands face three shortages, namely the self-owned brands, the influencing brands, and the world brands.
2.2 Because of the weak consciousness of brand, many domestic brands in China have been purchased or merged by multi-national companies gradually.Some Chinese brands that cooperate with foreign companies are disappearing from the market on the whole.In the cooperation process, Chinese brands recognize the brand crisis gradually.Although Chinese brands are still in use in the cooperation, their values are depreciating.Therefore, Chinese brands have to redeem themselves from the cooperation.Multi-national companies depreciate the values of Chinese brands by reducing the proportion of investment in Chinese brands.By the brand merge & purchase strategy, they can exclude the powerful Chinese competitors on one hand.On the other hand, they can occupy the market completely.

Chinese brands are lack of trademark-protection consciousness and most suffer from the foreign companies' trademark preemption.
Brands are the products of market economy.The more competitive the market, the more the brand strategy is needed.Nowadays, although China holds Hair, Lenovo, Wahaha, and many other famous brands, many companies still do not have sufficient trademark consciousness and are short of self-protection of brands.Data show that since the execution of reform and open policy, because of the weak trademark consciousness in companies more than 200 domestic brands that work the export field in China have been preempted by foreign companies in foreign countries.And the loss of virtual asset is about more than 1 billion Yuan annually.The frequently happened trademark preemption cases serve as an alarm bell for Chinese companies.However, similar cases still happen one after another.Companies have to re-name themselves, paying high expenses for the recreation of fame.For example, the Reader, a well-know magazine in China, was named as Reader's Digest.However, because an American magazine, Reader's Digest registered the name both in English and Chinese, it has to rename itself as Reader.

China's brands have short life cycle, less added value, and poor competence, contributing less to economic development.
In China, hundreds of thousand new brands appear every year, but their average life cycle is no more than two years.At present, only 3/10,000 Chinese companies possess the core technology that has self-owned intelligent right.99 percent of companies do not apply patents.60 percent of companies do not have self-owned trademarks.Although China has already become a giant in world trade field, 55 percent of exports belong to processing trade.Less then 10 percent of products in export possess self-owned brands.90 percent of high-tech products in export are produced by foreign-funded companies.In the world market, China' exports' competence is lower in four aspects: namely the lower product level, the lower price, the lower market share, and the lower profitability.

The strategy of China cultivating self-owned brands
Under the condition of economic globalization, the competition between countries focuses on the competition between companies, especially multi-national companies.The direct reflection is the sharp conflict between brands, which will bring about sudden changes for world brand map.Brand competence has become an important representation for a country's competence.Whether an company cultivates a self-owned brand and develop it into a world famous brand, and grow into a world-class company or not has become an important signal to evaluate whether a Chinese company possesses core competence and achieve sustainable development or not.Therefore, Chinese companies still have a long way to go.

Improve brand loyalty.
Brand loyalty refers to consumers' inclination to make repetitive purchase because of preference for certain brand for a long period of time.Whether a consumer has the loyalty to one brand or not, no matter what it is emotional loyalty or behavioral loyalty, there is a precondition that the consumer must trust in the brand to a great degree.Brand trustiness means the company can fulfill all commitments to target customers.To improve the company's brand trustiness is one of the ways to improve the brand loyalty.