Hong Kong SMEs operating manufacturing plants in mainland are getting more difficult these days.  Everyone wants to get a market share in the giant market and factories could not survive with just simple “value added” components or export.  Many of them wanted to launch their products as domestic goods and SMEs also started to pay attention to the importance of branding.  And, in views of many successful cases in the market; they wanted to create branding for their OEM products too.   

It’s true, there are stories that some products re-branded with new packaging, promotion tactics and sales channels could lead to good development of the corporations with superb financial return.  However, many people, including SMEs in Hong Kong or Chinese manufacturers, misunderstood the meaning of “branding”.  

Branding is an important key success factor to a business and it is a “value-added” item to help to push for higher sales and profit.  It’s a pity that people thought that to have a “new logo”, a “new packaging” and then apply the set of new designs to all the company products and launch a “promotion campaign” mean “branding”.  With various media coverage and promotions, market awareness jumped and if lucky enough, sales may also be increased.  However, consumers are very forgetful and it would be difficult to keep high marketing budget going on and on without good return.  After a while, you might get lost and not sure if you should continue with the promotion?  Or, you might create another “new logo” and “new design”?  

Have you experienced the above?  Did you find an answer to the situation?