福布斯：为了赢得美国市场，中国公司应当建立它们的品牌 [美国媒体]

To Win Over Americans, Chinese Companies Should Build Their Brands

福布斯：为了赢得美国市场，中国公司应当建立它们的品牌

Chinese companies have American customers in their bullseyes. Capturing more business from the United States would not only dramatically increase revenues for Tencent, Huawei, and other rapidly expanding Chinese companies, but also it would bestow upon them the status of a global brand and all the esteem that comes with it. But so far these companies have been relying on product superiority to attract customers — and winning with Americans requires more emphasis on brand-building.

中国公司已经将美国消费者视为它靶心上的目标。从美国获得更多的生意不仅能够大幅增加腾讯、华为和其他快速扩张的中国公司的收入，还能够给它们带来全球品牌的地位以及随之而来的各种尊重。但是至今为止，这些公司仍然在依靠产品的优势来吸引消费者，而要赢得美国市场，更需要强调的则是品牌建设。



Purpose, story-telling, and brand personality are brand-building levers that Chinese brands should use to win with American customers. (Photo by Sean Lee/Getty Images for Sportel)

目标、故事和品牌个性是中国品牌为了赢得美国消费者而应该是用的品牌建设杠杆。

A recent Bloomberg Businessweek article about mobile Tencent asks, "The WeChat app has almost a billion users, and many of them use it all day. So why isn’t the company everywhere by now?" It notes that the company has proved its capability to produce popular product innovations such as “mini-programs” that allow smartphone users to access other companies’ services through WeChat without downloading their apps. Tencent has also been developing AI technologies and products. But, while the company and its services are pervasive in China, it has less than 2% market share in the U.S.

近期布隆伯格商业周刊一篇关于腾讯的文章问到："微信应用几乎拥有十亿用户，其中许多整天都在使用它。那么，这家公司为什么现在不是随处可见的呢？"它注意到这家公司已经改进了它制造受欢迎的产品创新的能力，比如能够允许智能手机用户无需下载专门应用就将其他公司的服务接入到微信"小程序"。腾讯已经在研发人工智能技术和产品。但是，尽管这家公司及其服务在中国随处可见，但是它在美国市场的份额要少于百分之二。

Huawei has the same problem. Through its technical breadth and extensive R&D efforts, the mobile telecom has established product leadership not only in China but in places like Finland, Nokia's home country. But despite offering a product with quality close to that of Apple and Samsung phones, Huawei captures less than 0.4% of the U.S. market. The subtitle of a Fortune article sums up the company's challenge: "After climbing to the top of the smartphone market in its home country, the Chinese giant is taking off in Europe, but to challenge Apple and Samsung, the world's no. 3 phonemaker needs to figure out how to reach American consumers..."

华为也有着同样的问题。尽管它所涵盖的技术领域很广，并作出了大量的研发努力，这个移动通讯公司不仅在中国，而且在像诺基亚的总部所在地芬兰等国家也建立了产品的领导地位。但是尽管它所提供的产品的质量接近于苹果和三星手机，它所占据的美国市场份额仍然不足百分之零点四。财富杂志一篇文章的副标题总结了这家公司的挑战："在其祖国达到了智能机市场的顶峰之后，这家中国大公司正在欧洲地区起飞，但是要挑战苹果和三星，这家排名世界第三的手机制造商需要弄明白如何才能获得美国消费者的青睐"。

The situation at Alibaba, China's e-commerce giant, is really no different.  Alibaba CEO Jack Ma held a conference in Detroit earlier this year in an effort to lure American small businesses to sell their goods through his company's platform. But while he touted the size of the Chinese market (500 million online shoppers) and its hunger for American goods, Alibaba continues to face resistance from U.S. businesses because of the site's reputation for enabling widespread counterfeiting.  An Inc. article reports that Ma's response to the concerns was "We're using our technology to fight against this" — he's trying to win over Americans with a product-based effort.

中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴的境遇绝对是完全一样的。阿里巴巴的首席执行官马云在今年早些时候于底特律举行了一个回忆，试图吸引美国的上企业通过他的公司的平台出售他们的商品。但是当他在绘声绘色地描述中国市场的规模（有5亿在线购物者）和它对美国商品的饥渴时，阿里巴巴仍然因为它容许大量假货出售的声誉而继续面对着来自美国企业的抵制。

There's no question that these companies need product innovation and technological prowess to compete with offerings in the U.S., but they also need stronger brand-building efforts if they hope to attract more American consumers. While leading edge features and breakthrough innovations drive early adopters' purchase decisions, mainstream U.S. customers respond to a more emotional appeal and products that enjoy a "cool" factor.  Plus digital technologies are so easily copied or outdone these days that competitive advantage based on product leadership alone is difficult to sustain for any company.

毫无疑问，这些公司需要产品创新和技术上的造诣来与美国市面上的商品竞争，但是如果他们希望吸引更多的美国消费者的话，那么也需要做出更多的品牌建设的努力。尽管领先的优势特征和突破性的创新影响到了早期受众的购买决定，但是美国的主流消费者却会回应一种更为情绪化的吸引力和具备"酷"元素的产品。此外，现在的电子产品非常容易被山寨或被超越，以至于无论对于哪一家公司来说，只是基于产品领先性的竞争优势都是难以维持的。

Just look at what happened to Sony. Despite having established a reputation in product quality and innovation, Sony lost its brand appeal when Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes and captured users' imagination by promoting a personal entertainment lifestyle. Of course Apple's products offered new capabilities and exquisite design, but its inspiring and emotional appeal made the brand a mainstream market must-have.

只要看看索尼发生了什么。尽管索尼已经在产品质量和创新方面建立起了一种声誉，但是当苹果推出了iPod和iTunes，通过宣传一种个人化的娱乐生活方式而捕捉到消费者的想象力之后，索尼便丧失了它的品牌感召力。当然，苹果的产品提供了一种新的性能和精美的设计，但是它那启发灵感的、情绪化的感召力让这个品牌成为了主流市场的必备之选。

Many tech companies including American ones make the mistake of relying too heavily on product, capabilities, and technology to build their brands. To establish more sustainable and meaningful differentiation, companies must also appeal through:

包括美国公司在内的许多科技公司都犯下了太过仰赖于产品、性能和技术来构建它们的品牌的错误。为了建立更有持续性和更有意义的差别，这些公司必须通过以下方面获得感召力：

• Purpose — having and expressing a compelling reason for being. In response to the crisis of trust that characterizes the American business landscape today, customers demand meaning and authenticity from companies that want their business.  Brands fulfill this demand by articulating and living out a desire to impact people's lives in a positive, purposeful way. As it stands, Americans know little about the companies and people behind many Chinese brands, so Chinese business leaders should ensure their purpose — a purpose beyond making money — is clear.

目的——拥有和表达一种存在的必要原因。为了回应成为了今日美国商业图景特征的信任危机，消费者要求从想从他们这里获得生意的公司提供意义与可靠性。品牌通过描述欲望来以一种积极的、有目的性的方式影响人们的生活，从而其中充满了这种需求。正如他所表明的，美国人几乎不知道许多中国品牌背后的公司与人，所以中国的商业领袖应当确保他们的目的——一种超越了赚钱的目的——是明确的。

• Storytelling — using stories to make an emotional appeal. Tech companies should tap into the ability of stories to engage people emotionally and make a brand's desired identity and core values relevant to customers.  Instead of merely selling products to customers, they should try to develop brand relationships with them through an emotional appeal.  Moreover they should develop an overarching narrative that stretches over and unites their products and services into a cohesive brand message so that their brands stand for more than individual products or services. Doing so will also sustain the brand's appeal through all stages of its products' lifecycle and enable rich customer engagement even when product news is hard to come by or competitive challenges are strong. And since the most effective storytelling today is comprised of two-way interactions, they should encourage customers to share their stories, thus advancing a more engaging brand identity.

故事——使用故事来制造一种情绪化的感召力。科技公司应当掌握讲故事的能力，来从情绪上吸引人们，建立一个品牌被渴望的身份特征和与消费者相关联的核心价值。与仅仅向消费者出售商品不同，他们应当试着痛殴一种情绪化的感召力去发展与之相关的品牌关系。此外，他们应当发展一种能够延伸开来，将她们的产品和服务统一到一种内聚的品牌信息当中，这样它们的品牌所能够存在的时间就要比独立的产品或服务更久。这么做也将会让这个品牌的感召力持续贯穿于其产品生命周期的所有阶段，在产品新闻尚未出现，或竞争挑战十分激烈的时候，让富裕的消费者仍然保持忠诚。因为现在最为有效的故事叙述方式是由双方的互动构成的，他们应当鼓励消费者分享他们的故事，从而实现更有参与度的品牌身份特征。

• Personality — communicating and behaving in a distinctive way. Conveying a unique personality is just as important as product differentiation. But in presenting themselves, most tech brands either follow an overused formula (futuristic, sophisticated, powerful) or they don't exhibit any personality at all and just rely on product specs and technology claims to make their appeal. The exception among Chinese brands might be Alibaba and Ma's effusive personality and eccentric stunts, but the company hasn't infused its communications or experiences for American customers with that same level of distinctiveness. Many Americans relate to brands as if they are people, so they expect them to have unique personalities.

个性——通过一种截然不同的方式沟通和行事。传播一种独一无二的个性和产品区别一样重要。但是现在的大部分科技品牌本身既没有遵循一种被过度使用的（极其新潮的、复杂的和有影响力的）方案，它们也根本不会展示任何个性，所有一切都依赖于产品的规格和技术宣传来制造它们的感召力。中国品牌中的例外可能是阿里巴巴以及马云过分热情的个性和稀奇古怪的噱头，但是这家公司没有让它与美国消费者的体验交流充满了同一层级的个性。许多美国人把品牌当作人一样来看待，所以他们希望这些品牌有着独特的个性。

Purpose, storytelling, and brand personality are powerful brand-building levers for all companies, not only those in China and not only technology ones. But they seem particularly fertile ground for the many Chinese companies that have made their aspirations to become a global brand a top priority.

目的、故事和品牌个性对所有公司——不仅是中国公司，也不仅是技术公司——来说都是建立品牌的强大杠杆。但是对于许多中国公司来说，它们似乎就是一片沃土，可以让它们成为全球顶级品牌的野心称为现实。