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Forward!
No, that’s not a misprint. The title of
this foreword is indeed FORWARD!
A fitting title I’m sure you will agree;
not least because The BrandZ
Top 50 Chinese Global Brand
Builders 2018 are on a mission.
David Roth
CEO, The Store WPP, EMEA & Asia
David.Roth@wpp.com
Twitter: @davidrothlondon
Blog: www.davidroth.com
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Increasingly those responsible for
building China’s brands are moving
outward as fast as they are marching
forward. Their sense of purpose
is palpable and transcends their
commercial objectives. There is a higher
calling that is providing the impetus to
not only build global brands, but to build
innovative, higher-value global brands.
The catalyst for this high-octane
propulsion of China’s brands on to the
global stage is President Xi Jinping’s
2013 proposals to build a “Silk Road
Economic Belt” and the “21st Century
Maritime Silk Road”. Five years on, the
“Belt and Road Initiative” is not only
supported by more than 100 countries
and international organisations, it
continues to be backed by China’s
business leaders and the companies and
brands in their charge.
The impact of the ‘Belt and Road
Initiative’ extends far beyond the
geography of the ancient Silk Roads’
trading routes. Why stop at Europe,
Africa, the Middle East, South-East
Asia and South Asia? The scope of the
Initiative’s call-to-action has been clearly
defined as ‘going global’.
As well as championing the ‘Belt and
Road Initiative’, China’s brand leaders
have also embraced the country’s
innovation-driven development strategy.
‘Going global’ today is as much about
delivering quality-innovation as it is
about extending reach.
The core objective is not just for
China’s companies and their brands to
reach a global audience, it is for those
companies to change the way that
people around the world think about
China’s brands. Increasingly
innovative and better quality brands
are confronting the old Chinastereotypes.
Although the number of people who
think ‘Made in China’ is a pejorative term
is reducing, there is still much work to be
done. The entrepreneurs and business
leaders behind China’s brands are up for
this challenge.
Miinster Zhu Qin spoke about the
upward shift in the value of what
Chinese companies sell internationally
in his address at an event at the UK Houses of Parliament to celebrate the
achievements of the ‘BrandZ™ Top 100
Most Valuable Chinese Brands’. Minister
Zhu talked about moving from “made in”
to “created in” China.
Anyone who questions the
determination of China’s government
and business leaders to deliver on
this should read President Xi’s speech
at the five-yearly party meeting in
Beijing, in October 2017, in which
he uses the word “Innovation” no
fewer than 24 times. Most telling is
the opening sentence of the “Making
China a country of innovators” section:
“Innovation is the primary driving force
behind development; it is the strategic
underpinning for building a modernized
economy.”
As well as building economies and
better lives for people, innovation builds
brand value. As you can read in the
pages that follow, many of China’s Brand
Builders believe that ‘people-centric’
innovation is the springboard of their
global expansion, and consequently
the underlying reason for their global
success.
There are still many challenges that need
to be overcome. These are being boldly
tackled, at an international as well as at
national level by Chinese Brand Builders,
who are passionate about improving
their brand’s, business and countries
performance.
I am fortunate that I spend a lot of time
talking with China’s Brand Builders,
I sense that there is an increasing
appreciation of how data can help;
because analysis of ‘good’ data can
facilitate a better understanding of
what’s required to improve things.
There is also a sense that the old ‘rules’
and conventions of online and offline
marketing are breaking down, and that
the two disciplines should be looked at
holistically. These challenges are best
overcome by making better use of
better data – and building a marketing
communications plan around the reality
of the audience’s daily life.
Go to brandz.com to learn more.
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