China Branding: One Belt, One Road and More

The president and founder of Brand Matters, Patricia McQuillan, a global branding expert, was invited by the government of the People’s Republic of China to Shanghai last May to speak at the first International Forum on Brand Development and to Xi’an, China May 11th as a keynote speaker at the first international Silk Road Brand Development Forum. She was invited with a select group of international branding experts ranging from European academics who specialize in quality management to U.S. consumer behaviour specialists.

The following is a summary of her observations as it relates to China branding from the perspective of the People’s Republic of China (China) as they advance their brands on the world stage.

• The government of China is re-shaping the economy with a focus on generating demand rather than its traditional focus on supply management; they view brand-building as a means of facilitating this shift. Over the past decade, China modernized its economy through Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), the focus is now on value-added manufacturing supported by the growth of made in China brands. They describe this as a means of improving the lifestyle of their population. This makes the case for China branding to become a priority over the next few years.
• The shift to building made in China brands necessitates a re-focus of local manufacturers from “speed of production to quality of production” with a keen eye on consumer demographics and market trends. This is a huge change for China’s small-medium sized enterprises which will require considerable government support.
• China is at a unique juncture as they prepare to build ‘brand China’ internationally as well as penetrate domestic markets with a strategic focus on China branding. Many of the forum participants representing Chinese local governments and businesses quoted China’s Prime Minister Li describing the importance of branding as “brands are the diamonds of the economic system”.
• As part of this re-focus, the government of China has developed a brilliant economic strategy known as the Silk Road Strategy now entitled the “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) trade and investment initiative in which China is taking a leadership approach to forging broader economic ties by investing in economic partners’ infrastructure as an overture to increased trade.
• To further facilitate the shift to brand-building, the Chinese government is declaring war on copyright infringement and counterfeit brands which are currently available in many major shopping districts in Shanghai similar to Canal street in Manhattan, New York. This move to intellectual property protection has resulted in hundreds of thousands of trade-mark applications.

The People’s Republic of China is poised to advance on the world stage not only an economic power, but as a global branding leader. Many of the forum participants agreed that if China makes brand-building a priority they will in fact achieve world leadership within the next five years. Let’s watch and see!

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