China19 Mar 2009 08:35 pm

Oddities and paradoxes of China …

brands are such a great thing. As a marketer they make you go weak at the knees when they are well designed, eccentric, idiosyncratic and well marketed, when they have something distinctive to say and when they manage to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside…

But here in China, brands are not quite the same… they’re all a bit … well, strangely familiar. There is a reason for why the top global 100 brands do only feature one, max. two Chinese brands: because instead of coming up with their own brands, they ‘redesign’ existing successful ones and sponge of their success. Well, this is a rather simplified deconstruction and explanation of brands in China, but take a look at this and you will see what I mean:

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In the space of 6 shops in Ningbo, you get one ‘real’ brand and two Chinese versions of the real deal. It’s actually quite amusing. They make the ‘swoosh’ pointy, turn it upside down, add a little extra bump into it … and they even ‘borrow’ from a rival brand, change the slogan from ‘impossible is nothing’ into ‘anything is possible’ and stick it on their shop front. You have got to love the creativity … or the lack thereof.

Conversely, when it comes to finding space to grow cabbage and salad, the Chinese are world champions. I have previously reported on the many odd, yet innovative spaces where veg are grown in nice neat little rows… The other day, when walking to a nearby restaurant, I stumbled across more of these vegetable patches … right by the side of the road, in between drainage pipes and a canal. This country is full of exciting and quirky paradoxes … it’s never boring!
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One Response to “Oddities and paradoxes of China …”

  1. on 22 Mar 2009 at 4:26 pm   Matt

    Funny I was reading yesterday that the chinese have ripped of the CE Mark. They put it on stuff that is exported (CE – chinese export)

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