Small local specialties can also become big brands, and it all comes down to these four key tools
China has a vast territory and abundant resources. Its distinctive historical traditions, folk customs, regional landforms and other factors have created local specialties with strong regional character, including food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and native products. Relying on this "local specialty" label, a group of far-sighted enterprises have already gone global and become world-famous specialty enterprises.
However, what we see more often is many specialty enterprises staying in one corner and struggling forward. After years of scrambling within regional public brands, they still have not managed to expand beyond their home region. What are the pros and cons for our regional specialty enterprises in using regional public brands, and what is the key for enterprises to turn products from "small" local specialties into big brands?
1. The pros and cons of regional public brands.
There is a path to brand building called regional public branding (including geographical indication products), and this brand-building method has become popular in many places. I believe that over-reliance on regional public brands is a major pitfall for specialty enterprises in building brands!
What is a regional public brand for agricultural products? It refers to an agricultural product brand under a regional concept that is jointly owned and jointly enjoyed in terms of brand reputation by relevant institutions, enterprises, farmers and others within a specific region. For example: Yangcheng Lake hairy crab, Gannan navel orange, West Lake Longjing tea, and so on.
Agricultural products grow by relying on natural resources, so they naturally have regional characteristics. Therefore, for the sake of the same specialty and common interests, operators within a region joining hands to build a shared brand has its own natural rationality. First, more people mean greater strength and higher enthusiasm, and results come relatively quickly. Second, the government and associations also have motivation, making it convenient to support and promote this through policies and resources. Third, once the brand is built well, the boost to the local economy can radiate across the whole area, not just to one enterprise.
However, this brand method has an inherent fatal flaw: the day the brand is built and shows effect is the day problems appear. The more the brand effect becomes apparent, the more prominent the problems become. In recent years, the "booming" Yangcheng Lake hairy crab brand is the best negative example.
The "Yangcheng Lake" brand was registered as a trademark by the Suzhou Crab Industry Association, which is the actual owner of the trademark, while crab farming is done by scattered farmers. The association does not specifically operate the business, and the brand owner is separated from the product operator.
Every year, before authentic Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs are even caught, counterfeit Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs have already begun to be sold in major supermarkets and in numerous specialty stores named after "Yangcheng Lake hairy crab." "The number of fake crabs is at least 5 to 10 times that of real crabs, and the ratio of real to fake crabs nationwide is far above 1 to 10." said Yang Weilong, president of the Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Industry Association.
When a brand name incorporates a public place name such as "Yangcheng Lake" or "Changchun Songhua River," no amount of legal measures can block all the ways these names are used. That is because such generic names cannot possibly be monopolized and exclusively enjoyed by one enterprise. Using a name that cannot be monopolized as a trademark and brand name is an innate drawback in regional brand work!
Only whoever owns it and operates it will cherish it. In regional public brands, the brand owner is separated from the product operator. In the end, things may look lively, but the purpose of building the brand is not achieved. Now, Wuchang rice, following Yangcheng Lake hairy crab, is repeating the same mistake: comprehensive promotion - nationwide crackdown on counterfeits - everyone gets hurt. The deputy mayor of Wuchang led a team on a nationwide undercover crackdown on counterfeits and nearly got beaten up. This is obviously not the original intent of brand building.
2. Borrow the advantages of regional public brands to build a commercial brand belonging to the enterprise itself.
If you only build a regional public brand, you will fall into the brand commons, like a public bus that anyone can ride. What should be done? Originate from the region but rise above the region, create a category, and borrow the advantages of the regional public brand to build a commercial brand belonging to the enterprise itself.
New Zealand's Zespri kiwifruit and Lenovo's Joyvio are worth learning from in handling the relationship between regional public brands and commercial brands. The government sets up the stage, enterprises perform the play, and then the government gradually withdraws, letting enterprises, that is, companies, step to the forefront and play the leading role, letting enterprises operate commercial brands and act according to market rules.
After New Zealand's kiwifruit industry rose, a situation of competition among many players formed, and the phenomenon of mutual price-cutting was severe. Seeing that the situation was about to become unmanageable, the New Zealand government stepped in to establish the New Zealand Kiwifruit Marketing Board to manage the market with administrative power, but the loose structure still had little binding force.
After painful reflection, the growers finally decided to jointly establish New Zealand Kiwifruit International Marketing Company, whose owners are New Zealand's 2,700 kiwifruit growers. The marketing company stipulated that New Zealand kiwifruit could only be sold through this one company and under the same brand. If any grower violated the rules, the company had the right to sue in court and impose severe penalties. This measure completely changed the chaotic market situation, and Zespri kiwifruit thereafter embarked on the brand path to becoming a globally renowned premium fruit.
3. Moving beyond regional public brands: the four key points for transforming "small" local specialties into big brands.
Fulai Brand Marketing Consulting, which has focused on branded agriculture for 15 years, has summarized four key points for success in its work helping regional public brands and geographical indication products create brands and increase sales:
First, enterprises must establish the concept of big specialties and do a good job in top-level design. Break through regional public brands and build enterprise brands. "Height determines vision, angle changes perspective." To make a specialty big, one must establish the concept of big specialties, that is, the concept of big food and broad food, and must not treat a specialty only as a specialty. If a small company wants to become a big enterprise, then it must follow the law of "big," not regard itself as a small company, look abroad, look globally, and develop toward national and global markets. To run an enterprise, first, one must have the ambition to grow big, and second, one must have the path and methods to grow big. This is top-level design.
Second, a regional public brand or geographical indication product is best operated by one company, not multiple companies. And the main body must definitely be a company, not the government or an industry organization, and even less a group of scattered growers. Of course, the company's shareholder structure can be diverse, and it should balance the interests of all parties in the place of origin and mobilize all forces.
Third, one company should focus on building one brand within one region or geographical indication category, not multiple brands. Only focus can make you big. For example, Yangcheng Lake should allow only one company to operate one regional public brand. Hairy crabs from other lakes can be used by other companies to build other brands, exploring and communicating excellent internal and external qualities different from Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs. Differentiation is what will make different brands succeed.
Fourth, a good product name will make the brand path twice as effective with half the effort. Adopt a scientifically named brand name. Abandon the practice of using a place name plus a category name as a brand name, such as "Yangcheng Lake hairy crab." Brands such as Zhuyeqing tea, Wujiang pickled mustard tuber, Zhongjing mushroom sauce, and Longda vermicelli are very successful excellent brands that have emerged from advantageous production areas and are worth learning from.
It is not that local specialties cannot succeed; it is that the vision is not big enough and the thinking is wrong. From local specialties to big specialties, it is necessary to break the consumer mindset and even more necessary to open up operators' business concepts and thinking. Vision determines thinking, and concepts determine methods. Break through regional public brands, make good use of the four key tools, build your own enterprise brand, and move toward the whole country.