Top 10 Business Brands in China (Part 2)

This is the end of our report on the top ten business brands in China. In the first two articles, we introduced the experience in brand management of the top seven of China's top ten business brands, namely Nokia (mobile phone), McKinsey (management consulting), IBM (laptop), BMW (automobile) ), Peking University Guanghua School of Management (Business School), Sony (Digital Cameras), Rolex (Watches).

In this article, Oracle, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard appear in that order as managers' top management software brands, desktop computer brands, and handheld computer brands, respectively.

Oracle: The Brand Comes From Leading Technology

Among the management software brands most admired by managers, Oracle won the top spot, ahead of SAP, which came in second. The two domestic brands of UFIDA and Kingdee are on the same level in terms of manager advocacy and belong to the second camp.

Oracle started as a database company and began to enter the management software field in 1997. Wang Chunwen, general manager of Oracle Greater China Enterprise Application Software, said: "Our biggest goal is to expand the Oracle management database brand to the management software brand. Technology leadership is the core of building a brand."

"CEConline": How did you feel when you learned that the Oracle brand was No. 1 in the management software category?

Wang Chunwen: It's very simple, just very excited. I feel that my past efforts have finally come to fruition.

Oracle Corporation has always been a database-based company, and has been pushing management software. It includes three types. The first type is the ERP that is often said, including finance, procurement, personnel management, etc.; the second is customer relationship management (CRM); the third is supply chain management.

Brands can give customers confidence. Confidence has several levels, the first is the quality of software and services, as well as understanding of the market and sustainable development in the market. Now, Netcom, Changan Automobile, Midea, etc. are our key customers. We have three major industry pillars, one is government, education, and health care; the other is communications, media, and public utilities; and the third is financial industry.

"CEConline": How is this role of the brand reflected in Oracle's sales performance?

Wang Chunwen: The brand gives customers confidence in our sales, so our management software business in Greater China has been growing. We have more than 2,000 management software customers throughout Asia Pacific, and more than 800 customers in Greater China, and the number is still growing. For example, in the second quarter of last year, global management software increased by 57% over the same period, and we are much higher than this figure in Asia Pacific. You can imagine how fast we are growing.

"CEConline": Compared with competitors, what is the advantage of the Oracle brand?

Wang Chunwen: Oracle's advantages in management software are, first, its technology is constantly leading, and our technology will always lead the market; second, it is closely related to customer needs and markets. Although some manufacturers have good technology, they don't know how to use this technology to help customers' business. We take care of our clients' needs. The third is the brand, the Oracle brand represents the guarantee of innovation and quality forever. We have a lot of inventions, we are always trend drivers, not followers, oracle stands for innovation forever.

Shen Yanping (Oracle Greater China PR Director): In addition, our database occupies such a large share in the world, which is actually our large customer base. The customer base of the database can be completely introduced to our management software. There are many years of mature partners, including China's top five distributors, is a very important advantage.

Wang Chunwen: Oracle is the only company in the world that provides complete end-to-end solutions: database, middleware, and management software. We provide them at different levels. The overall advantage of the Oracle brand is the end-to-end complete set of things.

"CEConline": Our survey results show that Oracle's current management software is already well-known, so what has the company done in brand promotion?

Shen Yanping: First of all, we must do well in technology and products that we have been advocating. It didn't take long for us to have a new feature come out, and finally all of our new features were accumulated, and more than 2000 pieces of suite 11i10 of the new e-commerce network were launched.

Second, we want to establish more customers to do our promotion. This is especially important in China to promote the brand through successful clients. In Chinese circles, special attention is paid to the communication between people. So we want to make sure to help big clients with successful implementations. Changan Automobile is a very typical example. His final return on investment is very high, about 265%. Therefore, we must build leaders in various industries and let them share with their peers in various industries after successful implementation.

The other is our partner. The domestic market has a huge geographical environment. If we want to expand our coverage and build a brand, the only way to succeed is to work with our partners. More than 85% of our domestic business is conducted through partners. There are two kinds of partners, one is a local partner, which mainly focuses on localized enterprises such as state-owned and private enterprises; the other, such as IBM, is also our partner, a partner of our global management software implementation, and they also contribute to our domestic brand building. very important.

In addition, we are proud that when a company wants to build a brand, the name is very important. So we applied for the word "Oracle" in China. These three words are very important. Oracle in English means oracle, a prophecy of the future; oracle bone inscriptions in Chinese are actually records of past history. For us, an information company, such a name is just right. In the promotion of our brand, the three characters of Oracle are indispensable. One more thing to add is our R&D center. Unlike other companies, Oracle's R&D center is one from the south and one from the north to localize products, which is more conducive to building our brand.

Wang Chunwen: Building a brand is actually very simple, including technology, end-to-end solutions, and successful customers. Why care about customers? We succeed because customers succeed, and customers are the best channel to help us build our brand.

CEConline: What do you think is the most difficult part of building a brand?

Wang Chunwen: Our focus is on leading technology, and at the same time customer-oriented and industry-oriented. How to communicate these concepts consistently to our partners, customers and media through different channels is the biggest challenge. Because different teams are required to communicate the same information to the outside world. Therefore, the brand is a consistent result, not something done by slogans and advertisements.

Shen Yanping: I will add one more. In the past few years, our promotion efforts in small and medium-sized enterprises have been very strong. Our e-commerce special edition is the small and medium-sized enterprise edition, which is specially aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises. We want to change the concept of making databases, but also the concept of only doing very large enterprises.

"CEConline": Will the penetration of SMEs dilute the brand positioning?

Wang Chunwen: No. Small and medium-sized enterprises in China are actually medium-sized enterprises or large-scale enterprises abroad. In the past, everyone thought that Oracle would not be involved in small and medium-sized enterprises, but it has changed in the past two years, because today's small and medium-sized enterprises will become large-scale enterprises tomorrow. We call them growth companies, they want to grow, and we grow with them. This is another means of building our application software brand.

"CEConline": In building a management software brand, you just mentioned that there are many aspects. Which do you think is the most important, such as technology and service?

Wang Chunwen: If you want to sort, it must be technology first. Because Oracle's core advantage is technology, we do not follow the market, but lead the market. Oracle always gives the impression that technology runs first. At the same time, we will also be close to the market, close to the demand, reflect the technology to different customers, and derive benefits. This is the core of our brand building.

"CEConline": You have been saying that Oracle is a company in transition, and now there are some media reports that Oracle's performance is not as good as some competitors such as SAP. What do you think is the relationship between Oracle's current temporary loss in the Chinese market and its brand recognition?

Wang Chunwen: From the point of view of management software, we have been working hard to build the top brand of management software in the past six months, and we have also been reorganizing in the past few months. Brands drive business, and at the same time, the adjustments we make internally play a driving role. A pull, a push, our performance should be better. We've been better quarter by quarter over the past few quarters, which is a record-breaking improvement we've ever made.

Dell: Customer experience is the core of the brand

Among the desktop computer brands most admired by managers, Dell and IBM ranked first and second, and domestic brand Lenovo ranked third, ahead of Apple. Fu Biaobang, president of Dell China and vice president of Asia Pacific, believes that the core of building a brand is to focus on customer experience and needs. The survey results show that users recognize Dell's strategy.

CEConline: What have you done to make the Dell brand what it is today?

Characteristics: We're delighted to see so many users trust and love Dell products. The findings also show a nod to Dell's longstanding customer-centric approach.

At Dell, we are committed to developing products and development strategies closely around customer needs by listening directly to customer feedback. Taking the award-winning Dell OptiPlex commercial desktop as an example, for enterprises and institutions that require extremely high stability and reliability systems in the network environment, we will use long life cycle, standardized technology, reliability, stability, and manageability. Core values such as serviceability and serviceability are included in Dell's business desktop products to help users reduce total cost of ownership.

In order to meet the needs of the vast number of Chinese users in a targeted manner, since 2002, Dell's "China Design Center" in Shanghai has also begun to design desktop computers including commercial PCs, thus officially incorporating China into the Dell's overall plan for global product development.

Timely response to customer needs has long been seen as an important factor in enhancing brand value. Some users have reported to us that the traditional desktop chassis design causes technicians to waste too much time disassembling and installing the system. After improvements, Dell has adopted a unique hinged chassis that allows users to open the chassis with the push of a button. This tool-less design makes major system components easier to operate, install and remove than ever before, making it easier for technicians to access the system even if repairs are occasionally required.

"CEConline": What is the overall strategy of Dell's brand building in China? Which of these strategies are globally consistent, and which ones are unique to China's situation?

Confucius: Dell's core strategy for brand building is to focus on customer experience and needs, so that Dell's products and technologies can maximize value for customers, so that customers can accept, recognize and trust the Dell brand. Specifically, we strive to allow customers to enjoy the best application experience with minimal investment by fully adopting standardized technologies, establishing close cooperative relationships with leading suppliers in the industry, improving service processes, and strengthening quality control. Great value for the Dell brand.

Dell's entire model reflects the principle of standardization, including the production and sales of products, customer support and service, and cooperation with suppliers. Dell's production efficiency has been greatly improved and manufacturing costs have been reduced due to the full adoption of standardized technologies.

In order to allow customers to quickly fully benefit from the latest technology, we will look for the most advantageous companies in the industry, and at the same time examine their product quality, corporate indicators, and customer commitments, and then cooperate with the world's leading software and hardware suppliers. The company has reached a close long-term cooperative relationship, and dedicates the latest technology based on industry standards to consumers in the first time. For example, the day after Intel launched its Centrino II chip, Dell launched a laptop with this latest set of chips.

From a customer perspective, service is an important factor in enhancing the app experience. It is also a 7X24 service, and many manufacturers transfer calls to engineers' mobile phones; while Dell arranges engineers to answer user calls at the factory 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so as to achieve the best customer satisfaction. In addition, we track service level data on a daily basis, especially focusing on the ability to quickly help companies solve problems when they face problems. To this end, we have opened Dell's first enterprise service command center in the Asia-Pacific region in China, providing 7x24x365 round-the-clock support for enterprise users in China.

Dell regards product quality as the fundamental factor to promote brand development, and takes scientific measures in all aspects of production, sales, and service to ensure the best quality for customers. Taking sales service as an example, Dell has launched the industry's unique custom factory integration (CFI) service, which completes the customer's needs in the factory at one time, effectively avoiding potential failures caused by self-installed systems or software. In addition, we deliver products directly from the factory to customers, ensuring users enjoy authentic Dell quality.

In a developing market like China, we prefer to view brand building as a long-term process of two-way interaction. We not only provide reliable products and services for Chinese enterprises, but also are committed to sharing Dell's successful experience in the global market with the majority of Chinese users, helping Chinese enterprises to establish a good development model, so that they can enjoy a long-term future. can benefit. Every year, we invite hundreds of state-owned enterprises to listen to Dell's experience report. This is a win-win cooperation and effectively enhances the value of Dell's brand in the eyes of users. The Dell brand has also come to represent a high-performing company, a high-efficiency company and a winning culture.

"CEConline": Compared with the sales methods of other desktop computer manufacturers, the most prominent feature of Dell is direct sales. Compared with this feature, what methods does Dell take in brand building?

Fulfillment: Kevin Rollins, the company's president and CEO, has said that the direct model means eliminating middlemen and their inefficiencies and high costs, but the fundamental purpose of the direct model is to build closer customer relationships and create more High customer value - that's the root cause of Dell's success. All our strategies, including branding, are developed around customer needs.

Thanks to this direct business model, we can quickly respond to market feedback and effectively launch and implement corresponding strategies. Dell implements Dell's key words such as "simple, flexible, direct, and efficient" into product development and manufacturing, customer service and technical support, etc., so as to truly implement the "customer-centric" concept and transform it into practice. Real customer value. No matter in pre-sale, in-sale, or after-sale, customers only need to call Dell directly to get the service support they need when they encounter problems. This is the huge advantage of the single-contact accountability system.

"CEConline": What do you think is the relationship between price and brand? With Dell's low price strategy, how does Dell support the brand? In the process of development, we continue to promote the popularization of standardized technology, and directly return the cost saved by the cost reduction of parts to customers at the fastest speed, so that they can enjoy the updated industry standard technology at a very advantageous price.

For example, a dozen years ago the selling price of a computer was about $2,500; today the price is less than $1,000, which is the "Dell effect". It is because of the "Dell Effect" that more customers can buy our products and enjoy our value. So for users, the Dell brand is the embodiment of value.

"CEConline": The computer is a product that Dell started, and as the "Dell Computer" company changed its name to "Dell", Dell also began to enter other fields. In this process, how to keep Dell's brand on computers cohesive and not dispersed, and how does Dell's desktop brand management cooperate with the management of other brands to coordinate development? It forms a complementary relationship with the existing product line, and the launch of new products extends the joint effect of the Dell brand. Facts show that a complete set of Dell solutions that integrate desktops, laptops, servers, storage devices, and even various peripheral products and services is favored by many enterprise users. Therefore, when expanding into new product areas, the full play of the brand effect has driven the overall development of Dell's overall product line.

"CEConline": How does Dell understand the current competitive situation, and what brand strategy will Dell adopt to maintain its dominant position in desktop computers?

Fu Baobang: We are concerned about It's not about new competition, but how to close customer relationships, listen carefully to customer suggestions, pursue good quality, and constantly measure whether you are doing better than others. This is Dell's philosophy.

Dell is confident that it will do better than its competitors in meeting customer needs. Because we have a "direct operation" model that can accurately, timely and effectively maintain contact with customers; coupled with our high efficiency in supply chain management, and the global strategic cooperation established with the industry's best software and hardware manufacturers, To ensure that Dell can produce higher performance and quality products at lower prices.

A relentless pursuit of the "best customer experience" has made Dell the world's premier supplier of computers and related products. In the future, Dell will pay close attention to the subtle changes in user needs, give full play to the advantages of the direct business model, start from both products and services, truly closely integrate user needs, and provide Chinese users with more valuable solutions.

Hewlett-Packard: Adhere to Positioning to Achieve Brands

Among the handheld computer brands most admired by managers, foreign brands are still in the forefront, with HP and Sony ranking first and second respectively, with little difference. Among the domestic brands, the Patriot brand is in a leading position.

Zhang Yongli, Vice President of Information Products and Commercial Channels Group of China Hewlett-Packard Co., Ltd., said in an interview that brand building takes time, and we must stick to the original positioning of the brand, otherwise users will not know what the brand represents.

CEConline: During our survey, HP's iPAQ was the most admired brand among managers in the handheld category. What do you think HP has done to make iPAQ such a preference?

Zhang Yongli: HP was the first handheld computer manufacturer in the world to release a Windows-based operating system, which established the HP iPAQ in the field of handheld computers. leadership. iPAQ has always been aimed at business applications, and mainly for high-end users.

Brand building takes time, and it is critical to make users accept a brand over a long period of time. However, it should be noted that the brand positioning should not be changed frequently, otherwise the user's understanding of the brand will be unclear. Therefore, we have positioned iPAQ as a personal business application from a very early stage, and therefore the application software and ease of use we designed for iPAQ are all aimed at business applications. After one year, two years and more, each generation of iPAQ is launched with the goal of commercial use, so the image of iPAQ's high-end business application is gradually established, and the brand image of iPAQ is established in this way.

"CEConline": So you think persistence is the most important factor in brand building?

Zhang Yongli: Yes, because it takes time to build a brand, you can't always change the brand's positioning, otherwise users will I don't know what the brand stands for.

"CEConline": We all know that after the merger of HP and Compaq, an important decision was made, that is, to keep the iPAQ brand, and the original HP PDA brand Jornada gradually withdrew from the market. How was this decision made in the first place? How did the two brands achieve a smooth transition? What specific methods were used to achieve this transition?

Zhang Yongli: We finally chose to keep the iPAQ brand for the global decisions made by the market. We decided to use iPAQ as the brand of the entire HP handheld computer because we saw that the two brands in the market were both leading in the pulling force and sales volume of iPAQ. From the merger of HP and Compaq in 2002, it took us about half a year to a year to make the transition. It is now 2005, and we are completely past the transition phase.

For us, the transition between the two brands, iPAQ and Jornada, was relatively easy because Jornada and iPAQ have the same user base. The specific transition method is that during the transition period, although Jornada products are no longer produced, we still have to retain services for Jornada users for a certain period of time, because existing Jornada users still need to buy accessories, we have to give users Transition time, this process lasted about six months to one year. During this transition process, we did not receive any complaints from users; and after the merger, the sales of iPAQ have been showing a steady growth trend, which shows that our transition is very successful.

"CEConline": Are HP's handheld computers also divided into several categories, so as to face different users?

Zhang Yongli: Before the end of 2004, the iPAQ handheld computer we launched was For personal business applications, we will launch different models, and the products are also divided into high-end, mid-end and low-end, but the target user groups are always the same. However, since the end of last year, we have made a new attempt, that is, we have launched a product iPAQ rx3715 with powerful multimedia functions, so that iPAQ has developed in both commercial and personal application fields.

"CEConline": In response to this change, has HP iPAQ adjusted its brand strategy accordingly?

Zhang Yongli: iPAQ has not made any major changes in branding. The iPAQ launch of this multimedia-capable machine is also in line with HP's overall development direction. HP has an advantage in the consumer market, and we hope that the iPAQ can develop simultaneously in the business application market and the consumer market.

"CEConline": Has iPAQ researched what kind of people its specific customer group is? Can you give a specific description?

Zhang Yongli: In fact, before the launch of each generation of iPAQ, we will meet all over the world. Do a lot of research, the survey will involve many countries, including the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. We found that iPAQ is still mainly concentrated in the field of personal business applications. We will investigate these users' preferences for the color of the machine, the preference for the size of the machine, the price of the product should have different levels, and the level of user acceptance. In terms of application, the application software launched at the same time as the machine, the vertical application of commercial software in a certain field and the corresponding solutions, we will consider these aspects every time we launch a generation of iPAQ.

We have conducted surveys in many regions, but we have not done this survey specifically for the Chinese market. Because from our research on the market, there is no obvious difference between Chinese users and users in other countries in terms of business applications.

"CEConline": Just now you talked about not building an iPAQ model specifically for the Chinese market; then, in terms of brand building, has iPAQ launched any strategy for the Chinese market?

Zhang Yongli: I think this is a problem It should be viewed in this way, that is, it is not that iPAQ does not launch models specifically for the Chinese market, but through research we found that the personal business application user groups we target in the Chinese market are the same as iPAQ's user groups in other regions. There is not much difference, so there is no need to design specifically for a certain area.

In terms of iPAQ branding, we have not adopted a significantly different approach in the Chinese market than in other regions, because the iPAQ positioning is the same. If there is one difference between the Chinese market and other countries, it is that the promotion methods of iPAQ are very different. This is because, at present, the Chinese market is not very mature in the application of handheld computers, and many of the users of handheld computers in China today are individual users. The areas with more developed handheld computer applications have more industrial applications, and there will be many solutions, such as the application of GPS positioning and navigation systems. However, these applications are still relatively few in China.

"CEConline": It seems that the overall development of handheld computers in the world is not particularly good, and manufacturers such as Sony seem to intend to withdraw from this field. Why does HP still take a high-flying attitude in this field?

Zhang Yongli: Because we believe that PDAs will gradually merge with what is currently called smart phones. In fact, many handheld computer manufacturers are also slowly changing, not really out of this field. We believe that as long as we maintain the iPAQ brand, we will have a great advantage in the future when the two markets of handheld computers and smart phones merge. At present, it is not ruled out that HP will take this step in the field of the integration of intelligent voice applications and data applications.

"CEConline": What factors do you think are the most important in the branding of handheld computers? For example, design, function, quality, which factor is the most important?

Zhang Yongli: Actually, there are three factors It is very important, but the crux of the problem is not here, it is what kind of user group is the product aimed at; if it is confirmed that the product launched is aimed at personal business applications, then the design, function and quality of the product must be based on factors such as To move closer in this direction, we must achieve harmony and unity. For example, you will not see the HP iPAQ products are very exaggerated in design, because our products are mainly for business applications. So you can see that iPAQ products are mainly made of stable silver and black, and the design is also very fashionable; and the built-in software is mainly for commercial use.

"CEConline": Can you summarize iPAQ's overall brand strategy in a few simple sentences?

Zhang Yongli: In the next six months, iPAQ will continue to develop in the field of high-end business applications, whether it is From product design, application, or corresponding accessories and solutions, we will focus on commercial use. However, with HP's overall development in the digital entertainment market, we will also develop new markets in this direction.

"CEConline": According to relevant reports, HP handheld computers are still mainly used for industrial applications. What do you think about this?

Zhang Yongli: Actually, in other countries, personal applications and industrial applications are two different market. One market is the personal business application market; the other is the vertical solutions market. At present, we have some successful cases of industrial applications, and we have successful solutions in the fields of insurance, catering and transportation. iPAQ has also been committed to promoting in industrial applications. We are very optimistic about this market.

Top 10 Business Brands in China (Part 2)

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