What is a national brand (preferably answered by an economically educated person)? How do you recognize Mengniu?

In China, since the concept of national brand has been put forward by the industry, with the changes and development of the social and economic environment, its own conceptual connotation is also constantly evolving and updating. This article attempts to discuss and explore the evolution trend and development stage of the concept of national brand with a new perspective. Hopefully, it can provide a way of thinking for those who are committed to creating brands in the industry, and bring some thoughts. The first stage, mainly embodied in the spiritual level After the reform and opening up, with the deepening of China's opening up to the outside world and the sustained development of the economy, foreign corporate giants have rushed to China. In the increasingly fierce competition between Chinese and foreign brands, foreign brands have gained considerable competitive advantage by virtue of their strong overall strength. Under the increasingly severe competitive pressure, domestic brands use consumers' national complex to play the national card, so the concept of national brand spread rapidly in the business community and society. At this stage, the concept of national brand initially refers to brands originating in mainland China and first created by domestic enterprises. However, due to its strong nationalistic color, coupled with the rendering of some of the businessmen playing the national brand, in the process of development has given the national brand quite a lot of spiritual connotations. For example, patriotism, revitalization of national industry, national pride and so on. Purchase of national brand goods seems to have become a national expression of patriotism, revitalization of national industries and other national feelings of noble behavior. From the point of view of the whole process at this stage, the spiritual connotation sublimated from the initial concept of national brand is in the mainstream, that is to say, this stage of the concept of national brand connotation is mainly embodied in the spiritual level. The concept of national brand connotation is not difficult to understand, and we will not go into details here. In the case of domestic consumers are not mature and rational enough, the concept of national brand connotation, so that domestic consumers willingly sacrifice themselves for the upgrading and development of the national industry to do a great contribution. However, with the maturity and rationality of consumers, the concept of national brand has played a smaller and smaller role in consumers' purchasing decision-making process. More importantly, the spiritual connotation of national brand has presented an embarrassing situation in more and more cases of acquisition and merger of national brands by foreign enterprises: on the one hand, the brands acquired by foreign enterprises originated in mainland China and were initially created by domestic enterprises, and domestic consumers have already been satisfied with the brands. On the one hand, those brands acquired by foreign capital (foreign enterprises) originated in mainland China and were initially created by domestic enterprises, and domestic consumers have endowed them with deep national emotions, so it seems that they are still national brands if they are only said to be on a spiritual level; on the other hand, those national brands acquired by foreign capital (foreign enterprises) are no longer subordinate to domestic enterprises, and its material basis (the enterprise to which the brand belongs to) is no longer national, or its national nature has been seriously watered down. As we all know, it is a Marxist truth that matter determines consciousness. Can the spiritual connotation of nationalism, which is built on the non-national material basis, still exist? The answer is yes. For example, the present "Chinese toothpaste" seems to be a national brand if we only look at it from its spiritual level, but its material basis is Unilever which is no longer national, in a sense, "Chinese toothpaste" is only one of the earning tools of Unilever in the Chinese market. In a sense, "Chinese toothpaste" is only one of the earning tools of Unilever in the Chinese market, that is to say, "Chinese toothpaste" as a national brand originally embodied in the spiritual level, such as patriotism, revitalization of the national industry and other connotations, because of the change of the material basis (the affiliated enterprises), in fact, it is now very difficult to exist. Therefore, "Chinese toothpaste" no longer has the connotation of the concept of national brand at this stage, in this sense, "Chinese toothpaste" is no longer a national brand. But this conclusion is a lot of people do not want to accept. Therefore, with the changes and development of the economic environment, the original concept of national brand connotation can not be adapted to the development of the environment has changed, the concept of national brand connotation has entered a new stage of development. The second stage, mainly embodied in the material level Since the middle and late 1990s, with the increasing trend of world economic integration and China's openness to the outside world, the whole brand survival and development of the environment has appeared a new situation: on the one hand, many excellent domestic national brands have carried out brand repositioning and redesign (including the form of the brand and the spirit of the connotation of the brand) to On the one hand, many excellent domestic national brands have carried out brand repositioning and redesign (including brand form and spiritual connotation) in order to dilute the original nationalistic color of the brand as much as possible, and implement the strategy of going out to open up the international market, of which the brands of "Haier", "Hisense", etc. are the typical representatives. On the other hand, foreign brands entering mainland China have accelerated the process of integration with domestic enterprises, domestic capital and traditional culture, showing more and more strong characteristics of localization. At the same time, foreign capital and enterprises have also accelerated the infiltration and merger and acquisition of some national brands (enterprises), and the controlling or infiltration of several Chinese food and beverage giants by France's Danone Group is a typical case in point. Therefore, at this stage, if the original concept of national brand connotation and standards to judge a brand, it is difficult to convince people that this brand is a national brand or not. The changing development of the environment requires the concept of nation brand to have a new connotation, and at the same time also gives it a new connotation. At this stage, the concept of national brand connotation is mainly embodied in the material level, unlike the original concept of connotation is mainly embodied in the spiritual level of patriotism, national pride, etc., in one sentence to describe is to refer to the market in our country, the process of its operation in the creation of value and benefits in a considerable part of the value of our country (including the country, society, individuals) or in the process of operation for our country to create a large number of value and benefits of the brand. brands that have created a significant amount of value and benefits for our country in the course of their operations. (This conceptual connotation is also suitable for other countries to define their national brands.) From the conceptual connotation of national brand, we can conclude that the main criterion for judging whether a brand is a national brand should be the creation of considerable or large amount of value and benefits. (Admittedly, the cultural content of a brand is also very important in judging whether it is a national brand, but it is difficult to define what belongs to the cultural level, so the author believes that it is more reasonable to judge it from the value level, which belongs to the material category, and that the cultural content of a brand can be used as a measure of the degree of nationalism or localization of a brand.) Of course, it is impossible to quantify the value and benefits, but only qualitative analysis and judgment. For example, if the aforementioned "Chinese toothpaste" is judged by the original connotation and standard of a national brand, it can hardly be called a real national brand, but under the new conceptual connotation and judgment standard of a national brand, the result will be different. Although "Chinese Toothpaste" now belongs to Unilever, a foreign multinational company, almost all the raw materials needed for the production of "Chinese Toothpaste" come from China, and it employs domestic staff to carry out production, management, and so on. production, management, and so on, and sold in the domestic market, in the "Chinese toothpaste" in the whole process of operation for our country (including the country, society, individuals) to create a lot of value and interests, so that the "Chinese toothpaste" is still called our national Brand. Another typical example is "Coca-Cola". In the eyes of many people, "Coca-Cola" is an authentic American brand, but since almost all of the Coca-Cola sold in the domestic market is produced in China, and more than 98% of the raw materials for its production are purchased domestically, "Coca-Cola" is still a national brand in China. However, since almost all of the Coca-Cola sold in the domestic market is produced in China, and more than 98% of the raw materials are purchased in China, Coca-Cola has created a lot of value and interests for China in the whole operation process, so Coca-Cola is also called our national brand (local brand) in China, which is also one of the highest goals of Coca-Cola in the Chinese market. This is also one of the highest goals of Coca-Cola in the Chinese market. If there is still some disagreement about defining "Coca-Cola" as a national brand, then another foreign brand in a similar situation to "Coca-Cola" - "Santana" - is also a national brand in China. "Santana", I believe most people have already recognized it as an authentic national brand. In fact, whether it is "Coca-Cola", "Santana" or other foreign brands, the reason is the same, both value and benefit creation, only that it takes time and process for people to psychologically recognize a localized foreign brand as a national brand. It takes time and process for people to psychologically recognize a localized foreign brand as a national brand, but this should not be the criterion for defining a national brand. Another point that should be made clear is that some foreign companies such as Unilever are actively implementing the Chinese capital infiltration program, which is believed to further establish the "Chinese toothpaste" and other brands as a national brand qualification and status. Therefore, at this stage, and even for some time to come, the concept of national brand is mainly embodied in the material level, i.e., value and benefit creation (considerable or substantial). When we judge whether a brand is a national brand, we mainly think from this perspective as well. (In this sense, those merchants who plan to play or are playing the national brand should first work on value and benefit creation.) In fact, at this stage with the local brand of the word instead of the national brand, can better interpret and reflect the concept of national brand at this stage of the connotation of the concept, because the local more national, enough to more intuitively transfer the connotation from the spiritual level to the material level. The world is developing, the environment is changing, to a certain period of time in the future, the concept of national brand (local brand) will not be able to meet the needs of the development of enterprises and brands, the concept of national brand (local brand) will have a new development and sublimation. This is the third part of this paper to explore the content.