"Chinese" as a Global Brand [1of3]

Abstract


Given a John Quelch 2003 Harvard Business Review article (The Return of the Global Brand), and the choice of a product (Lenovo laptops), this writer will make an effort to argue a position in relationship to the consideration of Chinese global brands.



Introduction

Notable from the start is that there are a series of differences in opinion between this author and Mr. Quelch (Quelch, 2003). Mr. Quelch states, “Made in China is today what Made in Japan was in the 1960s”. Well, not quite. Made in Japan may have been synonymous with cheap abundance (as is China), but many quality goods are coming out of China as well. For another, China is using an overwhelm strategy on a scale that Japan never could (issues of melamine, lead paint in children's toys, toxic dairy, toxic drywall ad nausea, buried in today's news cycle). In addition, let us not overlook that China remains a Communist political context. The principals of the company that produced the toys with lead paint met with unique justice, beheadings. The lead tainted toys occupied a few days in the news cycle here and soon forgotten, but that does not matter when you are responsible for the motherland losing face (however temporary).

Mr. Quelch refers to a work, a score of years prior, by Theodore Levitt. In Mr. Levitt’s, The Globalization of Markets, he argues that consumer goods would become increasingly uniform (a consumer communism?). Truth told, we live in a bumper sticker world, and everything seems synthesized down to its core black or white. This author would argue (for the grey areas) that Karl Marx and Thomas Jefferson would likely be friendly towards each other. It should be noted (and perhaps noted more often as well) that three of the four freedoms in Karl's manifesto are identical to three of the four freedoms Jefferson penned. One other whack at the political context of this conversation is that any honest address of political systems will acknowledge overlapping translucent flavors of different persuasions to varying degrees. For example, for all the anti-socialism rhetoric that our country's recent tea party has coughed up, I'm sure that most of them still used our highway system, our postal service, send her children to public schools and appreciate the federal prison system that is in place, our military, etc. Likewise, one only has to consider the Hang Seng, a veritable icon of Western capitalism, to catch the scent that China is moving towards us in more ways than we often appreciate.

Finally, before moving into the body of this paper, I would analogize metaphorically that to argue for or against all consumer goods becoming uniform (as expression of globalization) is like arguing creationism versus evolution. There will be those of each camp that feel adamant, and have collected enough facts (or whatever) on their side to blind them from a counter position. This author humbly submits for your consideration the possibility that both may be correct, simultaneously.