One of the topics at London Business School’s recent Global Leadership Summit centered on the challenges posed by brand engagement in an ever more crowded global marketplace.
Nirmalya Kumar, a marketing professor at London Business School, has now been asking what brand engagement can do for Chinese brands in an analysis for Forbes.
Kumar acknowledges that awareness of Chinese brands is not nearly as high as their contribution to the global marketplace might allow, but fully expects this to end. “In the coming decade, Chinese brands are going to become increasingly ubiquitous in the Western world,” he writes.
The key is brand engagement, the author of Brand Breakout: How Emerging Market Brands Will Go Global argues. Chinese brands can still be hampered by lingering consumer perceptions that their products sacrifice quality for price. Tackling this head on would be the first step, he posits, towards building the kind of brand engagement that would allow companies such as Haier and Lenovo to make inroads in the West.
Japan and South Korea are held up as examples of how to do this successfully, although with the added caveat that successful brand engagement requires long-term planning. As companies in China and other emerging markets become increasingly conscious of this, the lack of awareness of their products in the global marketplace can be successfully addressed.
Between 1990 and 2010, emerging markets’ share of global output doubled from 20% to 40% and it is merely a matter of time before this share surpasses that of developed countries, Kumar predicts.
The global marketplace, and the opportunities provided by it, was also a central theme in a speech made by the UK’s shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, as the Labour Party kicked off its ‘Economy Week’ at London Business School yesterday. Balls, as well as admitting the mistakes of his party’s former administration under Tony Blair, emphasized the importance of engaging with the global marketplace and being seen as ‘pro-business’.
“Turning our face as a nation against the rest of the world and the opportunities of globalization is the road to national impoverishment,” Balls told his London Business School audience as the UK’s principal opposition continues its bid to topple current prime minister, David Cameron, at next year’s elections.
Tim is a writer with a background in consumer journalism and charity communications. He trained as a journalist in the UK and holds degrees in history (BA) and Latin American studies (MA).
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