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Q: When will a Chinese brand become internationally known for quality or innovation?

Occasionally my students ask me why no Chinese brands have an international reputation for quality. I don't think there are any, but I think it won't be long before a Chinese brand gains international market share and a reputation for quality or innovation.

Haier and Lenovo might take the prize. Or LiNing shoes?

When? Who? What does this require? 

11 years 9 weeks ago in  Business & Jobs - China

 
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Posts: 747

Shifu

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Lenovo has the reputation as it bought out the computer division of IBM, if they didnt buy it out I would imagine it wouldnt be as big as it is today somewhere in the lines of what Hasee is now in China. 

Though China will follow roughly the same path as Japan did (known in the days as cheapo and no quality) it will eventually find its place in the world. For innovation I dont see this happening for some time until the chain of thought is changed, most Chinese lack the innotive spirit brought on by education and family practices and the ones that do have either gone to other countries to make there ideas come to life.

 

bill8899:

I think Lenovo bought the Thinkpad name and design. I used that as a topic in one of my classes.

You make a good point, that is the education system might limit China's ability to innovate.

11 years 9 weeks ago
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MissA:

The last place I worked had Lenovo computers. The day I started all the teachers were excited because they had six brand new computers to use.

 

Want to take bets on how many of them broke in the first three months?

11 years 8 weeks ago
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MrTibbles:

The Lenovo computers for export sale are of a much higher quality than the "local" Lenovos you can get in China.  I have a Lenovo laptop that I bought in the US that is EXCELLENT. Wouldn't buy one IN China however.

11 years 8 weeks ago
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bill8899:

Why do they offshore the quality and keep the rest? One reason may be that they can sell everything else with a high profit margin due to the laws restricting mainland electronic prices to no less than the price paid in other countries.

11 years 8 weeks ago
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MissA:

The ones that all broke (actually, one kinda still worked) were at my job in Vietnam, so I don't know if they would be export ones or not. Probably not, actually, they probably just came across the border 'unnoticed'.

11 years 8 weeks ago
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11 years 9 weeks ago
 
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  I think 'quality' is often just a matter of good marketing where another lesser known brand works just as well. I mean, look at Westlife and Britney Spears; do they represent quality in the music industry? If their record sales are anything to go by, I guess they do (forgive my dated references, you can see how long i've been away). I think many manufactured products are the same. My father's a professional classical musician and he has many associates who come to China to buy their instruments here. People who play for the most influential orchestras in the world, and they're playing on lesser known makes which are of equal quality, just cheaper. I myself bought a sax here, I can't remember the name because it's not one any musician would recognize, it's just some unknown make, but the quality of the instrument is high. Cheap as chips though. China's got a well-earned reputation for producing poor quality goods, because they can get away with that and still get paid. When they can't they'll have to raise their game, which in turn will help their reputation and improve the credibility of any high quality merchandise which is already being made here. As for innovation i'd like to draw your eye back to the great musicians of our past. What was behind their great and innovative spirits? Yes, that's right, LSD. China needs to trip out, baby, and just, like, get highhhhhhh.

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11 years 9 weeks ago
 
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Some brands are known, I can't think of one now. China does make quality products, iPhones etc, but they do have their own brands. They just don't get the advertising.  The reason the rest of the world buys things from China is low price. Many manufacturers use parts from the lowest bidder. Price out trumps quality from China. We don't want quality, we want low price, we get crap.

bill8899:

Maybe they don't know how to advertise in the west. I watch a phone company, Xiaomi, and they have had some success in the US, though their phone seems like a cheap iPhone copy. No microSD slot. hahahaha

11 years 9 weeks ago
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Scandinavian:

@Ted: there are many things produced in China that are of high quality, go into any shop anywhere in the world and see the Made In China label under the bottom. The vast majority of these products are designed elsewhere and simply manufactured in China for the cheap labor. Many US/European companies are struggling with their China strategy as quality control is non-existing amongst the Chinese OEM manufacturers. 

 

@bill8899 it would not be an iPhone copy had it had an SD card slot. 

11 years 8 weeks ago
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bill8899:

@Scandinavian: If it had a microSD slot then it would be an iPhone copy with a microSD slot. In my opinion it looks a lot like an iPhone.

11 years 8 weeks ago
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11 years 9 weeks ago
 
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I would mention Huawei as one of the Chinese companies that are well known in the west. Their phone hand sets can be bought by consumers and their network infrastructure is used by telecom companies in many countries. 

The problem is of course that Huawei has a really big problem in being barred from certain markets due to ties to the Chinese army giving concerns their equipment can be used for espionage, and also they have had their share of allegations of copying their competitors products. 

 

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
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It is going to be difficult because of the perception given to Chinese goods - cheap & nasty. Even western distributors make no secret of the fact they search products from China because of their "cheapness". The only exception being western manufacturers that set up base in China to produce goods that meet western specification whilst benefiting from commercial advantages of being here. But then they are not Chinese brands. The other key setback is meeting ethical trading standards. Whilst a foreign owned company in China can meet international social responsibility standards, it is difficult for wholly Chinese organizations to do likewise. Therefore any goods that they produce will be tainted.

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
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Even when the quality standards are approved by a foreign country, Chinese companies refuse to adhere to them, even though they sign contracts saying that they will.

 

Great Wall Motors, for example, recently had to recall all their cars in Australia, for using asbestos in them, despite specifically agreeing not to. The first batches complied with Australian safety standards, but later, when they felt more confident that they could get away with it, asbestos was used.

 

Great Wall justified this by saying their internal tests showed asbestos was not harmful, and that Australia should accept what they say. Also, asbestos is used in China, so Australia should allow it as well. Quality standards seem to have no meaning in China.

bill8899:

I searched but of course the links are blocked.

angel

11 years 8 weeks ago
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11 years 8 weeks ago
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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
Posts: 91

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I would say LiNing, Lenovo, Haier.

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
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Governor

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It will be another twenty years, at least.  China is known for it's blatant dishonesty.  Therefore, a lack of product integrity ensues. 

 

Even if a superior product were to emerge today, consider the immense lack of goodwill that exists among the international community with regard to China.  Several  generations have already been indoctrinated with the thought that Chinese products are sub-standard.  Thus, it will take a few generations to change this opinion. 

 

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
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As a few have already said, there are already a few, Lenovo, Haier, LiNing, Hauwei and I'm sure more will emerge.

To all those saying that they only do cheap and nasty, all copies etc, I am old enough to remember those EXACT same words being used ........................................ against the Japanese. They started out cheap and nasty copies and improved, I think the Chinese are hoping to do the same. Although obviously they would never admit to copying the Japanese model.

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
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It will and is happening sooner and faster than you think. Wait till March . angel

Scandinavian:

what, launch of a car that will fail any US/EU crash test, or a mobile phone that will make your brain feel nice and warm due to radiation ?

11 years 8 weeks ago
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bill8899:

Hi agj, thanks for the details! I can't wait for March. You mean March 2013, correct?

11 years 8 weeks ago
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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
Posts: 25

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First, just wanted to remind some (especially Chinese), do not confuse "Made in China" and "Chinese brand". I hear here and there amongst my Chinese friends that all world goods are Chinese products (because of the sticker made in china). That's  simplistic to think so.

Talking about innovation, many companies are doing great efforts to comply with international standards (ex. Manufacturers with MFI certificates and employing honest expacts, no corrupt ones). 

You may somehow try hard to make marketing plans and suggestions, some employers would sweep them away, not pay you, dismiss you later and hey, soon use your plans to improve their products specifications to meet foreign customers tastes. This, added to copy-catting are real issues our dear daring, courageous Chinese companies need to deal with if ever they want to raise to internationally applauded high  brands level. 

Keep trying, but hurry, because the world financial crisis is by your side, before other countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the US, EU etc) get on their feet again...

 

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
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...read "get on their feet again" Smile

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1091

Shifu

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maybe when they start stealing it along with the patents.

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
Posts: 796

Shifu

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In the next ten years.

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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
Posts: 544

Shifu

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When will a Chinese brand become internationally known for quality or innovation?

 

Probably when a Chinese brand actually produces a quality product or spurs some innovation. I challenge you to name anything they've actually invented or improved upon in the past 50 years.

bill8899:

I challenge you to take your challenge elsewhere. No one here made that assertion.

11 years 7 weeks ago
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Amonk:

No one has asserted that Chinese produce quality or innovation? I suppose you didn't technically assert that, but some might think that you generally require a product to be quality or innovative before it becomes known for those attributes. This might be my American cultural imperialism showing, but when I ask a question I am prepared for honest, truthful, and reasonable answers.

11 years 7 weeks ago
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bill8899:

I think the word 'when' changed the meaning of my question to a request for speculation regarding the future.

At any rate, one may produce quality without innovation or invention. There are any number of fine clothiers, but they did not invent the shirt. 

I wonder, who did invent the shirt as we know it? Can we attribute it to one person or company? Maybe it was a synchronous combination, similar to calculus.

Hell if I know.

 

11 years 7 weeks ago
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Amonk:

I can name tons of American and European clothiers who have designed and marketed (re: innovated) their styles to international markets. Please do the same with a Chinese brand and then we can pretend that this is even a debate.

11 years 7 weeks ago
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Hugh.G.Rection:

I googled your challenge:

 

 

1.
2011 Lasker prize to a Chinese for Artemisinin, a drug therapy for malaria has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world: http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/2011_c_description.htm

2.
2004 Wolf prize to Yuan Longping for solving hunger problem in many countries:
http://www.wolffund.org.il/full.asp?id=5

3.
Chen Jingrun in 1973 solved Goldbach Conjecture's second to last step:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldbach%27s_conjecture
Chen Jingrun showed in 1973 using the methods of sieve theory that every sufficiently large even number can be written as the sum of either two primes, or a prime and a semiprime (the product of two primes)[14]—e.g., 100 = 23 + 7·11.

11 years 5 weeks ago
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Amonk:

lalalala I'm not listening lalalalala 

 

Oh Beaaauuutiful for spacccious skies...

11 years 5 weeks ago
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11 years 8 weeks ago
 
Posts: 106

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Yangzhou dan chou fan

 

known to the world as special fried rice

 

I don't see much R & D like Japanese companies (Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Canon) did and still do

 

All I see is a bunch of copying - the low wages won't last forever

 

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11 years 5 weeks ago
 
Posts: 189

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If Taiwan belongs to China, HTC is also etching its name in the world market.mail

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11 years 5 weeks ago
 
Posts: 4495

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well, let's just say Natas will be needing a nice, warm fur coat...  :-p

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11 years 5 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1153

Shifu

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really thier education is so poor all they can do is copy others work or reverse engineer a product thiers no free thinking

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10 years 38 weeks ago
 
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