How to understand national brands

In China, since the concept of national brand was put forward by people in the industry, with the change and development of social and economic environment, its own concept connotation is constantly evolving and updating. This paper attempts to discuss and discuss the evolution trend and development stage of the concept connotation of national brand from a brand-new angle. I hope to provide an idea and bring some thoughts to those who are committed to building brands.

The first stage is mainly reflected in the spiritual level.

After the reform and opening up, with the deepening of China's opening to the outside world and the sustained economic development, huge ships of foreign enterprises have flocked to China. In the increasingly fierce competition between Chinese and foreign brands, foreign brands have gained considerable competitive advantages by virtue of their strong overall strength. Under the increasingly severe competitive pressure, domestic brands have used consumers' national complex to play national brands, so the concept of national brands has spread rapidly in business and society.

At this stage, the concept of national brand originally refers to the brand originated in Chinese mainland and initiated by domestic enterprises. However, due to its strong nationalism and the exaggeration of some merchants who play national brands, it has given national brands considerable spiritual connotations in the development process. For example, patriotism, revitalizing national industry, national pride and so on. Buying national brand goods seems to be a noble act of Chinese people to express their patriotism and revitalize national industries. From the whole process of this stage, the spiritual connotation sublimated from the original conceptual connotation of national brands is in the mainstream position, that is to say, the conceptual connotation of national brands at this stage is mainly reflected in the spiritual level. The concept of national brand is not difficult to understand, so I won't go into details here. In the case that domestic consumers are not mature and rational enough, the concept of national brand makes domestic consumers willingly sacrifice themselves and makes great contributions to the upgrading and development of national industries.

However, with the maturity and rationality of consumers, the concept of national brand has become less and less important in consumers' purchase decision. More importantly, the spiritual connotation of national brands presents an embarrassing situation in more and more cases of foreign capital (foreign enterprises) merging national brands: on the one hand, those brands merged by foreign capital (foreign enterprises) originated in Chinese mainland and were originally created by domestic enterprises, and domestic consumers endowed them with profound meanings. On the other hand, those national brands (foreign companies) acquired by foreign capital are no longer subordinate to domestic enterprises, and their material basis (enterprises to which brands belong) is no longer national or their nationality is seriously diluted. As we all know, material determines consciousness is the truth of Marxism. And can the national spiritual connotation based on non-national material still exist? The answer is yes. For example, the current "Chinese toothpaste" seems to be a national brand only from the spiritual level, but its material basis is Unilever, and it no longer has its own nationality. In a sense, "China Toothpaste" is just one of Unilever's tools to make money in China market. In other words, as a national brand, "Chinese Toothpaste" was originally embodied in the spiritual level, such as patriotism and the revitalization of national industries. Due to the material foundation (affiliated enterprises), "Chinese Toothpaste" no longer has the conceptual connotation of a national brand at this stage. In this sense, "China Toothpaste" is no longer a national brand. But this conclusion is unacceptable to many people.

Therefore, with the change and development of the economic environment, the original conceptual connotation of national brands can no longer adapt to the changing and developing environment, and the conceptual connotation of national brands has entered a new stage of development.

The second stage is mainly embodied in the material level.

Since the middle and late 1990s, with the increasing trend of world economic integration and the continuous improvement of China's opening-up level, the overall environment for brand survival and development has emerged a new situation. On the one hand, in order to dilute the original nationalism as much as possible, implement the strategy of "going out" and explore the international market, many excellent national brands in China have repositioned and redesigned their own brands (including the formal part and spiritual connotation part of the brand), such as "Haier" and "Hisense". On the other hand, foreign brands entering Chinese mainland have accelerated the process of integration with domestic enterprises, domestic capital and traditional culture, showing increasingly strong localization characteristics. At the same time, foreign capital and enterprises have also accelerated the infiltration and merger of some national brands (enterprises). The French Danone Group's holding or infiltration of several China food and beverage giants is a typical case. Therefore, at this stage, if a brand is judged by the original concept connotation and standards of national brands, it is difficult to convincingly explain whether the brand is a national brand. The change and development of the environment require the concept of national brand to have a new connotation, and it has also been given a new connotation. At present, the concept connotation of national brand is mainly embodied in the material level, unlike the original concept connotation, which is mainly embodied in the spiritual level such as patriotism and national pride. To put it in a word, in the China market, a considerable part of the value and benefits created during its operation have become the value composition of our country (including the country, society and individuals) or created a lot of value and benefits for our country during its operation. This concept is also suitable for other countries to define their own national brands. From the concept of national brand, it can be concluded that the main criterion for judging whether a brand is a national brand should be considerable or a large number of value and interest creation. It is true that the cultural connotation of a brand is also very important in the process of judging whether a brand is a national brand, but it is difficult to define what belongs to the cultural level. The author thinks it is more reasonable to judge from the value level belonging to the material category. As for the cultural connotation of a brand, it can be used to measure the degree of nationalization or localization of a brand. ) Of course, the value and benefits cannot be quantified, but can only be qualitatively analyzed and judged.

For example, the "Chinese toothpaste" mentioned above can hardly be called a real national brand if judged by its original connotation and standards, but if judged by its new concept connotation and standards, the result will be different. Although "China Toothpaste" belongs to Unilever, a multinational company abroad, almost all the raw materials needed for its production come from China, and domestic employees are employed to produce, manage and sell it in the domestic market. During the whole operation of "China Toothpaste", it has created a lot of value and benefits for China (including the country, society and individuals), so it can still be called "China Toothpaste". Another typical example is Coca-Cola. In the eyes of many people, Coca-Cola is an authentic American brand. However, almost all the Coca-Cola sold in the domestic market is produced in China, and more than 98% of the raw materials are purchased in China, so it has also created a lot of value and benefits for our country in the whole operation process of Coca-Cola. So Coca-Cola can also be called ours in China. If we still have different opinions on defining Coca-Cola as a national brand, I believe most people have admitted from the bottom of their hearts that Santana, another foreign brand similar to Coca-Cola, is an authentic national brand. In fact, whether it's Coca-Cola, Santana or other foreign brands, the truth is the same, and they all create value and benefit. It just takes time and process for people to identify a localized foreign brand as a national brand psychologically, but this should not be the standard for defining a national brand. It should also be noted that some foreign companies, such as Unilever, are actively implementing the infiltration plan of China's capital, and it is believed that brands such as "China Toothpaste" will be further established as national brands.

Therefore, at this stage, even in the future, the conceptual connotation of national brands is mainly reflected in the material level, that is, the creation of value and interests (considerable or large). When we judge whether a brand is a national brand, we mainly think from this angle. In this sense, those businesses that intend to play or are playing the national brand should first work hard to create value and benefits. In fact, replacing the national brand with the word local brand at this stage can better interpret and reflect the conceptual connotation of the national brand at this stage, because local brands can more intuitively transfer the connotation from the spiritual level to the material level than the nation.

The world is developing and the environment is changing. In a certain period in the future, the concept of national brand (local brand) will not meet the development needs of enterprises and brands, and the concept of national brand (local brand) will surely have a new development and sublimation. This is what will be discussed in the third part of this article.

The third stage: globalization

After China's entry into WTO, with the further strengthening of global economic integration and the increasingly fierce international competition, many national brands have gone abroad to seek new market opportunities for longer-term development. As time goes by, more national brands will go abroad and explore the international market. Under such circumstances, national brands can no longer be confined to China. Therefore, the concept connotation of national brands should also have new development and sublimation to adapt to and guide the overseas market expansion of national brands.

According to the author's research and inference, it is believed that the concept connotation of national brand at present stage is mainly embodied in the word "globalization", which means that the national brand at present stage can no longer be just a brand in China, but a global brand. The global brand described here is not a brand that has a certain influence in most countries and regions around the world in the usual sense, but a brand that can create equivalence for most important countries and regions around the world (equivalence here means that a considerable part of the value and benefits created in a country or region become the value composition of that country or region) or a large number of values and benefits. From the perspective of each specific country, if the concept connotation of the second-stage national brand is quoted, the global brand described in this paper refers to the brand that is qualified to be called the national brand (local brand) by most important countries and regions in the world at the same time, and the qualification here refers to the creation of value and benefits (considerable or large). Different from the second stage, it extends from the perspective of China (a country) to the width of the world. The conceptual connotation of the national brand in the third stage is actually the sublimation and extension of the second stage.

In today's world, even for a long time to come, although the trend of economic integration and trade liberalization is constantly strengthening, the political opposition and institutional isolation in the world will not disappear. Recently, international trade protectionism (including tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers, the latter has been on the rise, especially in WTO member countries), and trade disputes and frictions have also occurred from time to time. The recent Sino-Japanese trade war is a typical example. Although economic globalization and trade liberalization are the development trends in theory, in fact, as long as there is political opposition and institutional isolation in the world, it is impossible for economy to be absolutely globalized and trade to be absolutely liberalized. If a brand is not hindered by political opposition and institutional isolation in the expansion of the global market, then the only strategic plan is to make itself a real global brand, that is, to create considerable or greater value and benefits for most important countries and regions in the world, and to be qualified to become a local brand. Rather than a global brand based on its own influence in the usual sense, such a global brand cannot avoid the harm caused by political opposition and institutional isolation. For example, "Marlboro" has little influence in the world, but because most of the value and benefits it creates in the course of its operation flow back to the United States, it has no or almost no value and benefits to other countries (an important market of Marlboro), so it is likely to become a victim of international political and institutional struggles (including various trade frictions and disputes) when faced with international political and institutional risks, such as being ordered to stop importing. And a brand that can create considerable or substantial value and benefits for the country or region it enters will be very different. If there is a trade dispute or other political and institutional conflict between China and the United States, will China start with Coca-Cola? Generally speaking, it is impossible, because Coca-Cola has created a lot of value and benefits for China (including the country, society and individuals) during its operation in China. Taking Coca-Cola as an operation is tantamount to taking yourself as an operation. No country should be so stupid.

From the above analysis, we can sum up a key idea for the globalization of domestic national brands, which is actually the original intention of this paper, that is, in the process of expanding overseas markets, domestic national brands should not only think about obtaining temporary profits and returns from the countries or regions they enter, but should think about how to create more values and benefits for the countries or regions they enter and realize them in order to obtain the qualification of being recognized as local brands by the countries or regions. In this way, our national brand will be truly successful and sublimated, which also means that the brand's own value has been comprehensively promoted and reflected, and reasonable profits and returns are reasonable. This is also a win-win situation, so the situation will be more conducive to brand development.

In addition, it needs to be emphasized that globalization defined in this paper refers to the brand realm that can create considerable or substantial value and benefits for most important countries and regions in the world, which cannot be achieved overnight, but should be gradual. Therefore, striving to become an international brand (which can create considerable or greater value and benefits for many countries or regions outside China) and then developing into a global brand is a practical way for the globalization of domestic national brands.