Insight
What is the future of Taiwan's brand agencies, as seen in the unification of Starbucks in Shanghai?
Uni-President announced on July 27 that it had entered into an equity transaction with Starbucks USA, in which it sold a total of 50% shares of Starbucks Shanghai to its parent company Starbucks USA, and purchased the shares of Uni-President Starbucks Taiwan from Starbucks USA. This is not the first time that Uni-President has faced the case of "handing back" its shareholding. 2013, Uni-President sold back to its parent company, Nissho Corporation's Ryojin program, the 51% shareholding of MUJI, which was the second largest in terms of profitability after Starbucks, and formally parted company with MUJI, and the Shanghai Starbucks, which is successfully running its business in eastern China, is now facing the same fate.
Is this the destiny of Taiwan's brand agencies? From the perspective of brand strategy planning and experience, we talk about the future trend of brand agency in Taiwan.
Create a new brand is not easy, from R & D design to marketing and promotion, often need to invest a lot of costs and resources, and therefore, the agent to import existing foreign brands, for many enterprises, is a relatively easy road. However, even as a brand agent, it is still necessary to invest high royalties, access, marketing and other costs, and often the results of hard work to open up new territory, but also face the risk of the head office to withdraw the agency rights to their own operations.
Therefore, all enterprises must eventually move towards creating their own brands.
Any industry that needs to communicate with people needs a brand.
Even as an agent, you should make a brand name.
As the first line of direct communication and relationship building with consumers, an agent should of course make a brand name. For example, Hang Lung Hong is the best example of making an agent a brand name. For example, Hang Lung Hong is the best example of how to make a brand name out of an agent. Founded in 1960, this long-established company has not only become the gold standard for agents requested by many foreign manufacturers, but has also become the guarantee for the quality and service of imported goods in the eyes of consumers.
Having experienced the fate of Panasonic's withdrawal of dehumidifier agency due to company policy, Heng Lung Hong is well aware of the fact that agents must face evolution and transformation. They not only deeply cultivate physical channels to grasp consumer preferences and market information, but also provide professional services and warranty maintenance, and create the HENGSTYLE platform to enhance the image of each brand, shaping the image of HENGSTYLE as "Proposer of a Better Life". The HENGSTYLE platform has also been created to enhance the image of each brand, shaping the image of Hang Lung Bank as a "proposer of better life".
The most famous example is the agency of Dyson, a famous vacuum cleaner brand in the United Kingdom. Hang Lung Hong has set up a dedicated business department, from brand story marketing to setting up counters in department stores, and has successfully boosted the sales volume, turning an insignificant vacuum cleaner at home into a technological product that is a hot topic on the Internet, and has become an indicator of the quality of life that consumers are pursuing. Therefore, agents must create their own value, and even when the head office evaluates and realizes that even if they take back the right to operate the business, they will not be able to achieve such high commercial efficiency, in order to get out of the nightmare of being pulled out of the agency at any time, and even more brands, holding their own merchandise to ask you to represent them, and then, you will have established your own brand.
Learning from Agents Know How to Start Your Own Brand
We have been observing the market for a long time and realized that people in Taiwan do not have enough self-confidence in their own local brands, which leads to the myth that "foreign brands with international recognition are better". In fact, Taiwan is not only famous for the high quality of its manufacturing industry, but also for the sophistication of its service industry, which is unmatched by many other countries, so there is no need to be overly worried or presumptuous.
For example, Regent Hotel is the best example of a standard service industry that transformed from OEM to ODM and finally to OBM. When Poon Sze Leung took over Regent Hotels, he was a standard service industry brand agent, but during this period, he made efforts to learn the know how of the international group's operation, and when his own management team could take charge of their own business, he firstly re-signed a contract with the Regent system and renamed it as Crystal Hotels, and relied on his own operation. 2008, he even further created his own international brand Silks, and developed two brands for different levels of guests, namely, "Crystal Hotels" and "Jetts", as well as its various brands. In 2008, the company further established its own international brand Silks and developed two hotel brands, "Jing Ying Hotel" and "Jets Inn", targeting different customer segments, as well as various food and beverage brands under its umbrella. However, JHD is not satisfied with this, and in 2010, JHD acquired the Regent Hotel system, which is the first case of a local Taiwanese hotelier acquiring an international brand. Currently, JHD manages hotels in Berlin, Singapore, Beijing, Chongqing, and even the Port of Monte Negro.
Internationally renowned brands have their own standards of brand management, which is indeed a shortcut for enterprises that have just taken over the business to start up, but most importantly, the
In the development process, the focus should be from the investment in hardware, gradually shifted to the brand management of knowledge upgrading, in order to turn passive into active, to create their own brand, jumping out of the traditional destiny of the brand agency.
Therefore, at the beginning of establishing a brand, it is not only necessary to be based in Taiwan, but also to look at the international arena, through professional brand strategy design, and to target the global market as the overall planning, in order to better enhance the brand identity and corporate image.
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