Current Location:Home->Newsroom->CBCSD Member News
Sustainability is key to brands' success, say trade experts

Sustainability plays a vital role in determining a brand's future, trade experts said at an international brand summit held in late June in Beijing.
Robert Mundell, chairman of the World Brand Lab and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1999, said a great brand must keep a close connection with social, natural and moral principles if it is to develop in a sustainable fashion.
Ensuring brand sustainability means maintaining coherence and harmony between economic growth and the protection of both resources and the ecological environment, he said.
There is no huge difference in product quality between "Made in China" and "Made in Germany", but China's related designs and brands, especially the values and morality behind those brands, are lagging far behind Germany, France and Italy, the chairman added.
Jean-Claude Larreche, professor of marketing at the French graduate business school INSEAD, pointed out that if Chinese brands aim to go global, they should start by placing sustainability among their core values.
He said consumers decide a brand's development trend by seeing whether or not it will contribute to the future of both their children and themselves.
Professor Steve Evans, director of research in industrial sustainability at the University of Cambridge, said there are two prerequisites for brand success: a successful society and a healthy planet.
When countries work towards addressing climate change, consumers also strive to live greener, healthier lives, he explained.
The days of raising a brand's image through charity activities are over, so companies need to change their philosophies and realize eco-benefits and sustainability through energy saving and resource conservation, he added.
During the summit, the World Brand Lab announced this year's list of China's 500 most valuable brands based on their market shares, consumer behavior and brand loyalty and strength.
The list included 23 industries such as food, textiles, media, information technology and home appliances. Food and beverages had 75 brands on the list, making it the leading industry.
In regional terms, Beijing led the nation in the number of listed brands, while Guangdong and Shandong ranked second and third.
State Grid topped the list with a band value of 305.6 billion yuan ($45.8 billion). It was followed by Tencent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Life Insurance and Haier, which were respectively valued at 287.5 billion yuan, 274.8 billion yuan, 253.6 billion yuan and 221.8 billion yuan.
The total value of the 500 Chinese brands reached 13.2 trillion yuan, up 22.7 percent year-on-year.
In 2004 when the annual list was first released, the average value of the top 500 brands was 4.9 billion yuan, and this figure has now risen to 26.5 billion yuan.
Chu Xuping, head of the research center at the State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission, commented that China has overtaken the United States to become the world's largest manufacturing country for the last six years, but the development of Chinese brands is still in its infancy.
Among last year's top 500 global brands, only 31 were from the Chinese mainland.
Chu called for more efforts to increase the international competitiveness and popularity of Chinese brands, as well as effective measures to reduce product overcapacity.
"Overcapacity is restricting China's economic restructuring," he said. "Meanwhile, China's output capacity of branded products is insufficient."