Brand Expansion: China's Race to Conquer World Markets

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/chinese-brands-expanding-into-world-markets-a-942094.html



Chinese firms have embarked on a quest to conquer the world market. Several have already done so, with the help of Western know-how. Established rivals are making the mistake of underestimating them -- until it's too late.

Brand Expansion: China's Race to Conquer World Markets
By Wieland Wagner
January 08, 2014 – 04:38 PM

The name Haier, a leading Chinese brand for household goods, originates from Liebherr, the German company that set up a joint venture with a Chinese company almost three decades ago. Liebherr taught its partner to build modern fridges. It needed to, because 20 percent of the Chinese manufacturer's output at the time was faulty.

Haier boss Zhang Ruimin started out by handing his surprised workers sledgehammers to destroy all the malfunctioning fridges they had made. The shock therapy worked. The state-owned business started to expand its market share in China, where it acquired many smaller competitors. Then it went international, and now it has an 8 percent share of the world market for household appliances.

The Chinese brand (its advertising slogan is "Haier and Higher&quot is well established in Germany as well. The group has a research center in Nuremberg that develops dishwashers for the European market. It bought a fridge factory from Meneghetti in Italy and is building a plant in Poland -- due to go into operation in June -- in cooperation with a partner. Haier has achieved what many companies from emerging economies aim to do: The company from the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao has established itself as a global consumer brand. It has become a serious competitor for Western companies, even in their home markets.

"If a country has no global brand, it can't be on top," says Haier boss Zhang, inspiring other Chinese CEOs to follow his example.

[pscot]

1. It a struggle to get to the top of a sandpile

while the whole damned thing is sliding out from under us. It makes me sad to realize we're really no different than lemmings. We just can't stop, no matter what the cost or the exigencies of our situation.