What Are the Most Relevant Brands of 2019? Pre-Register Today.
At Prophet, we believe that the strongest brands are the ones that are relentlessly relevant and making a difference in consumers' lives.
To assess which brands are most relevant, we survey thousands of consumers in China, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States to determine which brands they simply can't live without.
This year, Prophet will announce the fourth China Brand Relevance Index™, unveiling the top 50 most relevant brands of 2019.
Pre-register now by clicking [ Read More ] or scanning the QR code below.
Why Is It Important to Build Relentlessly Relevant Brands?
Leon Zhang, Partner at Prophet
In essence, a brand is the "mark" it leaves on the target (consumers).
The benefits of this "branding" is self-evident. On one hand, the target audience can differentiate among brands and formulate a better purchasing strategy with less time and cost. On the other hand, brand owners can more effectively reach the target audience, which in turns generates a profit.
Relevance is critical in forming this "brand".
For a brand, no matter how complex its product functionality, complete its marketing channels or innovative its brand communications, a lack of focus and relevance to the target audience renders the brand ineffective in leaving a mark. This is precisely why many brands advocate for market-centricity and consumer-centricity. At the same time, this is difficult to implement in practice. After all, when dealing with customers who are fickle in nature, following what has already worked in the past or mimicking a competitor's behavior is the more comfortable path. The more comfortable a path, however, the closer we are to danger. In the past decade, we have grown all too familiar with the brand who showered in its past glory, who led the times, only finding themselves increasingly marginalized because of its failure to build relevance to its target audience.
Chinese brands today need to put brand relevance on the top of its corporate strategy.
On one hand, the rapid development of the market, the consumption potential, the increasingly maturity of consumers, the emergence of new generations of consumer groups all provide an excellent environment for a brand's development. Additionally, the constantly evolving digital ecosystem has also brought unprecedented opportunities for brands. Under this new market environment, the past successes of brands serve little use, as the fast-evolving digital age not only broke new ground, but also brought new uncertainties along with it. As new technological means, business models and competitors are constantly bringing new challenges to brands, it is difficult for brands especially industry-leaders, to derive meaningful insights for future development from best practices. When a brand's experience is outdated, best practices are not necessarily useful guides to follow. Only through focusing on the target audiences and building relevance around their needs can guarantee a brand's leading position in the market.
Chinese brands today find themselves expanding globally. Target audiences have expanded beyond mainland China and attempts are made by brands to familiarize themselves with the foreign market. But a "foreign" market does not necessarily mean only one country. But rather, it is a collection of complex markets consisting a large number of regional markets, each of which has its own uniqueness. The past decade of experience involving the growth of Chinese businesses tell us: it is not difficult to purchase raw materials or build a production base overseas, but brands must try twice as hard to truly penetrate the local market. One can create a Fortune 500 company with relative ease by way of merger and acquisition, but it is difficult to build a brand with global influence in the same manner.
In any foreign market, a brand's development must be rooted in a strategy that places consumers' needs and local consumption habits first - success is forged from how it strives to build brand relevance from day one. Just like the lessons we've learned from other foreign brands entering China, any foreign brand which lacks a thorough understanding of the preferences of the local target audience renders itself ineffective.
No relevance, no brand; a brand that lacks relevance is a name soon to be forgotten.
The 2019 Brand Relevance Index™ will be released this September. Click [ Read More ] to pre-register now.
Building Relevant Brands:
A New Way to Win with Customers