From Silent Endeavors to Global Leadership: The Evolution of Chinese Brands Going Global
The "going global" of Chinese brands has become an all - too - familiar term. However, when we zoom in, we'll find that this isn't just a story for industry giants. A larger part involves a group of enterprises that have been quietly working hard. They explore, make mistakes, and adjust in unfamiliar markets, and strive steadily time and time again to gain a foothold.
These brands have different starting points: some come from coastal manufacturing bases, while others are born in inland industrial parks. The common ground is that they are no longer satisfied with being just a link in the order chain. Instead, they step to the forefront and attempt to have direct conversations with global consumers.
From the long - shot perspective of the global market, these brands are not only reaching unfamiliar countries but also crossing the vast distance from "manufacturing" to "branding". For many of the new generation taking over, this is a journey they must experience personally: let go of the logic relied on by the previous generation, find new ways of storytelling, and make the brand visible to the world.
01 Those Who Take Over, the Rewritten Path
In the past few decades, "Made in China" was known for its low cost and large - scale production. Orders meant business, and successful delivery meant success. However, when this path reached a bottleneck, the new generation of successors began to realize that relying solely on production capacity and price was no longer sufficient to support the future.
Qualfort, a clothing brand from Qingdao, is a typical example. Its founder, Ma Chuanxi, comes from a traditional OEM family. His father seized the foreign trade dividend in the late last century and became a long - term supplier of woolen sweaters to Europe and the United States. This was an epitome of the golden age of "Made in China": competing in efficiency and price, and propping up the factory with orders. But when Ma Chuanxi took over, the world he faced was completely different - the cost advantage had faded, the European and American markets had tightened, and brand premium had become the key.
Ma Chuanxi chose a more difficult but necessary path: transitioning from an OEM factory to a self - owned brand. He co - founded Qualfort with his college classmates, linking production capacity with brand vision. Different from his father's "order - first" mindset, he emphasizes that advertising is not an additional expense but an accumulation of long - term brand assets.
In the early days, Qualfort quickly increased its sales volume through conversion ads on the Amazon marketplace, which is the most common way for new brands to have a cold start. However, they soon found that a successful transaction was just the beginning, and the real competitiveness lies in whether consumers will remember you. So, they started investing in brand promotion ads, expanding their audience on multiple channels, and gradually transitioning from "seeing the product" to "remembering the brand".
More importantly, they introduced data tools. Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) helps them comprehensively depict the audience profile and sort out the user path, providing a refined basis for subsequent ad placements; while DSP acts like an amplifier, reaching the target audience precisely through multiple channels and expanding the reach beyond the site. This combined application enables Qualfort to reach users both precisely and widely and convert each click into long - term relationship building.
"Orders are transactions, and brands are relationships." Ma Chuanxi repeatedly emphasizes this sentence. For him, the real challenge is not how to take over the business but how to transform from a factory - based successor to a brand creator.
The most prominent feature of this new generation of "young globalizers" is that they dare to upgrade the manufacturing foundation left by their fathers into brand power. They trust data more than experience and focus more on long - term interaction with users than short - term delivery efficiency. Their takeover is not about maintaining the status quo but rewriting a new path.
It's certain that Chinese brands' awareness and strategies for going global have improved significantly compared to a decade ago. Shifting from the "dividend logic" based on information and exchange - rate differences to the "moat logic" centered on brand power and user relationships is the greatest achievement of this inter - generational transformation. However, it must be admitted that the challenges remain severe: how to make product positioning and design not only suitable for the US market but also achieve localization in diverse markets such as Europe, Japan, and the Middle East is a question that must be addressed next.
02 Samples Under the Proposition, Answers within the Samples
In the past decade, the way Chinese brands go global has undergone a fundamental transformation. The early stage of relying on cost and channel dividends has passed, and now more enterprises are actively embracing the brand logic. From traditional foreign - trade manufacturing industries to a group of emerging home - furnishing and consumer - electronics companies going global through differentiated design and digital marketing, the brand awareness and strategies of Chinese brands are more mature than ever.
However, this doesn't mean the problems have been solved. On the contrary, as more and more brands have initially established themselves in the global market, the new challenge they face is how to truly become global brands.
The complexity of brand globalization lies in the fact that there is no single path. Differences in industries, product categories, scales, and development stages mean that each enterprise has to face different problems. However, behind the seemingly diverse problems, there are usually several common propositions.
For example, when entering a new market. Europe is indeed a region with broad opportunities, but differences in consumer cultures make enterprises realize that they can't copy the strategies used in the US. A home - furnishing enterprise even said bluntly: "A design that sells well in Germany may not be accepted in France." Another example is that technology - manufacturing enterprises quickly found that the parameters in the laboratory don't equal acceptance in real - life scenarios. Also, enterprises from industrial clusters need to make a leap from the B2B to the B2C model, which is not just a switch in sales channels but a complete reconstruction of products, packaging, content, and language.
The series of short - videos "Sailor Project" jointly launched by Amazon Ads and Amazon Global Selling in 2021 truly recorded the global journey of Chinese brands.
As the global expansion has now entered the deep - water zone, isolated success stories can't provide a complete answer. The renewed "Sailor Star Project" attempts to present the problems and the problem - solving wisdom of global brands in a more systematic way. Different from the independent narratives of previous brands, the fifth season adopts a proposition - based structure: 15 brands are grouped under 7 themes, focusing on real global challenges.
The significance of recording these different choices is that they form a set of samples and group portraits of Chinese brands going global at present: both commonalities and individual solutions can be seen. It reminds us that the complexity of going global lies in "the same question with different answers", and it is this diversified path that truly outlines the appearance of Chinese brands in the global market.
The value of this method lies in "comparison". When facing the proposition of entering a new market, some choose to gain a sense of security in growth through multi - site layout, quickly entering the Japanese and European markets while establishing a foothold in the North American market to diversify risks; others choose to focus on niche product categories, using product barriers to resist competition. For another example, when starting a brand with limited resources, some enterprises choose a lightweight approach, taking small steps forward; others use the full - funnel advertising system to quickly build brand awareness and drive conversions, rapidly enhancing their presence.
This not only makes the stories "comparable" but also makes the experiences more referable. Why do some choose to accelerate while others choose to move forward steadily at the same opportunity? The answers often lie in the enterprises' judgments of their own resource endowments and the characteristics of the target market. Observing these differences is more valuable than the stories themselves.
More importantly, this narrative method helps viewers transform enterprise experiences into "samples". For global enterprises, these samples are not distant legends but coordinates that can be incorporated into their own strategic maps. It tells us that for the same challenge, there is no standard answer, but there are different possible paths; the key is how to combine one's own conditions to find the most suitable solution.
This proposition - based observation also gives more small and medium - sized brands a chance to be seen. For a long time, the public's perception of Chinese brands going global has mainly focused on giants like Huawei and BYD. In fact, many brands that are not well - known in China have already achieved breakthroughs in overseas markets but lack the opportunity to be recorded. The "Sailor Star Project" hopes to gather these shining points and present a more complete global map.
03 When the Stars Converge
If we draw a curve based on the samples in the "Sailor Star Project", we can see a common turning point: when a brand is not only seen but also remembered, the ceiling of business is raised again.
Behind this turning point, there is a often - underestimated driving force. When many brands first start using advertising, they only regard it as a conversion tool, pursuing click - through rates and immediate sales. However, in these successful cases, we can clearly see another layer of value: advertising is not only for transactions but also for long - term brand relationship building.
In fact, the value of Amazon Ads goes far beyond conversion. It covers multi - touchpoint scenarios such as interactive ads on Prime Video, reaching a younger audience on Twitch, and Sponsored TV on the TV end, enabling brands to interact with users at different stages. Combined with data tools, it can both precisely target the audience and expand the reach, turning each contact into a node on the conversion path. This is also another layer of meaning that many enterprises gradually realize besides "building a brand": advertising is not just a tool for selling products but the underlying support for global brand building.
In the enterprise samples of the "Sailor Star Project", this "relationship logic" has been verified. Besides in - site ads, Qualfort uses AMC to understand user behavior, gradually building long - term incremental brand assets: it is not only a booster for transactions but also a builder of brand memory.
This is exactly the "neglected value" of Amazon Ads in the public's perception. In the past, it was often simply equated with e - commerce performance advertising. In fact, it has become a full - funnel, multi - touchpoint brand - building tool. For the new generation of globalizers, it is not only a marketing channel but the cornerstone for strengthening brand awareness in the minds of global consumers.
Chinese brands going global have passed the stage of "being able to manufacture" and are crossing the threshold of "being able to sell". Next, the longer and more arduous task is how to be chosen, loved, and exist in different cultures and markets in the long run. This path will not be guaranteed by a single good product or a single successful marketing campaign. It requires repeated encounters with users, continuous storytelling, and fulfillment of promises.
More stories are happening. Starting from September 10th, the fifth season of the "Sailor Star Project" will be launched on the whole network successively. For those interested in global expansion, this will be a set of observable samples that can be continuously followed, and they can also explore referable development paths from different themes.
Meanwhile, the registration channel for the 2025 Amazon Ads Peak Season Summit is now open. Seize the growth opportunity during the year - end peak season. Join us in Chengdu on September 25th to discuss the path to global growth.
The "Sailor Star Project" only records some of the shining points. When these points converge, what we see is not just isolated success but the imprints left by Chinese brands in different markets. Going global is no longer just a direction but a coordinate system - brands need to learn to find their own positions in different coordinates and exist for a long time.