BRANDING: Comment - 'Made in China' not a negative for savvy consumers of today

This would imply that a brand's country of origin is becoming less significant an issue in the minds of the Chinese consumer. Academic research has shown that a brand's origin can add or detract from that brand's image. So, if you can link your brand to an appropriate origin, then you can enhance your brand's credentials. Globally, there are many brands which, chameleon-like, look like they are from somewhere else. At launch, Giordano was a good name for a fashion brand. Minere sounds French even though it is a water from Thailand. Other brands talk about being 'styled in Italy' or 'containing German technology'.

In 1998, TBWA completed a quantitative survey on country positionings in China. An interesting result of this research was that only two countries stand for a particular product class: Switzerland equals watches and Australia equals dairy. No other country, at that time, was positioned by products.

However, Chinese consumers did have a strong perception of the qualities they associate with products from specific countries. In 2003, ChinaLoop and TBWA\Shanghai launched 'Guan'; a quarterly, internet-based survey.

Last December, Guan specifically looked at 'country of origin' effects.

What is significant in this survey is that the relative positionings of countries by product attributes has not changed. Australia is still positioned around the attribute of 'natural'. Germany still stands for products which are well crafted and of high quality.

As we acknowledge the increasing credibility of Chinese brands like Haier, it is interesting to note how China, as a brand, has tracked in the past five years. Whereas in 1998 China was not clearly positioned against any specific attribute, in 2003 the country was in a similar position to Taiwan and associated with three key attributes: 'for Chinese', 'practical' and 'value for money'.

So who is leading who? It could be argued that a country's positioning is significantly affected by its brands.

For example, the global stature of Toyota and Sony has a significant impact on other Japanese brands. We would expect TCL, Haier, Bird and other Chinese brands to have a similar effect on 'made in China'. 'Country of origin' is not important for all product classes. As a consumer in Beijing said: "I worry about the country of origin when I'm buying expensive stuff like cosmetics, high fashion clothes and high tech stuff." Which partly explains why some of the early China successes like Giordano sound Italian, Haier German and Maxam cosmetics sounds European.