Branding across cultures: How Chinese mobile enterprises build brands successfully in Western European market

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the proper way of building Chinese brands in Western European market. The research will center on the question how Chinese mobile enterprises develop brand strategies to overcome culture differences in Western European market. In order to achieve a persuasive solution, the study will critically analyze branding strategies of three typical Chinese multinational mobile corporations: Huawei, TCL Communication (under the Alcatel brand) and Lenovo.

The thesis first has an in-depth context comparison between Chinese market and Western European market for exploring the modification of branding strategies by Chinese mobile companies. Then, the research has generated both primary interviews with stuff at electronic stores as well as random customers and secondary data from various sources. After a critical analysis and comparison, the study find out that even these three mentioned Chinese corporations change their branding strategies in order to gain the competitiveness in a different cultural background market, modes and results have made a great difference. Especially, decision makers in each corporation implement diverse methods to solve the short of branding experience as well as the poor image of “Made in China”, such as “Mergers and Acquisitions” and buying brand license. Therefore, the paper explores the influence of the country of origin in mobile market. As a result, when customers consider buying mobiles, functions and price may be more important than where they are from. In conclusion, a successful cross-culture branding strategy is based on various factors, which may be more important than a company purchases only a prestige from “superannuated famous brand” without up-to-date strategies.

The study recommends that the Chinese enterprise should not avoid “Made in China”, but strengthens the image of brand and products in order to build a successful brand. This method may contribute to other companies, which intend to enter and adapt into Western European market. The limitation of this study is the sample of interviewees who are most in Germany. In future research, the range should be enlarged.