Traditional Industry Colony Brand Construction Strategy Analysis and Pondering

Traditional Industry Colony Brand Construction Strategy Analysis and
Pondering
——Taking the Cluster of the Tradition Purple Sand Industry in Yixing as the Example
HONG Yanyun
School of Economic Management, Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology, P.R.China, 213001
Abstract: If the traditional industry cluster wants to continue development, to contend with the
international famous brands in the participation in the international market competition, it is the
inevitable strategic choice to establish and develop the industry cluster brand. Firstly, in this paper, the
meaning of the region industry brand and its effect are elaborated. The relation between the enterprise
brand and the development of industrial cluster is discussed consequently. Then taking the traditional
purple sand industry cluster of Jiangsu Yixing as the example, it analyzes the present situation and the
question on the cluster brand construction of Yixing purple sand. Finally, the solutions of cluster brand
construction on purple sand industry in Yixing are proposed.
Keywords: Yixing Purple Sand, Industry Cluster, Brand Construction
1 Introduction
The industrial cluster refers to a crowd interactive and close in the geography enterprise and related
legal person organization that are joined together with commonness and complementarities in some
specific domain. Since Reform and Open, large quantities of industrial clusters have been developed in
many provinces in our country, especially in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, etc. Majority industrial
clusters take the middle and small scale private enterprise as a main body, take the manufacturing
industry as the main industry, depends upon the internal source in cluster region, then became lots of
crowds and developed rapidly, as a result, they played main roles in rapid and constant region economic
growth. However, compared with private manufacturing cluster in developed countries, ours developed
lately and many industrial clusters’ positions are not high in global industry value chain. With global
market competition aggravating, industrial structure upgrading and technology advancement speeding
up, production advantage founded by traditional industry cluster such as low-cost and innovation
technology will lose competitive position gradually if they can’t have brand advantage, as a result, these
clusters will comedown. Therefore, it’s inevitable stratagem select that traditional industry cluster found
and develop industrial cluster brand in order to realize sustainable development and contend with
international name brand in international market competition.
2 Regional Industry Brand Implications and Effect
The industrial cluster is one kind economic organization form which is different from market and
enterprise. It has market and the enterprise characteristic and is a sort of networking and region
economic organization form. For traditional industry cluster, there are both enterprise brand and overall
brand which behave of all cluster’s identity. Regarding the latter, this paper will use the words of Li
Yonggang (2005), defined with “the region industry brand”.
The region industry brand refers to the market reputation and the influence, its main body is not the
single enterprise but specialized enterprise cluster in the region. When one industry forms the situation
of specialization gathering development and becomes leading industry in some space region, and for
specialized labor division deepening, this kind of regional industry will obtain postnatal comparison
superiority which is not associated with the congenital resources talent directly and become regional
specialized industry which has powerful market competition. This kind of regional industry brand will
be formed and established.
At present, lots of traditional industry cluster in our country are formed of small and medium-sized
enterprise, but small and medium-sized enterprise respectively founds well-known brand difficultly and
114
costly. The regional industry brand is the outcome, which multitudinous enterprises pull together, all
enterprises in an industry of the cluster share the brand operation cost together; as a result, fund
obligation for each enterprise, which was invested in brand operation, will be alleviated greatly. Once
the regional industry brand is formed, it will represent an overall image of an industrial cluster product
and is a communal article for enterprises in the cluster. Many enterprises in the cluster (especially small
business and related self-contained enterprise in region) may share the benefit which the brand brings
through “hitchhike”, obtain sustainable development and generate embark effect of the regional brand.
3 The Present Situation and Question of Yixing Purple Sand Industry Colony
Brand Construction
The purple sand is the Chinese treasure, especially the “golden name card” of Yixing, Jiangsu province.
The purple sand, with its glorious history, the unique production process, the lofty cultural status and the
practical value, enjoys the extremely high popularity and the fine reputation home and abroad.
At present, Yixing purple sand industry colony has nearly 300 purple sand enterprises, among which the
number of the well-known big enterprises is only 30 and others mostly are the small purple sand
enterprise. The Yixing people as a big traveling characteristic project to attract tourists all over the
country treat Yixing purple sand. Yixing people have obtained innumerable opportunities by this
state-level non-material cultural heritage, which promoted the swift development of the entire Yixing
economy. The Yixing purple sand industry colony has carried on the brand strategy vigorously under
one batch of leading enterprise's leadership and established the brand initially, but in this colony's brand
construction process there also had many problems as:
3.1 The Government’s Insufficient Guide, the Imperfect Guild Regulations, and the Half-baked
Coordinated Sets of Measures of the Brand Development
For a long time, Yixing purple sand professional lines are not perfect. The government guides
insufficiently. The present purple sand industry has developed some scale, but it actually has certain
flaw and the hidden danger. Without the guild regulations, the product management is relative confusion.
About 78% of enterprises are the Private enterprise, who is easy to neglect the enterprise integral
development. As a result, the brand constructions do not have the strategic plan which will bring the
serious results to the enterprise.
At the locality, there does not form the brand development policy system in the financing, brand service,
the scientific innovation, the enterprise reform and the talented person support, which is useful for the
brand development. Some places even have the administrative monopoly and the local blockade, that
hinds the element of the production unrestricted flow and the optimized disposition in the trans-regions.
There has not risen the brand work to the important strategic position, lacks the science reasonable
development project and lacks the practical and feasible implementation in the brand support cultivation
machine-made and the coordinated sets of measures.
3.2 In the Cluster, the Product’s Homogenization Degree Is High, the Product Innovation
Insufficiency
The objective of founding brand is to identify product or service which some producer or a producer,
and distinguishes it with the competitor’s product or service. In Yixing purple sand industrial enterprise,
as a result of its special development reason, lots of them are family firm, among them, and there are
many relative relations. The product which different enterprises produce is similar, the product
plagiarism and the imitation phenomena are serious; enterprise's innovation power and ability are not
strong. These enterprises don’t have to let the consumer differentiate their products and the competitor’s
products because this enterprise's product is homogeneity, or is nearly the homogeneity. This
homogeneity product’s price is often low, not only make the outside know Yixing purple sand industry
cluster is low level and cheap purple sand market but also initiate the counter-dumping lawsuit of
overseas enterprise, and becomes an important barrier in the cluster brand construction. Because of
lacking the government professional management, the purple sand enterprise operators only seek money
115
as the management goal, but neglect the innovation and the multiple development of the products. But
the purple sand product's oneness causes its market to be narrow, the expending level to be high and the
consumer age being high. These factors have limited the purple sand profession development.
3.3 Cluster Brand’s Promotion Power Is Insufficient; the Customer Resources Use Is Not Full
In Yixing purple sand industrial cluster, except several large enterprises carried on the advertisements
propaganda, other enterprises advertised scarcely in media like newspaper, television and so on,
majority small and medium-sized enterprise economic strength is not enough. These enterprises mostly
propagandize through the constructing enterprise website themselves, advertisement in the website only
emphasized own enterprise, the goal of propaganda is individual. But this does not have the superiority
to the enterprise whose economic strength is light originally, the enterprise has not used the superiority
of Yixing itself being purple sand industry to exaggerates the industrial atmosphere, nor carry on the
promotion of the regional brand. From marketing angle, there are some problems such as contention
for customer resources, even malignant competition and so on. Yixing region haven’t establish good
customer resource management system, enterprises have not depended on each other mutually on the
customer resources, the entire cluster haven’t make full use of the customer resources, as a result, many
customer resources has been outflow.
3.4 Purple Sand Industry Colony Culture Is Built Insufficiently
The industrial colony culture is a criterion which refers to faith and value, occurring in the industrial
colony interior initiative, and approved and obeyed by members in the collective. It can restrain,
encourage and guide each enterprise's behavior in imperceptibly the drive, and can establish the
coordinate, the supplement mutually and the mutual competition, surveillance's collective atmosphere
which is manifested in regionalizing distribution, specialized management, marketability linkage,
socialized cooperation colony operation mechanisms, thus the colony in the market and society's
positive image is set up.
The brand must have the unique cultural support to be able to demonstrate the vitality and the vigor,
because only the brand with the rich, unique cultural connotation can conform to the popular spiritual
pursue and the emotion pursue day by day. However, Yixing purple sand enterprise actually frequently
neglects our country deep culture and enterprise own culture accumulates when molds the brand culture.
If the market is popular anything, the culture is toward any direction diligently, so it is very difficult to
have its own unique culture, which causes own brand image to be not very single-minded finally, and
the brand culture is not very profound, but has suspicion of the current fad.
4 The Strategy and Suggests to Strengthens the Yixing Purple Sand Industry
Colony Brand Construction
4.1 To Strengthen the Government Guiding Support, and Display Colony Chamber of Commerce
or Profession Association's Function
The purple sand industry is the special connotation traditional process industry, whose criterion’s
development needs the government to pay more attention, such as strengthening protection to new
works, establishing the new product public announcement system, and forming the new product
Certifying commission of the Official organization authoritative sources & carrying on the confirmation
together with the Industry and commerce department to the new product; If the purple sand industry
colony development meets the skill limit, they should try to solve the education training problem; If it
receives the low efficiency environment facility limit, they should strengthen the infrastructure and the
environmental construction. In brief, the government must provide the essential guidance and the
thorough service for the purple sand industry colony brand construction and the competitive power
enhancement.
Colony chamber of commerce or the industrial association may play the most important role to the trust,
linkage and sanction, supplementary effect, enterprise's competition and management skill, study and
innovation ability between enterprises in the industrial cluster. The industrial association's function can’t
116
be neglected in the operation of the cluster brand; it undertakes the responsibilities as industry autonomy,
service, coordination, management and so on.
4.2 Enhancing Enterprise’s Research and Development and Innovation Ability, Showing Cluster
Brand’s Rich Individuality
Nowadays, the brand has been already endued with “newly, wonderful, special” and so on the
characteristics, the enterprise only create products different from others and has its characteristic; it can
attract consumer's eyeball and promote enterprise brand’s competitive power. At present, Yixing purple
sand industrial cluster's development has met some problems as the assimilation product structure, the
similar competition method and so on, in order to promote cluster’s competitive, we must carry on the
effective conformity to cluster's resources, guide different scale and nature enterprise to locate
reasonably and dislocate management so that they can meet different level and type consumer’s needs.
Larger scale and stronger strength enterprise should found its research and development department and
enlarge fund and supporting of research and development, make the enterprise promote the ability of
product development and market innovation, further to own its core technology and own brand. It needs
to establish the united fleets with the scientific research colleges and universities for middle and small
scaled purple sand enterprise, so as to the establishment “produces the innovation system which, studies,
grinds” unifies. Only we do so, the brand product can’t be substituted, so the enterprise possesses
initiative power in drastic market competition and competitive superiority of sustained development.
4.3 Enlarging Cluster Brand’s Promotion, the Enterprise Sharing the Customer Resources in the
Cluster
The cluster brand’s cultivation needs all members’ joint effort in the cluster. The marketing
dissemination’s method and the form should vary. Different enterprise may synthesizes using media like
newspaper, broadcast, television, Internet and so on to carry on the advertisement or image propaganda
according to own economic strength. In the brand’s propaganda and promotion activity, enterprises
should not only propaganda enterprise brand to the outside but also propaganda regional industry brand
“Yixing purple sand”. The massive purple sand floor enterprise exaggerating the cluster brand
superiority by excellent quality and variety products avail of establishment of regional industry brand,
once regional industry brand formed regional industry advantageous, in turn can be helpful to the cluster
enterprise's development. The two depend and affect mutually.
The reputation of regional industry brand’s establishment may bring huge benefits to the enterprise in
the cluster. But, once reputation of regional brand is damaged, its influence to the enterprises in the
cluster will be disastrous. Therefore, the member enterprise in the cluster should resist unfair competent
and protect the reputation of regional brand from being invade. There are some malignant competitions
phenomena such as price war, even loss operation, these phenomena do harm to management
surrounding seriously. Yixing government and industrial association need to guide the enterprises
positively, carry on good communication between enterprises, try to do cluster’s customer resource
management work, and enhance the utilization ratio to the customer resources.
4.4 To Build Outstanding Yixing Purple Sand Industry Colony Culture
The industrial colony culture is one kind of team culture, which this industrial area displays, the
industrial colony development core values manifestation, and also the industrial colony core
competitiveness important performance. A good colony culture may form various enterprises' cohesive
force internally, and may form the market competitiveness outward.
The purple sand contains the traditional culture connotation, expresses the emotion makings way, and
has been prosperous in the artistic clay modeling culture expression. The purple sand clay model
satisfies the people daily needs physiologically or materially. It is the rich, unique cultural connotation
brand to be able to conform to people’s spiritual pursues enhancing day by day. Yixing purple sand
should integrate the outstanding national tradition culture in the colony brand, carry on the movement of
the sentiment as the foundation and the flag's consumer, enhance the brand culture connotation
patriotically, arouse consumer's sympathy and the value approval at heart, place the brand national
117
characteristic in the world culture to cultivate, raises the expense idea of other country with own brand
culture, and realize the fusion of the national culture and the world culture finally in the brand culture.
So it can promote Yixing purple sand unique culture charm home and abroad to enjoy the extremely
high popularity and the fine reputation, and cause ceramic Yixing the “golden name card” to be better. It
plays the important role to promote the local economy.
References
[1]. Li Guowu. Brand Strategy in the Development of Spontaneously Industrial Clusters. Journal of
Central University of Finance & Economics, 2005(9): 52-55.
[2]. Li Yonggang. Enterprise Brand, Regional Industrial Brand and Development of Local Industrial
Cluster. Collected Essays on Finance and Economics, 2005(1): 22-27.
[3]. Shi Haiying, Huang Wenjie. Discussion on Enterprise Colony Brand Construction Pattern.
Commercial Time, 2006(7): 49-50.
[4]. Michael• Baud. Competition theory. Zhong-Xin Press, 2003(in Chinese).
118