Ipsos: The comprehensive overseas trust in Chinese brands has increased by 14 percentage points in three years | Frontline

Text | Azhi

Over the past decade, Chinese enterprises have been making significant progress in going global.

Despite the complex and ever-changing international market environment and the recent rise of trends such as tariff barriers and trade protectionism, on the whole, Chinese enterprises have gradually moved from manufacturing and product exports to a new development stage of brand and ecosystem exports.

At such an industrial inflection point, Chinese enterprises should not only dig deeper in terms of products and innovation to break the logic of standard product and supply chain competition and form differentiated barriers; on the other hand, local operation, cultural integration, and brand building have also become new key issues. This is also in line with the classic enterprise competition strategy, transitioning from relying on cost leadership to differentiated and centralized competition.

From the data perspective, the brand influence of Chinese enterprises going global is accelerating. According to the "2024 Global Trust Index of Chinese Brands" report recently released by the market research and consulting firm Ipsos, Since 2021, the overall trust of Chinese brands overseas has increased by 14 percentage points. If the time frame is extended to five years, the overall trust has increased by 20 percentage points.

This is the conclusion drawn by Ipsos from a survey of 16,000 consumers in 20 markets worldwide. Although from a global perspective, European and American brands are in a relatively high position in terms of net trust, but from the trend perspective, the consumer trust of European and American brands has stagnated or declined for many consecutive years in the past five years. In contrast, the trust of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean brands has shown a strong upward momentum.

Source: "2024 Global Trust Index of Chinese Brands" report

In the past, people tended to think that there would be certain barriers for Chinese brands to enter developed markets such as Europe and the United States. However, from the data perspective, the trust of Chinese brands in the entire developed market has increased this year.

Shi Yue, the editor-in-chief of the "2024 Global Trust Index of Chinese Brands" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), pointed out, "The developed markets are not monolithic. The trust value of developed markets represented by the United Kingdom and the United States in Chinese brands has increased significantly, and the proportion of distrust has further decreased. In emerging markets, the brand trust of Chinese brands has increased significantly in all emerging markets except Thailand, especially in markets such as Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico."

Overall, after years of efforts by Chinese brands, the African and Middle East markets have generally formed a high level of trust in Chinese brands.

It should be noted that the "trust" here focuses more on the trust performance of the overall image of Chinese brands in the international market, and is analyzed based on the multi-dimensional factor performances such as awareness, trust, purchase intention, and brand competitiveness of 41 leading benchmark brands in different industries worldwide.

The "Report" shows that the top five factors that currently drive overseas consumers to trust Chinese brands are providing high-quality products/services, doing business in a fair and ethical manner, being an attractive employer, being environmentally responsible, and respecting and protecting consumer privacy.

Source: "2024 Global Trust Index of Chinese Brands" report

Shi Yue pointed out that Chinese enterprises going global need to pay more attention to the expectations of local consumers in the next step, such as becoming a more attractive employer and insisting on operating in a socially responsible manner. "No matter in which market, excellent products and services are different, but products and services related to ESG are more worthy of the common attention of enterprises in the future."

In the process of the globalization of Chinese brands, two important trend backgrounds are worthy of attention, One is the going global of industrial clusters, and the other is the continuous spillover of the influence of Chinese media and e-commerce.

Ipsos believes that the industry brand mentality formed by the going global of Chinese industrial clusters has played a positive role in promoting the trust and image of all Chinese brands in the industry. Typical representatives include consumer electronics, smart home appliances, and electric vehicles. In addition, the development of global media and e-commerce platforms from China, such as TikTok, AliExpress, and SHEIN, has played a great role in promoting the going global and upgrading of Chinese brands on the channel side.

There is no doubt that the going global enterprises and entrepreneurs in key industrial clusters should seize the opportunity of the continuous spillover of the influence of Chinese e-commerce and media, and accelerate the construction of brand influence and trust by leveraging the expansion dividend of the channel. Among them, it is crucial to tell a good brand story and convey the correct value proposition and brand concept to consumers in multicultural regions in a targeted manner.

Ipsos CMO Xiang Zheng mentioned in the sharing that brands can start from three dimensions of shaping expectations, combining contexts, and conveying empathy to tell their own stories and achieve the improvement of brand trust. Correspondingly, the first is to change from "rolling Fancy" to "rolling Reliability" to continuously improve the reliability of Chinese brand products and services; the second is to deeply understand the culture and context of the local market and formulate targeted content marketing and product operation strategies; the third is to be good at combining IP influence, interest trends, offline immersive experiences, and other methods to evoke emotional resonance with consumers.

Despite the significant trend of consumption stratification, it is undeniable that the vast majority of consumers today still tend to buy brands that are in line with their own values and are willing to pay a premium for them.

Xiang Zheng pointed out that today, Chinese brands going global carry more value propositions, "Whether a brand can survive in the market for 100 years, trust is the core factor and also a higher-level and long-term indicator of brand success."