Chapter 14 Chapter 12 Brand Concentrates All Values

The best way to distinguish professional marketers is to see if they have the ability to create, maintain, protect and expand brands.Marketers often say that branding is an art and a cornerstone of marketing. The word "brand" comes from the ancient Norse word brandr, which means "brand". Among them, through cognition, experience, trust, feelings, establish relationships, and occupy a place, the sum of consumer feelings. So, how to let consumers generate awareness of the brand?Marketing scholars believe that entrepreneurs should learn to work hard on brand promotion and be willing to spend money to build intangible assets.

In order to emphasize to employees the democratic concept of alliance with customers, in 1976, IKEA founder Kamprad wrote "A Furniture Merchant's Faith", which became the IKEA Bible.He reiterated again and again; part of creating a good life for most people involves breaking free from the constraints of status and tradition.To do this, we have to be different. In terms of brand strategy, IKEA is doing the opposite. In September 2005, IKEA ranked 42nd on the list of the world's best brands jointly launched by "Business Weekly" and Interbrand, with a brand value of 7.817 billion US dollars. Before that, IKEA had been ranked as the world's best brand for three consecutive years Top 50 of .Incredibly, IKEA invests very little in advertising.

In fact, the real core of the IKEA brand is to allow customers to become brand communicators, rather than rigid advertisements.Just like a British media commented on IKEA: it is not just a store, it is a religion; it is not selling furniture, it is building a dream for you.IKEA is well versed in the way of word-of-mouth communication, and conducts a seemingly primitive and clumsy operation, which is actually efficient and perfect.IKEA is the church of this brand religion. The 223 IKEA stores around the world are churches walking around. IKEA employees are the priests of this brand religion. A set of life attitudes and value styles are conveyed to the people, those more than 300 million customers who enter IKEA every year.

In order to let more customers become IKEA brand evangelists, an important strategy of IKEA is to sell dreams rather than products. Marry with a good cause.About 10 years ago, IKEA Group began to participate in environmental protection issues in a planned way, involving aspects including: materials and products, forests, suppliers, transportation, shopping mall environment, etc.Now, IKEA is the first to pass forest certification, which is an internationally popular ecological and environmental certification, including forest management certification and chain of custody audit.IKEA even stated that it will not ignore social phenomena such as child labor, racial discrimination and the use of illegal wood from virgin natural forests.

For a long time, IKEA has relied on the IKEA catalog as the main force to spread the brand. Many people compare it to a booklet that has more printed copies than the Bible. In fact, its communication effect is comparable to that of the Bible.This brochure, which was born in 1951, has obvious mail order characteristics.But Kamprad gradually transformed it into a new life evangelism manual. These catalogs not only list product photos and prices, but also carefully design by designers to comprehensively express IKEA products in terms of functionality and aesthetics. features, where customers can find inspiration and practical solutions for home furnishing.At the beginning of September every year, at the beginning of its new financial year, IKEA will send free beautiful catalogs to consumers. In 2005, the IKEA catalog issued a total of 160 million copies, using 25 languages ​​and 52 editions.

IKEA is built into a church of brand religion, and the marketing power of a brand to the success or failure of an enterprise can be seen.It is worth noting that brand is a very neutral word, which is what marketers always emphasize.Brands are not always positive, but also negative. It is the result of the joint action of consumers and operators of the brand.Therefore, in the process of brand building, our marketers should not only pay attention to the relationship between products and brands, but also understand how to create a positive image of the brand. In short, a brand is an imprint of the soul.Whether the brand is beautiful or ugly, deep or shallow, determines the strength of the brand, the amount of brand equity and the level of brand value.

In fact, there are more and more mature products on the market, and the competitors are roughly similar. Enterprises must use the image in people's minds in the brand book.Some successful brands, no matter what industry it is involved in, people buy its products because it has a brand. Branding is a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination thereof, used to identify the products or services of its sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.The goal of brand promotion is to convey a set of specific attributes, benefits and services to buyers for a long time, and this information can stimulate consumers' desire to buy and maintain consumers' loyalty to the brand.The benefits this brings to the business will be long-term and difficult to estimate.

In September 2004, Philips, Europe's largest manufacturer of consumer electronics, decided to change its image as a "small home appliance giant" and changed the well-known slogan "Let's do better" to "Sophisticated in mind and simple in form". ".Philips plans to pay 80 million euros for the move.Ke Cilei, President and CEO of Philips, announced that the 80 million euros will be used to launch an advertising, public relations and marketing campaign in seven key regions around the world, including China, the United States, and France. The all-round "bombing" of the media and the Internet conveyed the new brand positioning to consumers all over the world.

Like many centuries-old stores, Philips, the old European multinational electronics giant under the reputation of the European "Old Gentleman", is actually hard to live up to. There is a loss. “We look forward to changing the image of Philips as a consumer electronics company through this new brand positioning. We hope that consumers will associate it with 'convenience' or similar lifestyles, and ensure that consumers can use it easily. This kind of technology may enjoy life." Rui Andrew, chief marketing officer of Philips, said. Philips achieved a gorgeous turn around with 80 million euros. In 2004, the brand value of Philips was only 3.5 billion euros, and in 2006 it had reached 6.5 billion euros.

The realization and improvement of Philips' brand value obtained by spending 80 million euros is immeasurable. Chinese entrepreneurs must change the past short-sighted behavior that only focused on short-term effects rather than long-term effects.Technology and brand are the most important key points in the new development period.Not only must there be brand awareness, but also greater efforts must be made in marketing.Brand promotion is not only a matter of money, but also requires a lot of energy, time, and creativity. Building a brand is a long-term, arduous task.For the needs of market promotion, Chinese enterprises often adopt the strategy of "everyone wears a hat". For small and medium-sized enterprises, this is a good way to get their products into the market as soon as possible. Even if everyone wears it blindly, it may ruin your brand. 'Everyone wears a hat' is a strategy that must be used carefully." In the future commercial society, brand is the competitiveness of enterprises.More brands will emerge in China, product image alienation will become a trend, and the strategy of "everyone wears one hat" will gradually be eliminated by the market.

In fact, there are more and more mature products on the market, and the competitors are roughly similar. Enterprises must use their brands to establish an image in people's minds.Some successful brands, no matter what industry it is involved in, people buy its products because it has a brand. American economist Wade Lun said: "Customers are an asset just like factories and equipment." Brand loyalty is a measure of customers' feelings for a brand, reflecting the possibility of a customer switching to another brand.Marketing aimed at brand loyalty became a hot topic in western marketing in the mid-1990s, and led to "customer relationship management", which has gradually become the core issue of corporate strategy.In order to maintain the continuous growth of profits, the company's attention should be shifted from the quantity of market share to the quality of market share. More and more enterprises have begun to pay attention to the establishment and maintenance of brand loyalty. The world-famous Nestle company was founded in the middle of the 19th century.After the establishment of the company, it developed very rapidly, and the product line continued to expand and lengthen. However, under such circumstances, Nestle did not blindly adopt the prevailing brand extension strategy at that time, applying the Nestle brand to all its products.Because it is soberly aware that in the food industry, when a brand is over-extended into too many irrelevant fields, consumers' brand association and brand awareness may gradually weaken, thus weakening the original inherent charm of the brand , and finally make the company's brand a simple symbol without characteristics, characteristics and competitiveness. Based on this understanding, Nestlé has implemented a distinctive brand strategy, establishing a pyramid-shaped brand system in which the company brand and product brand both promote each other and are relatively independent. Nestlé's brand is divided into three levels.The first level is the company's brand "Nestle", which is printed in large or small sizes on the outer packaging of all the company's products, so that its good brand image and great brand charm are extended to all the company's products , providing them with trust, quality assurance and competitiveness. The second level is the family brand.The family brand provides trust, reputation, quality assurance and competitiveness for a series of products it includes; at the same time, the good performance of the family brand also strengthens the image of the company's brand and improves the market position of the company's brand.With the expansion of its product line, the team of family brands in the company continues to expand. The third level is the product brand.The product brand is composed of family brand and specific product name, which provides special value and individual experience such as taste and feeling to attract consumers; at the same time, the successful operation of product brand can strengthen the good image of family brand and company brand. These three levels interact, promote each other and complement each other, improving the competitiveness and market image of Nestlé as a whole.But at the same time, each family brand is relatively independent, the "scope of power and responsibility" is clearly defined, and the "division of labor" is clear, and they only extend within their respective product fields, thus avoiding the vicious spread of negative factors. Nestlé attaches great importance to brand management.It has set up a strategic operation headquarters to be responsible for the continuous development of Nestlé's brands and the performance in related fields.Adopt different brand positioning methods to position the family brand, and use the power of the family brand to extend. After years of development, the brand power of the company's various products has continued to grow, and the market image has continued to improve, making the foundation of the brand pyramid more solid. As a result, the "Nestle" brand at the top of the tower is becoming more and more dazzling. Recognize that brand loyalty is not limited to Nestlé.Whitwan, CEO of Whirlpool, a global home appliance company, once said that most industrial players focus on how to operate optimally around production, cost and quality, but they find that this is not enough to generate extraordinary returns.Therefore, it is necessary to change the rules of the game. "If we have a brand with customer loyalty, then this is an advantage that other competitors cannot replicate." Whirlpool has gradually implemented the corporate philosophy of building brand loyalty around the world. Viewing brand loyalty as a core component of brand equity helps companies treat consumers as brand equity.The difference and connection between it and other brand equity elements is that brand loyalty is closely related to use experience, while other brand equity elements do not have this requirement; brand loyalty is partially affected by brand awareness, quality perception and brand association. As long as the brand name can generate positive associations in the minds of customers, then such a brand can be called a strong brand. A brand exists because it is attached to a specific product and enterprise, so it usually becomes a symbol of this product and enterprise.When people see a certain brand, they will think of the unique qualities of the product or company it represents, and of the benefits and services they can get when they accept the product or company of this brand.Therefore, when every enterprise builds its own brand, the first task is to establish a positive association of the brand in the minds of consumers. McDonald's has achieved great success along with the take-off of the American economy, and it has a certain political and cultural significance virtually. People regard it as representing the national image of the United States. When it comes to McDonald's, people will immediately think of the golden M-shaped logo and the red and white Uncle McDonald's on the chair at the door of McDonald's. Even it has become the most eye-catching road sign in many cities around the world.McDonald's survey found that 25% of the 10 people came to McDonald's exclusively, so how to fight for the other 75%?The strategy adopted by McDonald's is to make the background color of the signboard red, and the logo M representing McDonald's on it is yellow.Seeing red, consumers will naturally stop, while seeing yellow will create an appetite, and McDonald's takes advantage of this. McDonald's has attracted the world's strong attention with its highly recognizable brand image, and it has become a topic that people talk about, which makes the brand spread quickly. Many people are familiar with McDonald's in books and movies before seeing McDonald's, so McDonald's Entering a new market without advertising will often fill the door with customers.For example, in China, when McDonald's landed in Beijing and Shanghai, the number of customers visiting a single store on that day exceeded 10,000. There are many factors that contribute to the success of McDonald's, and a strong brand image is undoubtedly one of the most important items.Strong and consistent symbol positioning supports McDonald's sales: Food, Joy, Friends.It also makes everyone who thinks of McDonald's first associate it with its founder, Ronald McDonald, with its facade that symbolizes the archway, with the children it serves, and with its clean and effective work. , and can even be associated with cars, food, and movie theaters. Brand associations not only exist, but have a certain power.Consumers will strengthen their connection with the trademark after accumulating many times of audio-visual sensation and use experience.When establishing brand associations, companies should pay attention to minimizing the negative associations of the brand.At the same time, marketing scholars also reminded that to establish positive brand associations, we must pay attention to differentiation in order to benefit from it. So, as marketers, how should we establish multiple positive associations for brands?Marketing scholars suggest that companies should consider five aspects: product characteristics, benefits, company value, personality and users. 1.Product idiosyncrasies.A brand is first and foremost associated with a certain attribute of a product.For example, the mention of Moutai makes people think of complete craftsmanship, expensive, rich aroma, mellow taste, and dignity.Enterprises can use one or several attributes to advertise their products. For example, Moutai has always appeared in the market as the image of "the best Chinese liquor". 2.Product benefits.When customers buy products, the ultimate goal is to convert product attribute needs into functional or emotional benefits.For example, the "expensive" attribute of Moutai can be transformed into emotional benefits, making people feel that "this wine makes me feel high status and respected"; the attribute of "complete craftsmanship" can be transformed into functional benefits, such as "this wine It will be safe to drink." 3.company value.Brands can also reflect the value of some producers.For example, Moutai represents high skill, prestige, self-confidence and other things.Brand marketers must discern this and identify user groups who are interested in it. 4.product personality.A brand can also reflect a certain personality.The association of a brand can be a person, an animal or an object, and whether the derivative of this association conforms to the user's aesthetics also affects the customer's purchase behavior. 5.product users.Brands also imply the characteristics of consumers who buy or use products, that is, what kind of people use a certain brand.When this kind of hint forms a trend and public opinion in the society, it will attract more users who have or hope to have such characteristics to buy. Brand is a complex concept, therefore, when designing a brand, marketers cannot just design a name, but develop a whole set of brand meaning.When people can recognize the brand from five aspects, the brand is a deep brand. After a company has decided on its brand name strategy, it will then proceed to choose a specific brand name.In Asia, to choose an appropriate name for a product, marketers must take into account the language, culture and legal norms of the host country in addition to some product-related factors that must also be considered in Western marketing. The brand name is the condensation of the distinctive features of the brand.In the modern commodity economy society, people refine the distinctive features of a brand into a name, which is the brand name.If you look at the market reality, you will understand that the first step of a successful brand is to give the brand a good name.However, it is not so easy to choose a good name for a product and brand. In 1989, Intel began to develop a processor coded as P5 (commonly known as 586), which is expected to be introduced into the market in the autumn of 1992.Since a name composed of numbers cannot be used as a trademark, Intel appointed Karen Alter to be responsible for the naming of the P5. Karen Alter quickly assembled an advertising team to choose a name for the new processor.They require that the new brand name not only reflect their own characteristics, but also point out which generation the new chip is.When specifically clarifying the selection criteria for the P5 name, the necessary conditions for the team to decide on the name are: ① Difficult for competitors to imitate; ② It can be used as a trade mark; ③ point out the new generation of technology in order to effectively transition from the previous generation; ④ Have positive connections and adapt to the world; ⑤ Support Intel brand assets; ⑥ Sound like a part so that it matches the brand name of the Intel partner. In order to find a good name for the P5, Intel conducted one of the most expensive research studies in history.In addition to the task team's own brainstorming method to generate hundreds of names, Intel also hired the Lexicon naming company, and at the same time held a naming competition within the company. 1,200 Intel employees around the world participated. Shortlisted names include: "iAmFastest", "GenuIn5", "586NOT" and more.Industry publication Computer Reseller News even runs its own naming contest.In addition, the company receives unsolicited proposals from many individuals around the world. The final three names are "InteLigence", "RADAR1", and "Pentium".Ten days before the official name is announced, the company's top executive and mission team members make the final selection.As a result, task team members supported three names almost evenly.Mission team PR members love "InteLigence" because it's the easiest to explain to the public.Technical members like the "cold" name "RADAR1".And marketers like "Pentium", which represents the most radical breakthrough and is relatively easy to sell to OEMs and other customers.Finally, CEO Grove and Vice President Carter decided that the name of the new brand is "Pentium". Pentium's "Pent" ​​comes from the Greek word meaning "5," suggesting that the new chip is the fifth generation in the family; adding the "ium" makes the chip look like the base element. A good name is a permanent spiritual wealth owned by an enterprise or a product.An enterprise, as long as its name and trademark are registered, has the exclusive right to use the name.A good name can always evoke people's beautiful associations, so that its owner can be spurred and encouraged.Therefore, brand naming is a decision that many companies attach great importance to.The decision on the brand name can be considered from the following four aspects: individual brand names.That is to say, enterprises use different brand names for different products, such as Wuliangye Distillery, which adopts this strategy.This strategy separates the success or failure of a single product from the reputation of the company, so that the failure of a certain product will not affect the corporate image.But the disadvantage is that the company has to design and publicize the brand name for each product separately, and the cost is relatively large.When the number of products of the enterprise is large, this strategy is not convenient for strengthening brand management. Unified brand name.That is, all products of the enterprise use the same brand name.This can save the cost of introducing new products to the market, and when the company is a well-known brand, the new products can be accepted by customers smoothly.However, this strategy should not be adopted when there are obvious differences in the products of the enterprise, such as quality differences. Category brand name.Businesses adopt this strategy because: ① Enterprises produce and operate many different categories of even completely different products, and must use different brand names to avoid mutual confusion.For example, Swift Company of the United States produces ham and fertilizers, and uses two different brand names, "Plim" and "Fei Gaoluo" respectively. ②Although the products produced and operated by the enterprise are of the same type, there are obvious differences such as quality differences, and different brand names should be used for products with different quality levels.For example, the brand names of the first-class, second-class and third-class products operated by the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company of the United States are AnnPage, Sultana and Iona respectively. A combination of a business name and a single product name.Adding the company name before the brand name of a new product can make the new product take advantage of the company's reputation, and a single brand name reflects the characteristics of different products of the company.For example, the brand names of motorcycles produced by Chunlan Group are "Chunlan Tiger" and "Chunlan Leopard". A brand is a name, noun, symbol or design, or a combination of the above, intended to differentiate one's product or service from those of its competitors. To build a product brand, the first thing that comes to mind is that the brand is composed of two parts: the name and the logo.The brand name is the part of the brand that can be called directly. Its basic function is to distinguish different products, such as the "permanent" brand of bicycles and the "Phoenix" brand.The brand logo is the part of the brand that is easily recognizable but cannot be called, including symbols, colors, patterns, etc.For example, the specially designed pattern of several English letters of "Coca-Cola".The same goes for McDonald's golden arches, which can be seen on the uniforms of McDonald's-sponsored sports teams, from the U.S. Olympic team to minor league softball teams. Eastman Kodak Company, referred to as Kodak Company, is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of imaging products and related services.For more than a century, Kodak has been at the forefront of the history of photographic technology.But the name Kodak came about because its founders took a lot of thought. One night Eastman was walking in the garden.On this starry night, he looked up and saw the most profound star in his memory—Sirius.As Sirius daydreamed, he recalled listening to his mother tell stories about "Sirius" when he was a child. Eastman keeps in his heart the longing for his mother and her hard-working spirit, because the first letter of her name is "K", so the brand name decided to add the word "K" to express the memory of her mother.Perhaps it was his mother's love that inspired him, and Eastman did it all in one go.He made a lot of letter combinations after K, and finally decided to start with K only and end with K, because Eastman believed that the "K" word itself contained strong charm.Thus, there is the famous name of Kodak. The "Kodak" brand is a typical wordmark.The word "K" of the Kodak brand echoes the name "KODAK", and uses the method of red letters on a yellow background to create a strong contrast, which has a strong visual recognition and information dissemination effect.It was later pointed out that "Kodak" is also an onomatopoeia, like the click of a camera shutter. The "Kodak" logo highlights a "K" character, which is eye-catching, strong and simple through body modification. The meaning of the strong charm of the "K" character itself also gives people an upward and forward hint, which has played a role in stimulating consumption. the role of those.Moreover, the word "K" as a nostalgia for the mother can stimulate people's associations through publicity.Products such as cameras, photo paper, and film are things that leave good memories for people, miss the past, and spur people forward. Therefore, "Kodak" not only has a profound meaning, but also reflects the characteristics of the product itself. The "Kodak" brand can be regarded as a model of brand naming, and it is also the root cause of the long-term vigorous vitality of the brand. A good name is the "finishing touch" of a product, which can endow the product with rich cultural value, endow ordinary products with cultural connotation, and leave a deep impression in the minds of consumers.Of course, in addition to the name and logo, brand elements also include website address, identity, spokesperson, slogan, packaging and signs, etc., all elements that can identify and make the brand different.In general, the selection criteria for brand elements are as follows: Meaningful and able to show the advantages of the product concerned, including usage, characteristics and quality. Can be short-memorized, such as brand names should be easy to spell, pronounce, identify and remember.There are no discordant tones when reading, which makes people feel happy, and there is only one way to pronounce it.Brand names of export commodities should strive to choose words that can be pronounced in multiple languages. Be unique and have significant differences from other brands. It can be adapted and should have sufficient flexibility to make the brand image forever young. Protectable, easy to apply for registration in order to obtain legal protection. Transformable, brand elements can be used to introduce new products in the same or different category. The strength and value of various brands in the market vary.The value proposition of a brand is a question of how to communicate with customers.It is not simply to convince customers, but to resonate with customers. According to Kotler, every company must be able to answer the customer's question: "Why should I buy from you?" As a result, customers will choose those suppliers that seem to offer the most attractive "full value proposition" , "full value proposition" is simply to provide customers with the products he needs. In the 2006 "World Top 500 Brands" list compiled by the World Brand Laboratory, Kroger ranked the second hundred.The company, founded by Kroger in 1883, ranked 80th in the 2007 Fortune 500 list of the world's largest companies. Kroger's success is not only attributed to the founder Kroger, but also to another important person-Joseph Hall. After World War II, Joseph Hall became the president of Kroger.At the beginning of his tenure, he presided over a major reform initiative: customer survey activities. Hall explained to the employees: "At any time, customers should not be neglected. Customers are the ones who have the most say on issues such as what products the company develops, what services it adds, and what sales methods it uses."To this end, Kroger has installed customer "ballot boxes" next to all cash registers.Customers can put their opinions and suggestions on Kroger into the box, such as which product is needed, how should a product be improved, what special service is needed, and so on. The customer's name and contact address are left on each "ticket". Once the customer's suggestion is adopted, the customer can enjoy the service or purchase the product in Kroger's store for free for life.You can also get a preferential discount card given by the company, and you can enjoy discounts when you buy any product. The "ballot box" is very popular with customers, and there is an endless stream of suggestions.Kroger prescribes the right medicine according to the suggestions of customers, so that every new product of the company is an instant hit, and the company's business coverage area is expanded to Texas, Minnesota and California. In 1952, its sales exceeded the $1 billion mark. In 1970, James Herring became the president of Kroger. Herring inherited his predecessor's management thinking. He renamed the customer's "ballot box" as "scientific market research method".He told his staff: "If we want to survive better, we can only satisfy the requirements of customers as we satisfy the requirements of lovers." Modern enterprise marketing management positions customers as God.It is easy to talk about "God", but it takes some work to put it in your heart.The value proposition is aimed at potential customers who can bring profits. The company understands the needs of customers, and then provides customers with unique products or services. The secret of Kroger's popularity with customers is to understand the opinions of customers and provide customers with the products they need.Michael Treacy and Fred Welsmar have put forward the concept of "value training", that is, in an industry, a company may be a "product leader", "manufacturer with excellent operation", or "customer-oriented". manufacturers".It is very difficult for a company to achieve the best performance in all three areas.Most companies can't beat the crowd at everything because they don't have enough money and experience.Therefore, Kotler believes that choosing one of these three value trainings and striving to be the best is the core of brand positioning. 1.Specific positioning and value proposition.When customers buy products, they always want to realize some kind of personal value.Different customers have different interest demands on products and services, and interests are realized by different product and service attributes. 2.Select the full value proposition for the product.If customers compare several products and find that their prices and costs are the same, then customers will choose the manufacturer that can provide them with the highest satisfaction.Kotler reminds marketers: "To find out the core positioning, value positioning, and full value proposition, first let the company describe the reasons why its overall contribution is higher than that of competitors. Then the company uses these results to establish a strong brand identity. , conveying the value description that potential customers expect.” For many Asian companies, building a brand is not a top priority.Asian companies are more likely to play a distribution role in the execution of import and export operations in the region.Ideological reasons have led countries such as China and Vietnam to neglect brand building for a long time. As Kotler said, while the brand development strategy in the West has been relatively complete and mature, the brand development of Asian companies, including those in China, has just started.In this regard, Lenovo Group can be regarded as a model for the development of Chinese brands. On April 1, 2004, the English name of Lenovo Group was changed from "Legend" to the current "Lenovo". "Lenovo" is a portmanteau, "Le" is from "Legend" and "-novo" is a fake Latin word from "new (nova)".Yang Yuanqing, president of Lenovo, said: The reason why Lenovo changed its logo is to prepare for Lenovo's internationalization. In the same year, Lenovo acquired IBM's PC division at a price of US$1.75 billion, and obtained the right to use the IBM brand within five years, becoming the fourth largest PC manufacturer in the world.Liu Chuanzhi said: "The acquisition of IBM by a Chinese company is itself a news that shocked the world, and it is a publicity for the Lenovo brand." After announcing the acquisition of IBM, Lenovo's task is to integrate global business and achieve synergies.The success of Beijing's Olympic bid has just brought a godsend opportunity for Lenovo. After spending 65 million US dollars, Lenovo became China's first "International Olympic Committee Global Partner".After becoming a TOP sponsor, Lenovo's reputation has been rapidly improved through the Olympics.According to the data provided by Lenovo Group, through more than three years of Olympic marketing, Lenovo's popularity in the Chinese market has increased by 15 percentage points, and its reputation has risen by 19 percentage points; the brand awareness and reputation in overseas markets such as the United Kingdom and Australia also increased significantly.In addition, according to the data provided by the China Brand Research Institute, Lenovo's brand reputation has increased by about 20% in a regular year.With the help of the Beijing Olympics to carry out marketing, Lenovo did get a good return. From 2007 to 2008, the brand reputation increased by 54.79%, becoming one of the few successful ones. To become bigger and stronger, Chinese enterprises will eventually go international. Dominating the country is only the first stage. The experience of Lenovo and Haier, the pioneers of brand internationalization, is worth learning for latecomers.Lenovo has already gone ahead, but as latecomers, how should we develop our brand strategy?Marketing experts suggest that companies need to go through the following steps in the brand decision-making process. 1.Does the brand have a strategy.Generally speaking, modern enterprises have their own brands and trademarks.The previous products are no longer products in a simple sense, and most of the products that have no essential difference are now highly differentiated because of the brand. 2.users of the brand.Whether a company uses a manufacturer's brand or a dealer's brand must weigh the pros and cons comprehensively.Under the condition that the manufacturer has a good market reputation and a large market share, use the manufacturer's brand more.Distributor brands can be used when the manufacturer's financial capacity is weak and the market sales force is relatively insufficient.Especially those small and medium-sized enterprises that have just entered the market often rely on intermediary brands to open up the market.如果中间商在某一市场领域中拥有良好的品牌信誉及庞大完善的销售体系，利用中间商品牌也是有利的。 3.品牌统分策略。如果企业决定其大部分或全部产品都使用自己的品牌，那么还要进一步决定其产品是分别使用不同的品牌，还是统一使用一个或几个品牌。 4.品牌扩展策略。与产品线扩展策略的“加长”相对应，品牌扩展是以现有品牌名称推出新的产品线，即产品组合之的“加宽”。日本本田汽车企业在产品成功之后，又利用“本田”的品牌推出了摩托车、割草机、铲雪车等多种产品线，使企业规模得到迅速的扩大。品牌扩展具有多种优势，著名品牌可以令新市场迅速接受新产品，吸引新用户、扩充经营范围。 5.多品牌战略。这种策略为建立不同的产品特色和迎合不同的消费者提供了一条捷径。不过，这一策略使每种品牌只能获得一小部分的市场份额，针对这种情况，科特勒建议企业建立几个较高利润水平的品牌，而不要把资源分摊在所有的品牌上。 6.新品牌。当企业决定推出一个新的产品，如原有品牌名称不适用于这一新产品，或是新产品会伤害品牌形象，最好创造一个新的品牌名称。但科特勒也提醒，太多新品牌也会导致企业资源的过度分散，因此，在引入新品牌时，应慎之又慎。 大多数关于产品生命周期的讨论，都把一种典型茶品描绘成一条中性曲线。这条曲线分为四个阶段：导入、成长、成熟和衰退。 当一个企业的品牌在市场上取得成功后，该品牌则具有市场影响力，会给企业创造超值利润。随着企业发展，企业在推出新的产品时，自然要利用该品牌的市场影响力，品牌延伸就成为自然的选择。这样不但可以省去许多新品牌推出的费用和各种投入，还通过借助已有品牌的市场影响力，将人们对品牌的认识和评价扩展到品牌所要涵盖的新产品上。不过，品牌并不是因此就可以随意延伸。品牌定位需要坚守，“奥克斯”品牌延伸的失败就是一个反面案例。 “奥克斯”是一家以家电起家，以生产空调为主业的家电生产企业，2003年前后，当国内汽车市场行情井喷时，奥克斯将品牌延伸到了完全陌生的汽车领域。 2003年7月，奥克斯与沈阳农机集团达成协议，出资4000万元收购双马汽车95%的股权，从而获得了SUV和皮卡等车种的生产许可证。2004年2月24日，奥克斯在北京正式宣布将大举进入汽车业：计划在4年之内投入80亿资金，最终实现45万辆的年产能。 但是，消费者也许会问，空调企业生产出来的汽车能有真正品质保障吗？与此同时，面对强势品牌如云、竞争激烈的汽车市场，奥克斯从一开始也显得“力不从心”：2004年2月，奥克斯SUV在销售了几千辆之后就匆匆宣布了退市，不但前期投入的4000万元打了水漂，而且还因对产品质量和售后服务等问题处置失当引发了社会各界和新闻媒体的广泛关注，这些更严重地损害了奥克斯原来在空调行业建立起来的品牌形象，最终成为品牌随意延伸的一大败笔。 与“奥克斯”相反的是，“格力”则坚守“空调”这一领域，并取得了巨大的成功。从1995年至今，专注于空调领域的“格力”已经连续14年产销量、市场占有率稳居中国空调行业第一的宝座。2008年，“格力”的全球用户超过八千多万。 格力与奥克斯的成败之别，就在于是否扎实专注于空调领域的技术创新、精品意识的培、品牌含金量的锻造和产品可靠性试验和研究上。 我们知道，每一个成功的品牌，都有具体的特定市场定位，所占领的市场空间都是有限的。在这种时候，如果实施品牌延伸，或者用相关品牌去填补前一个品牌留下的市场空间，将会占有更多的市场份额。在这一方面，最成功的案例当属实施多品牌战略的宝洁公司。宝洁的多品牌营销使每一个个性鲜明的产品都能满足不同消费群体的需要，从而使各个品牌都在消费者心目中留下深刻的印象，从而获得自己应有的市场定位。 不过，宝洁与奥克斯的最大不同就在于，宝洁的品牌延伸是在专注于日化产品的基础上作出的品牌延伸，而奥克斯轻率地涉足汽车与空调这两个在消费者心目中并无太多相关性的企业，盲目进行品牌延伸，只会透支品牌的影响力，带来负面影响。因此，企业是否应该进行品牌延伸，无不必须建立在充分的市场调查与分析上。