According to the 2023 Fortune Global 500 list released on August 2 this year, a total of 142 Chinese companies are on the list, including Taiwanese companies. The number of enterprises in Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong) is 135, and the number of state-owned enterprises supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission is 46 on the list, and a total of 97 state-owned enterprises are on the list.
Central enterprises are an important business card of China's national image and an important window for the world to pay attention to China. In recent years, state-owned central enterprises have continuously promoted the construction of world-class enterprises, and great progress has been made in various tasks. To enter the international market, it is necessary to have an international enterprise, and an international enterprise needs to have an international brand. To become a world-class enterprise with global competitiveness, central enterprises need to be able to occupy a dominant position in the allocation of international resources, lead the technological development of the global industry, and have the right to speak and influence in the development of the global industry. Walmart has been the world's largest company for the tenth year in a row. Among the top 10 companies on the list, there are 5 American companies, namely Walmart, Amazon, ExxonMobil, Apple, and UnitedHealth Group; There are 3 Chinese enterprises, namely State Grid, China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, and Interbrand in collaboration with Business Week in the United States to release the 2023 Top 100 Best Global Brands list, and 3 central enterprises including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Mobile, and Ping An of China are on the list. Judging from the list of the world's top 500 companies over the years, the European and American companies on the list are often world-class brands, and the products exported are also for markets around the world. In contrast, the world's top 500 central enterprises such as State Grid, PetroChina, Sinopec, etc., and the top 100 global brands are on the list of central enterprises, and the market of these enterprises is basically domestic. This reminds me of what Wang Jianlin once said, state-owned enterprises are not called enterprises, they are called industries. The cause of the dilemmaAmong the Fortune Global 500 Chinese companies, state-owned enterprises are the main force. Although China is the second largest country in the world's top 500, it is still big but not strong on the whole. Changing from big to strong has become the new goal of state-owned enterprises. From 2003 to 2017, the number of enterprises supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission decreased from 185 in 2003 to 98 in 2017. Through restructuring and integration, state-owned capital is concentrated in important industries and key areas related to the lifeline of the national economy and the national economy and people's livelihood. Under the new development pattern of "dual circulation", brand building has become a necessary part of how central enterprises can carry out the construction of world-class enterprises. Brand is the "stepping stone" and "moat" for enterprises to open up the market. The brand of central enterprises is also an important carrier of the national image. From the perspective of enterprise positioning, central enterprises are not monopolistic competitive enterprises. Central enterprises usually have the characteristics of administrative monopoly, such as military industry, petroleum, telecommunications, electric power and other industries, and enterprises cannot enter freely. Before 2000, some central enterprises even assumed industry management responsibilities. This kind of monopoly enterprise lacks competitiveness and lacks the motivation to make a brand. From the perspective of property rights, central enterprises are all state-owned enterprises. **Enterprises have three major responsibilities, the first responsibility is economic responsibility, the second responsibility is social responsibility, and the third responsibility is political responsibility. If central enterprises continue to adhere to the three major responsibilities, "going overseas" to become a world-class brand will face many challenges. In the current world political and economic environment, if our central enterprises go to the United States or other countries around the world to talk about their political responsibilities, the answer is obviously no. If we talk about political responsibility at home and not abroad, it is obviously not possible to "separate" in this way. From the perspective of the elements of the interbrand brand evaluation model, the central enterprises are also deficient in branding. The Interbrand brand evaluation model is: V P S. Among them: V - brand value P - brand net profit S - brand strength Interbrand. The evaluation model emphasizes three core contents: First, the future revenue of the brand is the core indicator of brand evaluation. The second is the combination of financial analysis, market analysis and product analysis. The third is to link the discount rate with the strength of the brand, so as to estimate the risk of the brand's future earnings being converted into actual returns. Enhancing brand value requires a large investment. These investments include advertising, public relations, exhibitions, seminars, forums, marketing, corporate social responsibility expenditures, etc. Starting from the "one profit and five rates" operating index system of central enterprises, enterprises may consider these investments to be a burden. Due to various reasons, the brand recognition of central enterprises "going to sea" in the international is not high, the language of corporate philosophy is old and similar, the propaganda context is more suitable for China, and the goal of brand culture construction and communication is not clear, and the methods and ways are not clear. Brand building is far from being as simple as creating awareness for the company or promising customers, but it is a process of building the soul of the company and spreading it to all partners both inside and outside the company, so that customers can truly get all the value promised by the brand, says Professor Philip Kotler in "B2B Brand Management". Kevin Ryan Keller in the book "Strategic Brand Management", which is known as the "bible" of the brand, also clearly pointed out that the brand name and logo are meaningful only when they occupy a certain position in the minds of customers. In order to be a world-class brand, central enterprises must first reposition themselves to carry out brand culture communication, so as to obtain orders, open up new markets, and achieve the purpose of enterprise development. Many construction companies simply use the form of advertisements and news advertorials to promote the company and brand, and only pay attention to the dissemination of information on performance, project progress, safety and quality control, etc., and less on the dissemination of management experience, touching stories, corporate values, etc. Even the "two skins" of cultural communication and product marketing of enterprises directly lead to a mismatch between communication content, channels and target audiences. Due to the particularity of central enterprises, the evaluation of communication should also pay attention to practical results, and prevent formalism and superficial articles. Otherwise, what looks good on the surface is just a flowery text in the report materials, which is actually difficult for the enterprise to play its due role. Brand building is a long-term process, and it is also a long-term and continuous process. Therefore, the evaluation of communication should also be viewed over a longer period of time, and should not be limited to one time and one place, and should not be limited to quick success. Stones of other mountainsFrom a soda drink to a culture, Coca-Cola has witnessed two world wars and several world economic crises. Today, 1.7 billion consumers around the world drink Coca-Cola products every day. From the perspective of Coca-Cola's development, the key point was World War II. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the Pacific War broke out. On the same day, the United States declared its entry into the war. The Coca-Cola Company decided to also "go to war". By the end of the war in 1945, the United States sent about 20 million troops to the European theater. Robert, the head of the Coca-Cola Company at the time, said: "No matter how our fighters go to the first place, the company will do whatever it takes to ensure that every soldier can drink a bottle of Coca-Cola for only 5 cents." Like chocolate, cigarettes, and chewing gum, Coca-Cola has become a military item for the U.S. military. When you see an American GI, you will see the Coca-Cola logo. So during World War II, Coca-Cola and the Stars and Stripes were almost the same. The Coca-Cola Company provided Coca-Cola concentrate to the U.S. military and, with the assistance of the military, built factories on the front lines to meet supplies. During World War II, Coca-Cola built a total of 64 bottling plants at U.S. military sites. These bottling plants became Coca-Cola's global base. Based on this, Coca-Cola has expanded a huge global production system and sales network, and has become an "accelerator" for global layout. The way to break the gameChinese companies need to approach the world stage. How to show the world a real, three-dimensional and comprehensive China has become an important task for the internationalization of central enterprise brands. In recent years, the world's business competition has become more prominent brand power. From Chinese products to Chinese brands, brand building is the only way for the country to move towards high-quality development, and it is also an important foundation for first-class enterprises to build world-class enterprises. A first-class country needs a first-class brand, and a first-class enterprise needs a first-class culture. After years of development, central enterprises have formed a number of national business cards with independent intellectual property rights, such as high-speed rail, nuclear power, UHV, etc., and cultivated brands with wide popularity and influence such as "China Aerospace", "China Construction", "CRRC" and "Hongqi". More and more business cards made in China have risen to the national image business card through effective overseas social communication, and strive to spread China's national image, and the advantages of central enterprises are also an unshirkable mission. In the ever-changing international environment, on the basis of seeking the development and scale of their own enterprises, central enterprises must inevitably take the road of "going overseas" market competition and brand building. How to break the situation, maybe the development of Coca-Cola will give us some inspiration. In the face of the challenges of European and American countries in the fields of market, technology and other fields, the central enterprises to participate in the "Belt and Road" joint construction to achieve enterprise "going to sea" and brand internationalization will be the key way to break the situation. Through in-depth cooperation with China-friendly countries in various industries and fields, in a relatively fair and safe market environment, central enterprises have actively responded to the Belt and Road Initiative with substantive measures. Central enterprises are the "main force" and play an important role in the construction of the "Belt and Road". As of October 2023, ** enterprises have invested in more than 5,000 projects in more than 140 co-construction countries, involving more than 1 trillion US dollars. On the basis of promoting the "hard connection" of infrastructure, central enterprises can refer to Coca-Cola's "accelerator" model in terms of products and brands "going overseas", so as to finally realize the global layout and brand globalization of enterprises and achieve the goal of building first-class enterprises. The way to innovateAt present, information dissemination has entered the era of social networking, and the mode of communication and information carriers are undergoing great changes. Coca-Cola, Apple and other companies have opened social accounts for their own brand communication. Central enterprises need to adapt to the new communication environment and communication rules, build and operate independent, controllable, timely and effective overseas social networking of central enterprises, tell the story of central enterprises, spread the national image, and serve the construction of the "Belt and Road". The key to branding is communication. The key to communication effectiveness lies in content and channels. To do a good job in overseas social networking of central enterprises, it is necessary to refine the distribution of content and carry out accurate communication in terms of cultural life, focus of attention, social psychology, personality psychology and demand status of different countries, industries and different audiences. In terms of content, the national color is weakened and the localized service attribute is emphasized. At present, some multinational companies are trying their best to dilute the country's specificity in overseas social ** operations, and more prominently serve the people of the host country. In the process of overseas communication, central enterprises should also dilute the national color and political attributes, strengthen the customer-centric corporate attributes, focus on disseminating the service willingness and service ability of the country where they are located, and better integrate into the local area, so as to be easily accepted by the locals, so as to achieve the purpose of brand communication. Speak human words in precise communication, and seek to resonate with the same frequency as users. The user here is equal to the enterprise, not only the audience role in the field of communication. Only humanity can penetrate people's hearts. Actively engage in dialogue and empathy. Putting aside the news and advertorials of reporting materials, we can produce self-consistent content with facts, logic, and opinions, and personify expressions, so as to establish a new spiritual communication and trust link. On the basis of fully considering the company's own positioning, establish a demand-centric, product-centric, category-centric, and market-centric brand development strategy, and plan an overseas development model suitable for the company. Starting from the needs of international communication, solve the problem of corporate brand positioning. Brand positioning is to allow consumers to clearly identify the characteristics of the brand and the core values of the brand. When central enterprises "go overseas", they should strive for accurate positioning when positioning their brands, and at the same time leave room for development. Referring to the practices of Coca-Cola, Gamble and other companies, we should first focus on one point and one direction, build a brand that matches the strength of the enterprise, and promote the rapid increase in value of the brand through resource focus. Strengthen exchanges, cooperation and training. Central enterprises should strengthen exchanges with world-class enterprises, and learn from Xi advanced brand concepts and brand building methods in a targeted manner. Brand building requires a process, and impatience must be addressed from the top down. The immediate effect can be short-term or detrimental in the long term. The development of everything has its natural laws, and any well-known brand also has a step-by-step development process. It is not advisable to lose rationality as long as the result, do not want the process, or even blindly solve the problem through the hype of events and use marketing to "burn money". The brand of the central enterprise group is different from the product and service brand of the subordinate two ** companies, and it must be examined from the perspective of the main business of the central enterprise and its own positioning, based on the perspective of the enterprise organization, fully consider the expectations and demands of all stakeholders and strive to balance, and finally realize the group brand and each sub-brand have their own focus and organic unity. Under this premise, central enterprises need to do a good job in brand planning, integrate internal resources from a strategic perspective, promote the coordinated development between brands, and amplify the synergistic effect of parent and sub-brands in order to achieve unification.
1. Coordinated and clear brand image. This requires us to pay attention to the following issues in brand planning, brand naming should be distinct, can not be separated from the product, brand naming should be accurate, but also should leave space, brand differentiation, enterprise VI logo should be internationalized. It is also very important that Chinese enterprises will encounter various public opinion risks due to political, economic, environmental and other reasons. Public opinion monitoring and crisis public relations are particularly important, and plans, strategies, decision-making processes, responses, and repairs are indispensable. An enterprise, a brand, and a leader can only build a more profound pattern and vision by establishing their lives with the feelings of their family and country and daring to shoulder their responsibilities. With the strength of the good wind, it swayed 90,000 miles. Taking the opportunity of jointly building the "Belt and Road" and under the guidance of the national strategy, the central enterprises "going to sea" have not forgotten their original intentions, are not arrogant or impatient, and are solid and enterprising, so as to create a new wonderful period on the road to building a world-class enterprise.