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3 Ways How Chinese Companies Can Become Well-Known GlobalBrands
It seems these that everyone is talking about China, Chinese products, people, news, and events.
However globally Chinese brands are still fairly unrecognised with the exception of a few big names who have madeit out of China and are now well-known.
Lenovo
Xiaomi
Huawei
We all know these 3 Chinese brands for instance, but can the same be said for your company?
In this blog we're going to examine 3 ways how Chinese companies can become well-known global brands, and youcan start to guage how much work you have to do to start to replicate some of the success that has been had by thethree famous brands above...
The Key To Unlocking How Chinese Companies Can Become Well-Known GlobalBrands
To become a famous global brand it's going to take more than just offering an excellent product, which I'm sure youalready do.
China is very different to the West, and has impressively grown into an economic powerhouse despite that. Howeverthis far removal from the rest of the world does give Chinese companies a disadvantage to becoming well-known.
Consider Europe. The close economic ties and proximity of each country there means that, despite their differencesin culture, big-name brands are very well-known among all of the Union, and so sell well and have a good reputation.
If you compare this to their low knowledge of China, which is affected by it being many thousands of miles away anddoes not share the culture or language, and its many brands, then it is no surprise that up to now Chinese brandshave been struggling to take off globally.
So the key to learning how Chinese companies can become well-known global brands is understanding how to makeyour company and brand as accessible to people in the West as their own.
Thanks to the internet this is possible, but as we're going to see, there's a lot more to it than simply having an Alibabaaccount.
1. Market Differently To Other Chinese Companies
In China almost every company, especially manufacturers, will have an Alibaba account.
It's certainly worth having an Alibaba account, as it offers your business many advantages, such as:
Being found (everyone around the world knows that they can find companies in China there)
Free to set up
Based in China and with Chinese language, and so easy to use
But if every company in China (or at least many hundreds of Millions of them) is using Alibaba, isn't it easy to get lostamongst the noise?
Can you guarantee that foreign customers will find you in the listings?
So it's time to wise up and start building a presence for yourself where foreigners will find you.
An issue is that many 'Western sites' are going to be inaccessible for companies in China, so you'll need to find a wayto gain access to the likes of:
Google (and G+)
YouTube
But given that most foreigners will be actively using these sites, and searching for information about their interests(including professional interests such as finding a new supplier), it will be worth your time.
A very important channel that you should explore as an Alibaba alternative is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a business social media channel, and has more than 330 Million members worldwide (107 Million in theUSA alone). It's focussed on professional networking, and as such you can expect its visitors to be searching forfellow industry professionals, or businesses that they can deal with.
It's free to set up, and you can advertise to the many members there with its paid-for PPC advertising.
Perhaps it's the language barrier, but as yet it is still fairly unknown in China (although this is changing fast). So now isthe ideal time to differentiate yourself from the masses who only use Alibaba by setting up your company's page, and
start spreading the word about your brand.
2. Choose A Global Brand Name
Despite China's status as an economic powerhouse, most foreigners have next to no knowledge of the Chineselanguage. In fact it's safe to say that the majority wouldn't even recognise the characters for "China," so limited is theirknowledge.
Many Chinese companies have struggled to market their brand abroad as they have retained their Chinese logo, orhad an English logo which seems odd, includes the word 'China,' or is a direct translation of Chinese characters inPinYin.
Basically you need to accept that China has, perhaps unfairly, gained a reputation for producing low-cost, low qualityproducts. This means that any overly Chinese branding is likely to hold you back when seeking to market abroad. Youalso want people there to be able to recognise and say your logo, so making it international, rather than local, will bethe only way to achieve this.
Even the mighty Huawei's brand has been held back from growing abroad by its logo and name (above), as manyforeign people simply cannot pronounce it and therefore feel distrust in them, despite them having high-qualityproducts of a global standard. The image is nice and recognisable, but their name is difficult.
The same could be said for:
Haier (white goods)
Trumpchi (autos)
Gree (white goods)
Geely (autos)
Landwind (autos)
Hasee (computers)
Skyworth (televisions)
Changhong (televisions)
Leegoo (mobile phones)
Roewe (autos)
All of these Chinese brands create good products, but they're not attractive to foreign customers becase the brandnames are odd and don't make much sense in their language.
Given the choice between taking a chance on an unknown Chinese brand like these, or choosing one that soundsmuch more Westernised, what do you think overseas consumers would do?
This is why the likes of:
Lenovo
Oppo
Coolpad
Midea
ZTE
Have done a better job with their branding as these brand names are much easier to pronounce and recognise topotential foreign customers, and don't sound too 'Chinese' at all, rather having an unobtrusively international feel tothem.
3. Create An English Blog
Sending an EDM (email mailshot) to a purchased email list, and posting a new notification on Alibaba is old news.
There is still a place for both of these marketing techniques, but things have moved on (at least in the West). Nowcompanies wishing to get more sales and to build brand equity (the trust in and knowledge of your brand) need to beregularly creating helpful and free English content and posting it where potential Western customers can find it.
The best way to do this is to write a company blog.
A blog is a part of your website where you write about anything relevant to your brand, products, services, or industry.You could post:
Company news
New product information
Product reviews or explanations
Industry-related news
How-To articles
Special offers
Basically, by posting these kind of blogs regularly, you'll be found more online in the West and therefore you'll bebuilding up your brand's equity and helping more foreign people with their issues. Once that happens they will bemore familiar with your brand and more attracted to your products or services which go further towards helping solve
their problems.
Staring a blog? Click here to read where you should be sharing a blog to attract western customers .
If you're starting out on your journey to becoming a recognised brand in the West you'll need to do a lot of thingsdifferently, but do you have the necessary time, experience, and staff to succeed with this project?
Oxygen 2.0 is a bilingual Chinese and English-speaking marketing team who have decades of experience in helpingChinese manufacturers become brands and market themselves to the West effectively.
Click below to request a FREE website, branding, and marketing assessment where we will examine your currentsituation and offer free advice which your business can use to improve its sales abroad:
