o2-v2.com http://www.o2-v2.com/en/blog/to-be-a-brand-or-not-the-question-of-branding-for-manufacturers

To Be A Brand, Or Not? The Question Of Branding ForManufacturers

China is the world's manufacturing hub, and many companies are doing well by being a manufacturer and supplier ofOEM products or components.

But is this kind of business enough for a secure future?

Simply being a supplier is great, as long as there is demand for your products; but what happens when this dries up?

Is staking your business on the needs of other companies sustainable?

Many forward-thinking Chinese manufacturers are becoming, or have become, brands as they have focussed theirattention on improving their branding for manufacturers.

We're now seeing a number of Chinese manufacturers become succesful global brands:

Lenovo

Xiaomi

TP Link

Huawei

ZTE

...and many more

These giant names have gone from being OEMs to their own recognisable and famous brand with a globalreputation. They're also Chinese companies, so what changed for them, and can you follow suit?

Many Chinese manufacturers are unsure about how to take the next step and become a recognisable global brandthough, because:

They don't speak good English

They have few avenues available to them to market outside of China

They don't have a brand

All 3 of these issues affect many Chinese manufacturers, but the question of branding for manufacturers actuallyencompasses all of them.

In this blog we're going to explore whether or not your business should be striving to become a brand, and some ofthe benefits, or drawbacks, of doing so...

What Is A Brand?

Your brand isn't just a logo.

It's your promise to your customers, and in building a brand you'll need to communicate what you want them to thinkabout your company and its products.

Initially by offering products branded with your logos it doesn't mean so much, however ultimately over time peoplewill begin to associate certain things with 'your brand.'

When deciding about which direction to go with branding for manufacturers you need to ask the question: Are wecontrolling this customer perception?

Everything will add to their perception of your brand:

Your logo

Website

Packaging

Promotional materials

Content

Cost

How different you are to your competitors

So building your manufacturing business into a brand will involve changes to all of these above elements, as well asmaking sure that it's in English as well as Chinese, in order to cater for a foreign audience.

Branding For Manufacturers

This all sounds like a lot of work for companies who're already getting good business supplying products as an OEMsupplier.

However we need to look at the benefits of becoming a brand, and what your intentions are for the future.

Brand Equity

Consistently branding your company's products and displaying branded content online and on your site will go a longway to getting your brand 'known' by possible customers.

This gains you brand equity which allows you to charge more for your products than people producing unbrandedsimilar items can charge.

A good example of a manufacturer brand with a lot of brand equity is 'Apple,' who produce products which are similarto others on the market, but can be sold at a higher price which the public are prepared to pay.

Manufacturers who have taken time to build up perceived quality and therefore gained brand equity can gain quite aloyal following. Again Apple is an obvious example, but you could also mention brands like Adidas, Nike, Coca Cola,Sony, or Samsung.

Why do people keep choosing products from one of these brands and not their competitors? Because they've beentouched by their marketing and content which has touched them and therefore built brand equity.

Marketing

Building up your brand's reputation and equity is going to rely heavily on your ability to market online to Westernpeople.

You'll need to answer the questions:

Who are our target customers?

Is it clear to them what we do or make?

Are we marketing (and advertising) where they like to find information?

Are we creating great content in English?

Inbound Marketing is the weapon of choice for today's Western brands, and so to compete with them you should alsolook at implementing an Inbound Strategy which would answer all of these questions for your brand!

Marketing abroad is a drawback for many Chinese manufacturers as you may well not have the capability, or Englishskill to cope with it?

This could be a big challenge, and it may be that you need to bring in outside help from marketing professionals tohelp you to do this.

Benefits Of Being A Brand

If you're succesfully becoming a brand there are several benefits that you'll enjoy:

Higher profits

Freedom to follow your own path, not that of clients

Owning your supply chain

Brand equity allowing you freedom to try new things with less risk

Being master of your own future

So, Time To Become A Brand?

So by continuing to simply supply other brands as their OEM product manufacturer you could be gambling on thefuture of your company.

Brands will get more customer loyalty, better recognisability abroad in the foreign markets you're targeting, and enjoyhaving better future security.

The big drawback is that marketing abroad can be difficult for Chinese companies and their staff, as they may nothave a very good grasp of English, or how to market in the West (not being experienced using Western internet).

If that's the case, even if you want to become a brand, it may be difficult to build up your brand equity without beingable to market effectively.

If you want to move forward with turning your business into a brand but need help doing that, what can you do?

Oxygen 2.0 can help, as it's our mission to help manufacturers become brands! Click below and get started on yourjourney to becoming a brand by getting a free website, branding, and marketing assessment where we'll examineyour site and send you a FREE report followed up by a phone or skype call if you'd like to discuss it.

By using this free advice you can learn how best to get started on marketing yourself as a brand and improveoverseas sales:

Posted by Adrian Leighton on Fri 20 Mar, 2015

Adrian has been in China for 7 years! He is experienced in all things inbound marketing, social media,blogging, and SEO. When at play he enjoys weight-training, reading, watching TV shows with his wife,and baking!

Topics: branding • chinese manufacturers