Brand development in developed countries

Brand has existed for centuries, and its emergence marks the maturity of the concept of commodity exchange. It can be said that the appearance and development of brand is a social and economic phenomenon and the product of the development of commodity economy to a certain stage.

1. Development history of foreign brands

Brand development in western countries has roughly experienced four periods:

(1) primitive period. Before the invention of movable type printing in 1450, the brand developed in a primitive and unconscious state. However, people have unconsciously applied the concept of brand in business activities. At that time, with the prosperity of economy and the increase of business activities, people began to spread brands by word of mouth.

(2) the germination period. Before the industrial revolution, brand development was in its infancy. At that time, it mainly paid attention to the labeling of products or producers, so it was also called the labeling period. For example, in the western United States, the earliest entrepreneurs (that is, big farmers) branded the company’s logo on the buttocks of animals, and used such an indelible mark to show his ownership of the assets of animals. Since then, the brand has the function of distinguishing from other people’s goods.

(3) growth period. At the end of 18th century and the beginning of 19th century, or after the industrial revolution, western countries experienced rapid economic development, increased products and intensified competition, and brand development entered the growth period or trademark period. The biggest feature of brand development in this period is that enterprises generally attach importance to trademark registration.

The industrial revolution made the machine industry replace manual production, and the manufacturing industry was more developed. In order to strengthen the protection of brands, the trademark system came into being, and brands in the modern sense came into being. Starting with the first car with horizontal bar engine made in Germany in 1886, Coca Cola was born in 1886, Gillette shaver appeared in 1895, Kodak brand was born in 1898, Ford Model T came out in 1908, Boeing brand quietly landed in 1917, Marlboro brand came out in 1924, Nestle coffee came out in 1938, and a number of brands gradually developed and grew.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the earliest legal provisions on trademarks appeared in France. Subsequently, Britain, the United States, Germany and Japan have also promulgated their own trademark laws. Trademark system is popular all over the world, and brands have been recognized and guaranteed by law.

(4) maturity. At the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, the role of brand as an important means of competition gradually emerged. Especially after the Second World War, with the rapid development of science and technology, high technology is widely used in production, enterprise groups are maturing, consumer demand is changing with each passing day, and enterprise competition is unprecedented fierce, thus ushered in the so-called "brand economy" era, and brand development has entered a mature period or brand period. The globalization trend of brand communication is obvious, but it has national characteristics. A large number of brands with unique connotations and advanced concepts have been born, and the research on brands has been deepened day by day. During this period, famous brands such as KFC, McDonald’s, Disney, Toyota, Hitachi, Panasonic and Sony appeared, which has entered the era of brand competition.

2. The development stage of foreign brands

Looking at the development history of foreign brands, it can be summarized into four stages, namely, the formal brand stage, the legal brand stage, the famous brand stage and the commercialized brand stage.

(1) The formalization stage of the brand. In the stage of brand development, the first is the formalization of the brand. From a formal point of view, a brand is a symbol. Since ancient times, people have marked their own livestock with unique marks to distinguish them from other people’s livestock. In English, the word "Brand" means to stamp, indicating the origin and manufacturer of a product or service. In the early days, people widely used formal brands, which started with all kinds of craftsmen marking their products to distinguish them from those made by others. At this stage, when people understand the brand, they only regard it as a form of symbol and mark, so that consumers can distinguish the origin and source of the product through this symbol. This symbol ensures that the product is provided by the same supplier with the same quality and characteristic level, and after the product is sold, it can make the buyer identify the manufacturer of the product and facilitate repair and replacement. This kind of formalized brand also has certain binding force on other product manufacturers, and to some extent, it has played a role in preventing its own products from being counterfeited by others.

(2) The legalization stage of the brand. The significance of brand legalization lies in brand trademark, and brand has become an integral part of intellectual property rights. According to the development of commodity economy and fierce market competition, many western countries have promulgated and promulgated trademark laws and related brand protection regulations, which makes the concept of brand clearly defined in law. Therefore, the brand of goods and services can be protected by law, and the word brand is also reflected in relevant laws. Legalization of brand shows in the legal sense that after the brand is registered, the owner and franchisor of the brand get the protectable property, and can also prevent others from impacting, counterfeiting and hurting. In 1803, France introduced the world’s earliest brand-related law, the Law on Factories, Workshops and Workshops, which defined counterfeiting other people’s trademarks as the crime of forging documents without permission and punished it. The United States began to implement the Federal Trademark Regulations of the United States of America in 1870; Germany also promulgated the Trademark Protection Law in 1874, which made the brand development enter the era of legalization. Brand-related laws that have been recognized and implemented around the world mainly include the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Intellectual Property Rights, which was promulgated and implemented on March 20th, 1883, and the madrid agreement concerning the international registration of marks, which was promulgated and implemented on April 14th, 1891. China is also a member of these two conventions and agreements.

(3) the brand-name stage of the brand. After World War II, great changes have taken place in the world economy, scientific and technological progress has promoted the rapid development of productive forces, people’s material and cultural living standards have been greatly improved, consumers have changed from meeting basic physiological needs to pursuing higher psychologically and spiritually, paying attention to the expression and development of individuality, and there are abundant commodities in the market, and the differences in quality, performance and price of commodities have gradually narrowed. At the same time, due to the joint action of various modern media, the spread and diffusion of commodity brands are more effective and fast, which promotes and influences consumers to form the concept and value trend of brand-name consumption, and the outstanding performance of brand-name products in the market has brought rich super-value profits to enterprises. The demonstration effect of brand-name consumption is to cause people to chase brand-name goods all over the world. During this period, brand has become the focus of market competition among enterprises.

Brand-name brand has become the goal and direction of brand development for all enterprises. Brand-name brand is an outstanding brand among many brands. Brand-name brand goods are symbols of high-quality products and services. They occupy the market and conquer the high-quality goods of users and consumers with their outstanding performance and the appearance of appealing to both refined and popular tastes. From the market performance, the famous brand indicates that the enterprise’s labor is highly recognized by the society, reflects the trend of consumer psychological preference and cultural taste, is the unity of social material and spiritual values, and is the biggest feature of modern social consumption concept and cultural value orientation. During this period, many famous brands began to appear in various markets around the world, such as Coca-Cola drinks in the United States, Kodak films, Ford cars and Toyota cars in Japan. Famous brands have become a powerful weapon for enterprises to participate in international market competition in this period.

(4) the commercialization stage of the brand. When the world began to pay close attention to intellectual property rights, enterprise merger and brand export, and the implementation of franchising and other management, the formal meaning, legal attributes and branding of the brand could not fully explain the true meaning of the brand. It can be said that the nature of the brand has changed suddenly, that is, the brand has the characteristics of general commodity value and exchange function, and the commodity attributes of the brand have emerged. A brand is a commodity, which has the general attributes and characteristics of a commodity, and its development has entered the era of brand commercialization. Enterprises with brands pay more attention to the connotation of the brand and the intangible assets value of the brand itself.

When marketing activities are carried out, brands are integrated into business assets as intellectual property and intangible assets of enterprises. When enterprises merge and expand, brand assets have become an important asset composition of asset merger and reorganization. Even the brand can be auctioned as an independent asset when the enterprise goes bankrupt. For example, the famous British car brand manufacturer "Rolle Period-Roy Period" was transferred to the German Volkswagen Company at a price of hundreds of millions of pounds during the merger of the enterprise. Developed countries make use of the commodity characteristics of brands to export brands to developing countries in the international market, and adopt the way of licensing brands as an investment in local enterprises, implement franchising and realize the brand expansion strategy. For example, in many Coca-Cola production plants and filling lines around the world, the Coca-Cola Company has no direct investment, but only provides licenses for the use of Coca-Cola stock solution and Coca-Cola brands, and enterprises that use brands have to pay a considerable amount of brand use fees every year. Another example is the licensee who uses McDonald’s brand. In addition to the initial cost of about 600,000 US dollars, he will also pay McDonald’s brand service fee and brand use fee, which account for 11.5% of its operating income. It can be said that the era of brand commercialization has arrived. (The author is a member of the writing team of Brand Innovation)