Photo/Zhang Jian (NBD)

The year 2021 marks the beginning of the 14th five-year plan period and sees the great leap and rise of Chinese brands.

On May 10, 2021, the fifth China Brand Day, the launch event for the 2021 Brand Value List of Chinese Listed Companies was held in Beijing under the theme of "China brands, national signature". Co-launched by National Business Daily (NBD) and the China Business Research Center under Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management (SEM), the event witnessed the release of the Brand Value List of Chinese Listed Companies, List of Chinese Listed Companies by Brand Value Overseas, and List of Chinese Upstart Companies by Brand Value, all of which were in their fifth year. The List of Chinese Listed Companies by Brand Vitality was also unveiled at the conference for the first time. 

Also at the event, the 17-year-old NBD renewed its logo to embody the concept of "new image, new philosophy and new value" and announced the strategic cooperation with XiaoIce, a standalone AI venture already spun off from Microsoft and Zhiku 2861 Information Technology.

"The world is now embracing unprecedented changes, and the intrinsic value represented by Chinese brands is a symbol of China's soft strength. With the introduction of China Brand Day, an increasingly number of enterprises, especially the listed ones, are attaching greater importance to brand building," said Wen Da, chairman and editor-in-chief of NBD.

Moreover, the Research Institute on Brands of Chinese Listed Companies was unveiled as well, which will strengthen the academic input in brand research of Chinese listed companies.

Also, present at the event were more than 100 enterprise delegates. 

Wealth code hidden in brand value

"Chinese listed companies represent pioneering spirit and vitality of Chinese economy, and their brand influence, to a large extent, mirrors the overall brand impact of Chinese enterprises," noted Zhao Ping, director of China Business Research Center at Tsinghua SEM.

In recent years, along with the implementation of the registration-based initial public offering (IPO) mechanism, the battle of brands among Chinese listed companies grows fiercer. "China is now on the road heading towards a place where public praise matters more than demographic dividend and where brand value speaks louder than merely online traffic," remarked Jiang Nanchun, founder and chairman of Focus Media in his key-note speech.

The Internet conglomerates Alibaba and Tencent remain the 1st and 2nd place on the Brand Value List of Chinese Listed Companies this year, and their respective brand value gaps away from other competitors by more than 1 trillion yuan. China Mobile takes the third place. 

"Brand publicity is a required course for an enterprise to enter the capital market," said Cui Hong, chairwoman of Shenzhen Wanquan Zhice Business Consulting. Cui pointed out that under the registration-based IPO mechanism, the capital price is left to the market to decide and good wine also needs advertising. It's the right time for a listed company to take advantages of the bright moments to build its brand, Cui added.

The brand value contains the wealth code. For listed companies, the brand value has become an important bridge to deliver corporate value, impacting many aspects such as the companies' financing, liquidity, market value, stock price fluctuations and transaction volume. In regard to branding, Cui suggested that brand building needs steady and patient work. Solid performance, good reputation and consistent corporate culture are all essential for branding of the listed companies.

Photo/Zhang Jian (NBD)

On Building of Brand Value

China Brand Day was first established in 2017 to boost the recognition of Chinese brands in the global market. In the same year, the Brand Value List of Chinese Listed Companies was first released, filling the void in the research of brand value of Chinese listed companies.

The release of the 2021 Brand Value List of Chinese Listed Companies means a lot at this moment.

"The brand image and influence of Chinese companies are important carriers of China's national brand image," remarked Fan Hong, director of Tsinghua University National Image Research Center. Enterprises growing into top-notch brands globally are conducive to building of the country's national image on the international arena.

At the roundtable discussions with a theme of "brand building and value improvement", delegates with China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, LONGi Green Energy Technology, and Pop Mart shared their insights into brand building and brand innovation at overseas.

Liu Shushan, spokesperson for China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, noted that the Company made the list for five consecutive years, due in large part to the improvement of domestic public opinion environment for industrial enterprises as well as the implementation of corporate strategies like "overseas development first" and "quality priority" and the importance to sustainable development.

The changes of the List of Chinese Listed Companies by Brand Value in these years shed some light on the rapid development of Chinese brands. From 2017 to 2021, the cumulative brand value of the companies that made the list has increased by nearly 10 trillion yuan. And the "threshold" of the list has experienced about 17-fold increase from 2.2 billion yuan in 2017 to 39 billion yuan in 2021. 

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn