What kind of experience is it? Xinhua In-depth Reading | Renewal of time-honored brands: "The same ones people used more than 100 years ago"

Author: Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Xie Xiyao, Qu Ting, Pan Jie, Wei Hongyi, Zhou Rui, Yu Wan, Ding Le

China's time-honored brands, with an average "age" of nearly 140 years old, have recently made a striking and strong comeback.

"You are still here!" The "white moonlight" in the hearts of the elderly and the "childhood memories" of the middle-aged people seem to have traveled through the time tunnel and are placed in prominent positions on supermarket shelves again, and even become "Internet celebrities" sought after by young people on e-commerce platforms.

In the ice cream category alone, there are old brands such as Bright Dairy, Madiel, Meiyi Le, and Beibingyang that are blooming new "flowers", and new cross-border brands such as Wu Yutai, Moutai, and White Rabbit are crossing over. Their common goal is to "win fans" of young consumers.

In most people’s impressions, time-honored brands are old brands and old products that are heard of but rarely seen and bought, and have been quietly scattered in the corners of the market and public vision for many years.

According to statistics, there are currently 1,455 Chinese time-honored brands and more than 3,000 local time-honored brands in China. At a time when the production capacity of daily consumer goods in China is astonishing and the competition between international and domestic brands is unprecedentedly fierce, where does the explosive power of time-honored brands come from? How can they be "renewed"? Can it be sustained?

During this Dragon Boat Festival holiday, time-honored brands frequently launched new products:

Open your phone and you can see comments like "magic" and "Zonglaiwu" everywhere in the comment section of the micro-film "World Model" released by Wufangzhai. "Time is sticky, like glutinous rice, flowing, making glutinous rice soft again"... Through avant-garde images and lines, "Zongzi King" tries to express and reconstruct the relationship between people and food, and between people in the process of making zongzi. For several consecutive years, Wufangzhai has launched various "brain-opening" blockbusters and has been labeled "Wufang Pictures" by netizens.

Zhiweiguan teamed up with Fang Huichuntang, a century-old Chinese medicine brand, to design a series of health-preserving rice dumplings; Cao Xiangtai put handmade mung bean cakes on the shelves one month earlier than last year, causing netizens to exclaim that the food circle has begun to "pamper fans" with its strength.

Beijing, Qianmen Street. The sudden summer rain could not dampen the enthusiasm of the young people queuing in front of Wu Yutai Tea House.

They were waiting in line for tea-flavored ice cream at 9 yuan a piece. During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the store sold an average of 4,000 ice creams a day, and the waiting time was an hour at the peak.

"Can I drive after drinking Maotai latte?" Maotai once made headlines with a cup of "Maotai latte", and has been Luckin Coffee's star product since its launch.

Cross-border, co-branded, "going online", creating image IP... Driven by Internet e-commerce platforms and live streaming, many time-honored brands have been taking frequent actions to put the "old wine" of sentiment into the "new bottles" of the times, turning their products from "few people are interested" to "drinking one cup after another."

On May 13, 2024, at the China Brand Expo held in Shanghai, a staff member live-streamed and sold goods at the booth of the Chinese time-honored brand "Xinbaotang". Photo by reporter Wang Xiang

"It's a time-honored brand, but it's still quite trendy!" one netizen said with emotion.

Douyin's e-commerce report shows that in 2023, the number of time-honored merchants earning income on the platform increased by 89% year-on-year, and the number of users purchasing time-honored products increased by 38% year-on-year. Meituan's report shows that in the past year, the time-honored orders on the platform increased by 25.6% year-on-year. According to iMedia Research, more than 90% of consumers said they had visited Chinese time-honored restaurants in 2023.

"It feels like many time-honored brands that I had only heard of before suddenly appeared before my eyes."

In the past year, Huang Qingmiao, a consumer born in the 1990s, unexpectedly became familiar with many time-honored brands on Douyin. "When I thought about using the same things as people more than 100 years ago, I inexplicably felt a deep resonance."

"Yumeijing finally has access to the Internet", "Fenghua picks up boxes for delivery", "Huili 28 uncles live broadcast to save the factory"... The reason behind a group of time-honored brands being pushed to the "hot search" by netizens is that young people nowadays pursue both cost-effectiveness and emotional connection in their consumption. The ripple effect is that time-honored brands have "resurrected" on e-commerce platforms, with "personalities" and hot topics. Many netizens sighed: "Oh, the time-honored brands are still alive!"

Time-honored brands refer to brands with a long history, products, skills or services that have been passed down from generation to generation, with a distinct traditional Chinese cultural background and profound cultural heritage, and have gained wide recognition from society and formed a good reputation. It is understood that there were more than 16,000 time-honored brands in the early days of the founding of New China, but now there are less than 5,000.

Over time, time-honored brands have become synonymous with long history, distinctive features, unique craftsmanship, and genuine products. But more than half a century later, the pace of development of time-honored brands has not been consistent.

Some time-honored brands have changed owners several times and are poorly managed, resulting in declining quality; some have relied on their seniority to gain popularity and have lost their reputation; some have been trapped by regional development problems and have become smaller and smaller; some have encountered "fakes" and have found it difficult to protect their brand rights... The sharp decline in the number of time-honored brands is the result of some time-honored brands failing to keep up with the pace of the times.

In February 2024, the Ministry of Commerce and five other departments announced the third batch of Chinese time-honored brands, newly identifying 382 brands as Chinese time-honored brands, bringing the number of Chinese time-honored brands nationwide to 1,455. In addition, there are more than 3,000 local time-honored brands.

The average age of Chinese time-honored brands is nearly 140 years old. In terms of region, Shanghai has 197 time-honored brands, ranking first. Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are also provinces with a large number of Chinese time-honored brands, with 137, 113 and 112 respectively.

From daily necessities to music, chess, calligraphy and painting, China's time-honored brands cover 32 industries in seven categories, of which food manufacturing accounts for the largest proportion at 18.9%, followed by catering at 16.6%, wine and tea manufacturing at 15.5%, and retail at 12.9%. Arts and crafts and processing and manufacturing are also industries with a large number of time-honored brands.

Zhang Lijun, vice president of the China General Chamber of Commerce and director of the Time-honored Brands Working Committee, summarized today's Chinese time-honored brands with three "mores": more emphasis on the excavation and utilization of historical and cultural resources, more focus on serving the daily lives of the people, and more emphasis on playing a leading role in demonstration. "It is gratifying that more and more companies have done well in the past two years."

Some time-honored brands that have weathered the ravages of time staged a glorious "return of the king" in this round of competition.

In 2023, Wufangzhai will produce more than 400 million zongzi of various types annually. In order to find new growth points, Wufangzhai has set up a non-zongzi business department to explore baking, quick freezing and other fields and enter the food supply chain.

"The only way to survive is to constantly respond to market changes," said Xu Wei, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Wufangzhai Industrial Co., Ltd.

In the market, those who follow the trend will prosper, while those who go against the trend will perish. For time-honored brands, this round of hard work is a battle of fate that concerns life and death.

First, the disappearance of lifestyles and consumption scenarios is a fatal challenge.

“The earliest crisis was the advent of the high-speed rail era,” recalled Cui Chen, the new generation leader of Dezhou Braised Chicken.

Dezhou Braised Chicken is a time-honored brand that has grown along with slow trains. Today, high-speed rail has shortened travel time and provided a wide variety of catering services. People no longer rely on train windows to buy food. In recent years, Dezhou Braised Chicken has had to turn to opening up new consumption scenarios, creating a local "citizen kitchen", setting up specialty stores across the country, and seizing new online consumption. This is not an isolated case among time-honored brands.

The "stickiness" of traditional food to modern consumers is also significantly weakening. "We are worried whether young people will still buy zongzi in the future." Xu Wei said that even if the zongzi is made to perfection and the brand market share exceeds 30%, it is only a few billion yuan, and the market "cake" is so big.

Obviously, the world of time-honored brands has undergone tremendous changes. The fierce competition among various brands is unprecedented, and the market share of time-honored brands is reaching its "ceiling".

On the one hand, a large number of new domestic brands have emerged.

For example, nowadays when people eat roast duck, those who focus on cost-effectiveness go to Dayali, and those who pursue high quality go to Quanyaji and Dadong. The market share left for Bianyifang and Quanjude is getting smaller and smaller.

Among Chinese pastries, up-and-coming brands such as Bao Shifu, Zhan Ji, and Luxi River have frequently launched new products, and new brands such as Momo Dim Sum Bureau have received a lot of attention from capital.

In the beauty and daily chemical sector, there are "Internet celebrity" brands such as Perfect Diary and Hua Xizi. It only took Perfect Diary three years from its establishment to its listing, and it has become very popular in Southeast Asia.

On the other hand, in the globalized consumer market, international brands are also having a crushing impact on time-honored brands.

There are also many "old brands" among foreign brands: 69-year-old McDonald's, 114-year-old Chanel, 187-year-old Procter & Gamble, 289-year-old Blancpain... In terms of manufacturing costs, product innovation, revenue scale and other aspects, there is still a big gap between many old brands and international brands.

On June 17, 2024, the "2024 Time-honored Brand Carnival·Heart-beating Time-honored Brands" series of summer activities jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Chaoyang District Balizhuang Subdistrict and other units opened. The picture shows people shopping and relaxing at the summer market. Photo by reporter Li Xin

Whether it is the traditional field or the new track, it is already crowded with new brands competing for traffic and investment institutions with plenty of money. The market "battle" has started in various fields such as food, beverages, wine, daily chemicals, etc.

The anxiety of time-honored brands about being "picky by young people" is becoming more prominent. In the Internet era, young consumers' ability to capture information and discern business models is increasing. They pay more attention to the quality and cost-effectiveness of products, rather than just the brand's popularity. Due to the large choice space, their brand loyalty is not high.

The research conducted by Maidi Brand Consulting on the vitality index of time-honored brands previously showed that the development of time-honored brands is in a "four low" situation in terms of brand awareness, purchase conversion, new product awareness, and communication reach. The elderly are still the main consumer group of time-honored brands.

According to statistics from industry insiders, the new generation of consumers represented by those born after 1995 only know an average of 19 time-honored brands, those born between 1980 and 1994 know an average of 29, and those born in the 1960s and 1970s know an average of 41.

"Overall, consumers have more and more choices. Some time-honored brands that were born in an era of material scarcity have entered an era of full market competition and no longer have absolute advantages in terms of industry monopoly or technological barriers," said Zhang Lijun.

It is worth noting that the country’s management concepts and methods for time-honored brands have also undergone significant changes.

"China's time-honored brands are no longer a golden ticket to immunity," said Zhang Lijun.

At the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Commerce and five other departments jointly issued the "Management Measures for the Demonstration Creation of Chinese Time-honored Brands", proposing to establish a dynamic management mechanism of "in and out" to promote Chinese time-honored brands to adapt to market mechanisms, adhere to the right principles and develop innovatively.

At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Commerce removed 55 brands that had been performing poorly for a long time from the list of Chinese time-honored brands for the first time, and required 73 brands with poor operations and declining performance to rectify within six months, which attracted attention and heated discussion from the outside world.

Among them, the news that "Zhengyang River" was "delisted" made many Harbin citizens feel regretful and surprised. In the TV series "The World", the protagonist Zhou Bingkun once worked in a soy sauce factory. The prototype of this soy sauce factory is the Zhengyang River Soy Sauce Factory in Harbin.

"In the 1980s and 1990s, the Zhengyanghe Soy Sauce Factory was doing extremely well." A person in the condiment industry in Harbin recalled that after the state-owned enterprise Zhengyanghe was restructured, it was sold several times, but unfortunately none of the bosses was really interested in making soy sauce.

The fact that Zhang Xiaoquan was included in the list of companies to be “rectified” is not that surprising. Zhang Xiaoquan, which was caught in a storm of public opinion due to its “smashing garlic and cutting off the knife”, was at a loss as to what to do. Its 400-year-old glory was exposed, revealing its failings in everything from corporate culture to corporate management.

China's time-honored brands are not amulets that last forever. The Ministry of Commerce has implemented a recognition mechanism of "in and out" and "selecting the best from the best", which clearly shows the fundamental law of survival of the fittest in the market.

Outdated organizational structure, lack of human capital and insufficient innovation are common problems faced by many time-honored brands.

Many years ago, the famous economist Li Yining pointed out that for most time-honored enterprises, the only way out is to deepen reforms, adapt to new market changes, and meet new market demands. With a suitable system, management costs will gradually decrease and the quality of employees will continue to improve.

"Changing old ideas is harder than climbing to the sky!" Zhao Shuxin talked about his years at Wu Yutai and felt that it was much more difficult for time-honored brands to innovate than for ordinary companies.

Zhao Shuxin, who took office as Wu Yutai's chairman in 2013, recalled: When we first planned discount promotions, old employees thought it would affect the company's gross profit; when we promoted store upgrades and renovations, old employees thought it was unnecessary; when we encouraged new college students to go to the grassroots for training, old employees thought it was a waste of talent...

The rigid system, outdated concepts and stagnation of progress were fully reflected in this time-honored state-owned enterprise.

In September 2020, the century-old Goubuli steamed buns were criticized by the public for a store visit video that "challenged" consumers. Subsequently, Goubuli Group Co., Ltd. issued a statement saying that the store was a franchise store before the group's restructuring and immediately terminated its cooperation with the franchisee of the store.

Although it has distanced itself from the store, problems such as declining gross profit margins, delisting, and a significant contraction in its store count continue to plague this time-honored brand, once known as Tianjin's food business card.

"Time-honored brands were basically transformed into state-owned enterprises through public-private partnerships, and then underwent state-owned enterprise reform. Some enterprises were reformed thoroughly, while others were not; some were reformed proactively and creatively, while others were reformed passively at the request of the government. This has resulted in the current development of time-honored brands facing many institutional and mechanism problems," said a relevant official from the Ministry of Commerce.

"Every leap forward in Lao Feng Xiang's development was achieved through institutional reform," said Yang Yi, chairman of Lao Feng Xiang Co., Ltd. From the old Shanghai silver shop during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty to the state-owned gold shop in the planned economy era, and from the operational difficulties in the early days of reform and opening up to entering the fast lane of development after the new century, "reform" has run through the entire development process.

Thanks to the reform, Lao Feng Xiang, which was founded in 1848, has developed into a listed company integrating R&D, design, production and sales, with nearly 60 member companies after many adjustments and reorganizations. It has firmly established itself as the leading brand of gold jewelry in my country and has been selected for many times in the "Top 50 Global High-end and Luxury Goods Value" list released by international authoritative brand evaluation agencies.

In 2018, Lao Feng Xiang Co., Ltd. was selected as a pilot enterprise for the "Double Hundred Action" of state-owned enterprise reform. It was during this reform that Lao Feng Xiang introduced strategic investors such as Guoxin Holdings Co., Ltd., and in just five months, it smoothly resolved the equity solidification problem that had plagued Lao Feng Xiang for more than a decade.

On July 29, 2022, visitors took photos of the "Phoenix Dancing in the Sky·Golden Phoenix Crown" exhibited by Lao Fengxiang at the Consumer Goods Expo. Photo by reporter Yang Guanyu

It turned out that in the late 1990s, Lao Feng Xiang successfully carried out equity restructuring, with everyone holding shares, which promoted the company's rapid development for a period of time. However, due to the lack of a sound equity exit mechanism, the equity solidification caused problems such as difficulty in equity "blood transfusion" between new and old employees, which gradually emerged.

"From the exit of original equity to the introduction of strategic investors, we have been operating in full compliance with market rules." Yang Yi said that after solving the equity issues of state-owned enterprises through market-oriented approaches, Lao Feng Xiang also promoted reforms such as the professional manager system, improved the market-oriented personnel selection and employment and salary distribution mechanisms, and stimulated the innovation motivation of operators.

The latest data shows that in 2023, Lao Feng Xiang Co., Ltd. achieved an industrial output value of 50.661 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.66%; operating income of 71.436 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.37%; total profit of 3.979 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.41%.

New dishes are launched every 3 to 4 months, and the store style is upgraded every few years... In recent years, 70% of the customers attracted by Taotao Ju, which is over 140 years old, are under 35 years old.

As an old restaurant brand in Guangzhou, Taotaoju once faced an operational crisis. It was not until the end of 2020 that Taotaoju introduced authorized operators of the catering business and high-quality private capital through capital increase and stock expansion, completed the company's mixed-ownership reform, and the overall value of the brand exceeded 500 million yuan, achieving a rapid doubling of operating performance, asset value, and especially brand value.

"In recent years, Taotaoju has taken the lead in trying out new things and successfully revitalized the Taotaoju brand, which was once an inefficient asset, by establishing the development strategy of 'big brand, light assets, and platformization.'" said a relevant person in charge of Taotaoju.

Today, Taotaoju has broken through the mindset of sticking to the original location and one store, and starting from Guangzhou, its catering stores are spread across cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Xiamen; transforming from single-store operation to "online and offline" integrated operation, the average sales growth rate of Taotaoju's e-commerce platform has exceeded 40% in the past seven years.

"In the first two months of this year, our front store sold more than the annual sales volume, relying on the incentive mechanism. The more sales, the more money, and the employees are naturally motivated." Zhao Shuxin said that the assessment system will affect income, and then affect the flow of personnel. Some people cannot adapt to this mechanism and may leave. "With inflow and outflow, like a 'river', the company is full of vitality."

He implemented flat management and streamlined the original 16 departments to 7; he promoted grassroots training for new college students and let young middle-level managers take on targets and pressure... In the more than ten years since he took charge of Wu Yutai, many of Zhao Shuxin's reform measures have been centered around stimulating the vitality of talent.

Market-oriented employment can stimulate the "catfish effect", allowing creative vitality to burst forth and intelligence and talents to fully flow.

Starting from 2021, Guangzhou Light Industry Group, which owns 5 Chinese time-honored brands, 12 Guangdong time-honored brands and 24 Guangzhou time-honored brands, will officially implement the term system and contractual management for the management level in many of its time-honored brand companies, and by issuing "heroic invitations" around the world, it will attract a group of professional managers born in the 1980s and 1970s to take up their posts.

"We strive to promote the capable and open up channels for young, energetic, creative and capable people," said Zeng Chenxiang, chairman of Guangzhou Light Industry Group.

After a series of personnel reforms, a group of talents who have "experienced hard work" in their professional fields and have been "tested by the market" have come to the group to start businesses. The "catfish effect" has stirred up the development of the company. From January to April this year, the company achieved a year-on-year growth of 7.8% in operating income and 11.2% in total profit.

It is not easy for these time-honored brands to step out of their comfort zone, and many of them still dare not or will not change. But for those time-honored brands that have the courage to innovate, the market is the best reward.

Why do we still "need" time-honored brands? This is the primary question that all parties need to think about under the market law of survival of the fittest.

"Time-honored brands give me a sense of closeness and trust." A netizen left a message expressing people's simple feelings towards time-honored brands.

In 1669, Le Xianyang, the fourth generation of the Le family, founded Tong Ren Tang Pharmacy in Beijing, marking the establishment of the Tong Ren Tang brand. The word "Tong Ren" comes from the Book of Changes, which means "regardless of whether you are close or distant, treat everyone equally."

There is a story circulating in the old Tong Ren Tang store located on Beijing's Qianmen Street: a patient flew from Guangdong to Beijing just to find a rare Chinese herbal medicine - iron dust, which is the iron filings that fall off when hammering iron. For this "star dust" that costs a few cents per gram, he has searched all over southern China and finally found this herbal medicine in Tong Ren Tang.

What is a brand? It is the genetic code for the sustainable development of an enterprise.

From the story of finding the iron flower, it is not difficult to sense the brand value that Tong Ren Tang has upheld for 355 years. The word "uphold" fully explains the foundation of the old brand.

From the copper-based cloisonné enamel technique of Jingfa Cloisonné, which is known as the national treasure "Beijing Essence", to the "Embroidered Arched Flower" skill of Nanjing's "Shizhuzhai" that has profoundly influenced the development of East Asian calligraphy, painting, printmaking, and printing; from Wang Xingji's inheritance of national intangible cultural heritage skills and participation in the compilation of vocational training materials such as "Craft Fan Makers", to Rongbaozhai's exquisite depiction of Chinese paintings' "woodblock watermark" technology... These traditional skills passed down from generation to generation are still dazzling today.

Maintaining craftsmanship, quality and integrity is a way of business development that will never become "outdated".

Yili Food’s “put righteousness before profit”, Tianfuhao’s “people’s hearts are clear and kind are like family members”, the time-honored brands’ character of building business on virtue and honesty is timeless and ever-new; the tight stitching of Nei Liansheng’s thousand-layer cloth shoes, the strict process of restoring ancient books at China Bookstore all demonstrate the time-honored brands’ spirit of craftsmanship that puts quality first and strives for excellence.

It is understood that there are 356 time-honored brand sites and more than 7,000 time-honored brand-related relics across the country, which have been registered and announced as immovable cultural relics; among the 1,455 time-honored Chinese brand enterprises, nearly 800 are involved in intangible cultural heritage projects, of which more than 80 are themselves protection units of national-level representative intangible cultural heritage projects.

The business development history of each time-honored brand is also a sample of China's social changes and cultural pulse.

From the initial family-owned private enterprises, to the public-private partnerships in the early days of the People's Republic of China, to the purely state-owned enterprises in the planned economy era, and later to the diversified investment entities in the market economy era, a development logic is clearly visible in the ups and downs of many time-honored brands:

Time-honored brands are the product of market competition, with market genes running in their blood. Only by returning to the market can they continue to evolve.

"There are so many companies that cross over to make ice cream, so why has Wu Yutai been so popular for 15 years? Because we only add homemade tea powder and pure milk, nothing else." Zhao Shuxin said that no matter how innovative they are, they cannot do without their "signature skill" of making tea.

At the same time, "old traditions cannot just 'live' in museums." Zhang Lijun said that innovation and change are the key to making time-honored brands "live" again.

"Should the taste change, to what extent should it change, and should the menu be innovated?" Luo Yulin, head chef of Shanghai Old Restaurant Yuyuan Branch and the fifth-generation inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, said frankly that he was once very "conflicted".

"The young people who buy ice cream today may become repeat customers of Yuanye tea tomorrow." Zhao Shuxin said that attracting young people means cultivating potential customers, and ignoring young people will lead to being eliminated by the market.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, the Shanghai Old Restaurant Yuyuan Branch was packed with customers, and the long queues were all for the signature "12 Intangible Cultural Heritage" local dishes. For this "signature" menu, Luo Yulin and his kitchen team constantly summarized and refined the secrets of production, just like scientists doing experiments, and improved and upgraded it according to the tastes of modern diners.

The nine-step jasmine tea-making technique passed down from generation to generation by Wu Yutai has been listed in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List and the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. As the head of Wu Yutai, Zhao Shuxin now devotes a lot of energy to cooperating with scientific research institutes to accelerate the research and development of products and production lines.

"Time-honored brands used to rely on experience, but in the future they will have to rely on technology," said Zhao Shuxin. "Wu Yutai used to sell a few hundred kilograms of tea a year in one store in Beixinqiao, but now it has more than 600 stores, selling more than 2,000 tons a year. It needs to ensure quality while increasing production. How could it be possible without the power of technology?"

Baidu National Tide Pride Big Data shows that in just ten years, "National Tide" has gone through three eras: the 1.0 era of renewal of old brands, the 2.0 era of the rise of countless new brands, and the 3.0 era of "two-way output" of national culture and technological pride.

Zhang Lijun said that for time-honored brands, they must seize the opportunities brought about by the rise of national trends, and more importantly, they must promote the high-end and quality development of national trend products.

This year's government work report proposed to actively cultivate new consumption growth points such as domestic "trendy products". The Outline of the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand proposed to "build Chinese brands, cultivate and develop Chinese time-honored brands and characteristic traditional cultural brands". Time-honored brands are gradually releasing new momentum for reform and development with favorable policies.

The wave of globalization is overwhelming. From an international perspective, "century-old stores" are a guarantee of quality and a symbol of strength. Half of the German companies selected into the Fortune Global 500 have a history of more than 100 years. As a great country with 5,000 years of civilization and the world's second largest economy, China needs to cultivate more "century-old stores" with high gold content.

On May 5, 2024, the 32nd China International Bicycle Exhibition opened at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. Visitors exchanged ideas next to an electric-assisted bicycle at the Phoenix Bicycle booth. Photo by reporter Fang Zhe

At the 2024 China International Bicycle Exhibition held not long ago, the century-old brand Phoenix exhibited for the first time with its three sub-brands PhoenixElectric, FNIX, and Maruishi, attracting many fans. Among them, the product line of the lithium-ion battery-exclusive sub-brand PhoenixElectric is priced ten or even dozens of times that of traditional bicycles, but it is still in high demand, especially among consumers in Europe and the United States. According to data from Alibaba International Station, in the first four months of this year, the sales growth rate of Phoenix electric-assisted bicycles in Germany and Canada exceeded 15%.

This was unthinkable in the past. At that time, the transmission, known as the "heart" of bicycles, relied on imports. China only had the title of "a major bicycle country". Many domestic brands could only rely on OEM and circulate in the low-end market. They were not even worthy of the name of "going overseas".

Today, time-honored bicycle brands represented by Phoenix are constantly "evolving": not only have they broken the "bottleneck" of parts and components, but they have also opened up new power and a new track through a complete upstream and downstream industrial chain and an excellent cost control system.

"In recent years, more and more time-honored brands have gone abroad, telling China's brand stories to the world, demonstrating cultural confidence, and through the power of science and technology, becoming representatives of China's manufacturing to China's intelligent manufacturing," said Chen Lifen, a researcher at the Institute of Market Economy, Development Research Center of the State Council.

It is no secret that the brand reputation and appeal of time-honored brands bring their own "traffic". To convert "traffic" into "retention", from playing the "emotional card" to getting consumers to pay repeatedly, the key lies in improving product strength. In other words, if the purchased product meets or exceeds expectations, then consumers will feel that it is "worth it", and their trust in the time-honored brand will increase. Otherwise, their trust will decrease.

The market is changing rapidly, but there is one constant: whether consumers are satisfied. "Whether a time-honored brand is good or not must be decided by the people," said Li Gang, director of the Circulation Development Department of the Ministry of Commerce.