Chinese brands lag in popularity poll

The quarterly ‘En-Spire’ study, by R3 and research firm CSM, polled 1,500 consumers in 10 Chinese cities and asked them to name the brands they found most engaging. Out of a total 168 brands cited by these consumers Finnish telco giant Nokia was voted as the top brand with 67.4 per cent of the vote.

Second-placed Coca-Cola continued its positive spillover from the Olympics. Nike ranked highly, mainly due to its leadership position as NBA sponsor, and Lenovo and adidas made up the rest of the top five.

“While the NBA has more than 44 brands mentioned as associated with it, Nike’s activities are clearly cutting through. Coke connects well with [brand ambassadors] Yao Ming, Liu Xiang and other big stars - so it is doing a good job in managing its assets,” said Greg Paull, principal of R3.

Tim Riches, chief growth officer, Asia-Pacific at FutureBrand noted that the top brands are all strongly involved in a variety of sports sponsorships. “However,” he added, “I’m surprised more local Chinese brands are not featured.”

Opinion is divided over whether or not the absence of home-grown brands in the list is a bad thing.

Martin Roll, CEO of VentureRepublic, called it a “huge wake-up call to Chinese business leaders to start taking branding and brands more seriously, and to create and sustain their own strong global Chinese brands”.

However, Kitty Lun Chan, chairman and CEO of Lowe China, noted that for a locally developed brand like Lenovo to have made it as high as
number four remains a big achievement.

She said: “All Chinese brands have the potential to compete with Western brands in terms of brand engagement. China has shown the world that we are constantly leapfrogging our foreign competitors.”

Lun noted that Chinese corporations might have previously focused on products, channels and sales but building “a powerful and consistent brand personality” could be next on marketing decision-makers’ agenda. “When competition is keen and products are parity, the level playing field definitely calls for innovation in communications and that’s when the true icons will prevail,” added Lun.

According to Paull, the findings suggest that the way consumers react to marketing messages is changing. “What has proved interesting is the make-up of what it takes to make an impact in China. It’s more than just brand awareness and recognition, but also brand passion, preference and well-defined values.”

Michael Wood, Leo Burnett’s Greater China CEO, agreed that “China’s consumer market has progressed beyond ‘shout it and they will come’ to one of ‘engage me and we will forge a lasting connection’. Brands that have a purpose in consumers’ lives activate that purpose in meaningful ways beyond simply advertising and build lasting connections.”

The NBA was the top media property, proving more popular than any home-grown programming. The study also analysed 494 different sports, music, film and business stars from within China and beyond, looking at three main areas - preference, engagement and values. On brand values, both Yao Ming and Andy Lau ranked highly, while Jackie Chan, Liu Xiang and Xiao Shen Yang made up the rest of the top five. The findings give a clue as to which stars may make suitable endorsers for brands.

Paull said: “Matching a star’s brand values to that of a company is really the missing link here - in the past, too many celebrities have been signed up on a whim without any grounding in consumer insights.”

Wood agreed that “stars for stars’ sake may create short-term awareness but usually get lost in the clutter”. He added that “brands have always used celebrities in Asia but few have been used well”.



This article was originally published in 10 September 2009 issue of Media.