BEIJING, Aug. 2 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: HK08235), analyzes how TCL can further its development by adopting a new brand strategy.
Today, TCL officially announced its new brand strategy, the core of which was the combination of three English words, namely "The Creative Life". It replaced its original slogan, "Today China Lion", and offered fresh meaning to the TCL brand.
As the first and only company in China whose name and brand only adopts English spelling, TCL has quietly changed the connotation of its brand, indicating that it has become increasingly more mature in terms of brand conception. The conceptual content of a brand can be understood as the idea proposed or formed in the process of consumption. Such an idea may bring certain benefits to consumers, such as Haier's idea of "Perpetual Sincerity" and Panasonic's idea of "Idea For Life". However, "Today China Lion", TCL’s previous brand slogan, was neither clear nor scientific. What's more, it was more indicative of TCL's frivolous conduct and arrogance in the 26 years since its inception. It was just a kind of superficial decoration and has deviated from the philosophy of business operation, which regards its customers as its ultimate goal.
Previously, TCL paid more attention to industrial scale and competition between the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain. However, it neglected the demand of consumers, which was the most important issue. Its public branding could not be associated with the features of products that targeted meeting the demands of users. TCL enjoyed a certain brand influence in the past. But its products were not popular among consumers. Though the brand value of TCL increased from 690 million Yuan in 1995 to 36.2 billion Yuan in 2006, rising 52 times, its brand image and position has not increased simultaneously at all. This is the very reason why Mr. Li Dongsheng decided to give TCL a "face change".
With the coming of the quality-oriented consumption age, industrial design coupled with originality has become the general tendency in the consumption of electronic products worldwide. TCL’s existing way of thinking must be changed. More emphasis must be put on consumers' demand. This is one of the bright spots of TCL's new brand strategy. Of course, whether TCL’s new branding is accepted by consumers shall eventually be decided by the public. Only when a new brand conception can help to create more value for consumers and enhance the product in terms of performance, package, channel, company image and service, will users choose and accept the product. Thus, the new branding of TCL should not simply be a slogan. It should be implemented and adhered to.
In fact, the "face change" of TCL symbolizes a great shift of its key strategy. The new brand conception not only conveys its wish for communicating with consumers, but also indicates the developing strategy and orientation of the enterprise in the future. Brand strategy is one of the key links to the overall strategy of an enterprise. All factors associated with enterprise competition, including enterprise vision, value, strategic planning, organization, business processes, production and sales, management and operation, human resources and enterprise culture should all be realized via brand strategy. Thus, brand strategy must follow the guidelines and basic principles of overall strategy. It must be realized by tactical operations such as product, price, channel and advertisement and media, among others. Therefore, it can be said that brand strategy enhances brand building to the level of enterprise operation strategy, and that the operation strategy targets the creation of brand value and construction of a brand with power. Guided by the conception of "Today China Lion", TCL had completed its brand expansion from the home market to the overseas market. After experiencing setbacks in the overseas market in the past few years, TCL has reconsidered its developing strategy over the past 30 years and realized that the un-adaptability between its industry scale and investment in creativity was the key issue hindering the development of TCL.
In the process of global competition, creativity has become the key foundation for developing brand competitiveness. It is also the essential element for gaining core technology or core competitiveness. Any kind of effort made for outer development will be dangerous without the support of strong technical storage and development of self-originality. LG and Samsung, two well-known brands in South Korea, have successfully completed their expansion into the European market. However, their success is based on their strong technical and resources storage. Now, both LG and Samsung have gained footholds in the European market. Opposite of Samsung and LG, TCL started to explore the overseas market blindly when it was still not competitive enough in China. In fact, its business was dull. Currently, TCL has adjusted its strategy of rapid expansion and changed from seeking scale in the past to the pursuit of quality. As Mr. Li Dongsheng said, TCL has not put expansion of an industrial scale as its priority. Instead, it has changed to emphasize operation quality. The future goal of TCL has changed to become pragmatic innovation. What should be pointed out is that TCL has abandoned its previous conception and started to implement new ideas. TCL will implement new deployments in various aspects, as well as develop new and scientific ideas and strategies in 5 key areas including multimedia, communication, computers and household appliances.
CCID Consulting’s analysis concludes that whether the new brand conception of TCL, namely "The Creative Life", is accepted by the public lies in its successive launch of related products and whether its brand marketing is recognized by consumers, as well as how it combines its efforts to the connotation of "The Creative Life". CCID Consulting expects that TCL will create its own brand recognition via specific and differentiated product design and service marketing, instead of simply via the new conception. CCID Consulting believes that the new brand conception of TCL will be able to shoulder the great responsibility of the development of TCL Group. Good luck, TCL!
About CCID Consulting
CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. (also known as CCID Consulting), the first Chinese consulting firm listed in the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange (GEM) of Hong Kong (stock code: HK08235), is a direct affiliate of the China Center for Information Industry Development (hereinafter known as CCID Group). Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has so far set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Harbin, with over 300 professional consultants and industry experts. The Company's business scope has covered over 200 large- and medium-sized cities in China. Apart from home market development, CCID Consulting is establishing international cooperation links across the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, by setting up agents in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Italy and Russia, with the aim of going global.
Based on four major competitive areas of powerful data channels, industrial resources, intense knowledge and deep understanding of information technology, CCID Consulting provides customers with consulting, research and IT outsourcing services covering strategy planning, IT application, marketing strategy, human resources and information technology outsourcing. Our customers range from industrial users in IT, telecommunications, energy, finance, automobile, to government departments at all levels and diversified industrial parks.
CCID Consulting is committed to becoming the No. 1 brand for strategy consulting, the No. 1 consultant for enterprise management and the No. 1 expert in market research. For more information, please visit our website at http://en.ccidconsulting.com/.
For more information, please contact:
Jia Fan
Coordinating Manager
CCID Consulting Co., Ltd
Tel: +86-10-8855-9012
Email: fanjia@ccidconsulting.com
