There is no doubt that some of the world’s best known and most valuable brands have taken much of their inspiration from their biggest competitors.  The growing profile of south-east Asian companies has brought this into focus – they avoid creating and developing original brands for fear of being ripped-off, such is the lack of IP protection in countries such as China. In these emerging economies, there is also greater consumer loyalty to established and familiar global brands. This is because of the relative lack of shopping experience of the south-east Asian consumer, meaning they are less familiar with ‘own-label’ or ‘retailer’ offerings.

This is in stark contrast to consumers in the UK or other ‘western’ countries. The power of retailers combined with the experienced consumer means own label is the norm, with many becoming ‘brands’ in their own right. ‘Finest’ from Tesco or ‘No7’ from Boots are great examples of this.

Consequently, despite having less income, consumers in emerging markets are actually more brand loyal. Companies such as Li Ning, the biggest Chinese sportswear company, appear to have taken inspiration from two of their more established competitors, Nike and Adidas. Their logo is strikingly similar to Nike, while their slogan ‘Nothing is impossible!’ is effectively the same as Adidas’ ‘Impossible is Nothing’.

This underlines the difficult situation of brands from emerging economies in the face of their dominant rivals. While Li Ning have been successful to date, it will be interesting to see if we continue to see home-grown brands seemingly  imitate their more established rivals or risk originality as the far eastern economies grow.

China: now the world’s second largest economy; 3 corporations in the Fortune Global 500; growing influence in every sphere of our lives from geo-political to the clothes we wear.  Yet how many Chinese brands can you name outside your own category today? Tsingtao maybe? Lenovo? Haier? MG?

In the most recently published Interbrand ‘Best Global Brands’ Survey there is not a single Chinese brand in the top 100. However check out the Top 100 brands in China (courtesy of Brand Finance) and think forward ten years. How many will be as familiar to us then as Samsung, Hyundai, Sony, Canon, Acer, Toyota, Honda are now? And perhaps more pertinently, how many of them will be more familiar to consumers in today’s emerging and about to emerge markets than the so called ‘Global’ brands are now?

In the 4th quarter of 2010 the top 4 mobile phone vendors (in shipments, not profit) were Nokia, Samsung, LG and ZTE. Apple were 5th (note I said shipments, not profit) ZTE?

To quote from the IDC press release:

‘ZTE finished the quarter in the number 4 position with shipments steadily spreading from its home country of China to developing regions such as Africa and Latin America. ZTE has also recently made inroads in developed markets such as Western Europe and the U.S. as well as Japan. While most of its shipments have historically concentrated on entry-level and mid-range devices, some of its recent success is directly attributable to its rapidly expanding smartphone line, such as the Android-based Blade and Racer devices. Meanwhile, its S- and C-series entry-level feature phones provided additional competition within emerging markets.’

By following a strategy of building up volume in partnership with known brands and at the same time building their operational expertise they are creating a strong,  well-resourced foundation for an eventual move to selling products under their own brand. An approach already followed by HTC.

Will they invest some of the cash they are now earning as an OEM player on brand-building? I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

But in the end, a brand’s strength is based on how much it is trusted by its customers to deliver on the promises it makes.

The tone of the coverage of Chinese Telecommunications Company Huawei’s offer to set up infrastructure to let us use our mobiles on the tube during the Olympics suggests that there is some way to go to build up trust in China plc.

However, it seems inevitable that we will soon – as consumers – have much greater familiarity with goods and services from Chinese brands.

The Chinese are coming. As a brand marketer, how do you propose to respond?

In Western markets, the kids marketing balance of power has shifted emphasis towards a greater focus on parents in recognition of the fact that mums and dads have pulled back on their child rearing reins. That said, children still exert huge influence in the new ’Family Democracy’ and marketing needs to manage a tricky balance in its attempts to find the brand sweet spot that satisfies both the needs of kids and parents.

It is interesting therefore to contrast this situation with the 270m under 14s  in the developing and vast market that is China. Uniquely in this country the family social dynamics have been artificially created as a result of the ‘One Child Policy’ introduced in 1979, which has led to the formation of the 4:2:1 familial structure (4 grand-parents, 2 parents and 1 child).

Children within this family network become the driving force and main influence for most family decision making as they enact their roles as ‘Little Emperors’. Research conducted with Chinese mums in September last year highlighted that parents were indulging their children in unprecedented ways. In fact 86% of mums in Shanghai & Beijing agreed that ‘Because there is only one child in the family, they become the centre of attention and get special favour’. When you combine the growing disposable incomes of Chinese families with these ‘relaxed’ attitudes to children, magnified by the sheer size in numbers, it is little wonder that companies have identified the huge potential in this market for kids brands.

That said, brand owners should reflect on the lessons learnt in Western markets and despite the obvious temptations, they should resist the ‘pester power’ model that caused so many kids brands to lose parental trust in the subsequent period of parental re-assertion of control. Indeed many social issues of the ‘Little Emperor’ syndrome have already been identified in China and receives constant media coverage, not least the issue of obesity, which has increased four fold amongst school children since 1985.

The numbers are compelling, the growth of discretionery spend is alluring and the power of Little Emperors is undeniable, however brands should not undermine their integrity in their eagerness to further indulge the children of China.