中国本土品牌之崛起

　　The rise of domestic Chinese consumer brands to challenge their famous foreign counterparts has become a defining trend in China’s industrial development. Anyone doubting this need only take a stroll down one of the main streets in Jinjiang, a small city in the southeastern province of Fujian.
中国国内消费品品牌的崛起，对国外同类消费品品牌构成了挑战，这已成为中国产业发展的一个明确趋势。任何心存疑虑的人只消去一趟中国东南福建省的小城晋江，在主要街道徜徉一番就会疑虑顿消。

　　[2] Along one typical 100m stretch of one street, there are 34 shops all selling different domestic branded products. Laying down the challenge to Nike and Adidas—each of which is thought likely to make around $1bn in China sales this year—there are domestic rivals such as Anta, 361°, Li Ning, Xingquan, K-Bird, Deerway and Xtep. Taking aim at Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna and others is Septwolves, Lilanz, Hongxing Baihuo, 365+1, Yashi and Cabeen.

　　〔2〕在一段典型的百米长的道路两侧，有34家出售各种本土品牌产品的店铺。有人认为，耐克和阿迪达斯今年在中国的销售额均有望达到10亿美元左右，而国内的竞争对手，比如安踏、361°、李宁、星泉、贵人鸟、德尔惠和特步已经向耐克和阿迪达斯发起了挑战。而七匹狼、利郎、宏兴百货、365+1、雅仕和卡宾则将目标瞄准了乔治·阿玛尼、雨果博斯、杰尼亚及其他国际品牌。

　　[3] The names may sound unfamiliar, even outlandish. But the reality is that in a reversal of the natural order of things, the little fish are starting to eat the big fish. The Chinese companies to which western brand holders outsourced their manufacturing a decade or more ago are now successfully rolling out their own branded products. Often, the items that they sell are indistinguishable in terms of quality from those they used to make for the foreign brand emporiums2.

　　〔3〕这些名字听起来可能有点儿陌生，甚至有点古怪。但实际上自然规则已经反转，小鱼开始吃大鱼了。10年或更早以前，西方品牌将其制造业务外包给这些中国公司，而这些中国公司目前正成功推出并大量生产属于自己的品牌产品。从质量上讲，它们销售的东西与它们过去为外国品牌店生产的东西往往难分伯仲。

　　[4] “It is made mostly of cashmere and a little wool, exactly like an Armani coat,” said one shop assistant pointing out a stylishly cut grey coat in Lilanz, a branded shop run by China Lilang, a local Jinjiang company which raised HK$1.06bn (US$136m) in November through a Hong Kong stockmarket listing.“But you can see from the price tag that it costs a fraction of the price of Armani,” she added. “People won’t see the label, so it will look like you are wearing Armani.”

　　〔4〕“它的面料主要是羊绒和少许羊毛，与阿玛尼的外套完全一样。”利郎专卖店的一个店员指着一件剪裁时髦的灰色外套说。经营此家专卖店的中国利郎是晋江当地的一家公司，11月通过在香港上市而募集到了10.6亿港元（1.36亿美元）。“但你可以从价签上看到，它的售价仅是阿玛尼的一个零头，”她补充道，“别人看不到商标，所以看起来就和穿着阿玛尼一样。”

　　[5] The role that imitation played in corporate development is something that several Jinjiang companies freely *own up to3. Zhou Shaoxiong, chairman of Septwolves, a Jinjiang company listed on the Shenzhen stockmarket, is quoted by the 21st Century Business Herald as saying that his company first imitated foreign brands, then learned how to innovate itself. Lacoste was an early model but these days when Zhou wanders around shopping malls in Hong Kong, he is more interested in Zara and H&M, the newspaper said.

　　〔5〕晋江的几家公司都坦率承认模仿在企业发展过程中发挥的作用。七匹狼是在深圳上市的一家晋江公司。《21世纪经济报道》曾援引该公司董事长周少雄的话说，他的公司先是模仿外国品牌，然后学会了如何自我创新。该报称，公司早期模仿的品牌是鳄鱼牌。但最近，周少雄在香港购物中心闲逛时，对Zara和H&M产生了更大的兴趣。

　　[6] Septwolves is now so successful that it has sired a whole lair of lupine copycats. Shops with names such as Wolf Zone and Temptation of Wolves could be found just meters away from each other on streets in central Jinjiang. At some stage, such young pretenders may start to erode the brand equity of the company that inspired them, but for now Septwolves appears safe. Its sales this year have been doubling compared with 2008, allowing the company to expand its network of stores across the country.

　　〔6〕七匹狼目前如此成功，催生了一大批“狼”的模仿者。在晋江市中心的大街上，每隔几米就会发现一家叫作“狼界”或“狼的诱惑”之类的店铺。七匹狼给了它们灵感，这些年轻的模仿者发展到一定阶段，就有可能开始侵蚀七匹狼的品牌价值。但目前看来，七匹狼似乎是安全的。与2008年相比，公司今年的销售额又实现了翻番，使其得以在全国范围扩张其销售网点。

　　[7] Similarly successful are several Jinjiang-based sportswear manufacturers such as Anta, Xtep, Peak and 361°—all of which started out as OEM4 manufacturers for foreign brands but are now internationally-recognised in their own right and winning market share from Nike and Adidas in China. Their ascent up the value chain accelerated following decisions to sponsor stars in the US National Basketball Association (NBA), which has a huge following in China partly because of the participation of Chinese players Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian.

　　〔7〕其他几家制作运动服饰的晋江公司，比如安踏、特步、匹克和361°，同样获得了成功。它们都是以做外国品牌的委托加工工厂起家的，但如今它们凭自身的能力在国际上获得了认可，在中国又从耐克和阿迪达斯那里赢得了市场份额。它们决定赞助美国职业篮球协会(NBA)球星之后，加快了向价值链条上游迈进的速度。NBA在中国有大批的追随者，部分原因是中国球员姚明和易建联的加盟。

　　[8] Peak and Anta, which are both listed in Hong Kong, sponsor Mr Yao’s teammates at the Houston Rockets, guaranteeing the companies millions of eyeballs when the NBA games are televised in China. Such marketing gambits have helped domestic sportswear brands expand sales rapidly this year in China even as Adidas’ performance has slumped. Adidas’ retail agents closed around 100 stores this year as business migrated to local competitors. Managers are also being lured away. Zheng Jie, general manager of Reebok China, a division of Adidas Group, left to join Anta in late 2008.

　　〔8〕匹克和安踏都在香港上市。它们赞助了姚明在休斯敦火箭队的队友们，所以当NBA赛事在中国转播时，它们自然就吸引了数百万人的眼球。这种营销策略使得国内运动服饰品牌今年在国内的销售规模迅速扩大，而阿迪达斯的业绩却大幅回落。随着生意流向中国本土的竞争对手，阿迪达斯的零售代理商今年关闭了约100家店铺。公司管理人员也被挖走，集团分公司锐步中国的总经理郑捷在2008年底离职转投安踏。

　　[9] Having established the competi-tiveness of their brands versus foreign rivals, Chinese companies have several advantages. One is that they tend to rely less on franchise stores than their foreign counterparts, giving them greater control over quality and brand management. Another advantage is that local brands are generally more nimble in expanding into lower-tier cities, a prime source of revenue this year. This ability to keep up as growth radiates from large conurbations to progressively smaller cities is key for sportswear manufacturers accessing a market in which some 340m people are estimated to take regular exercise.

　　〔9〕相对于国外竞争对手，中国公司已经确立了自己的品牌竞争力，具有几点优势。首先，中国公司对特许经营店的依赖往往少于国外竞争对手，给它们以更大的控制权对质量和品牌进行管理。其次，本土品牌向二三线城市的扩张通常更为迅捷，而这正是今年本土公司收入的主要来源。经济增长逐渐从大都市向越来越小的城市辐射，运动服饰制造商紧跟形势的能力是进入市场的关键，据估计，中国约有3.4亿人经常进行体育锻炼。

　　[10] In value terms, China’s sports-wear market may grow from an estimated US$7.2bn in 2009 to around US$12.4bn in 2012. Such growth, if it materialises, would be likely to catapult some Chinese sportswear brands into powerful or even dominant positions in the industry worldwide. And this is true not only for sportswear but also for fashion garments and several other consumer industries as well. In Jinjiang, local entrepreneurs are well aware that some 15 years after they typically embarked on their careers by making shoes or clothes or light industrial products in tiny rural shacks, they now occupy positions of global importance.

　　〔10〕从市场价值的角度估算，中国的运动服饰市场的价值或许会从2009年约72亿美元增长到2012年约124亿美元。如果这种增长能够实现，那么中国的一些运动服饰品牌就有可能在全球运动服饰产业中蹿升到一个非常强大甚至是支配性的地位。不仅运动服饰行业如此，时装和其他几个消费品产业也是如此。晋江当地的企业家们一般都是从农村小作坊起家，生产鞋子、衣服或轻工产品，他们很清楚，创业大约15年后的今天，他们已在全球范围内占据了重要的位置。

　　Notes注释：
1. boomerang回飞镖，又称“飞去来器”，一种平的、弯的飞镖，通常是木制的，投出去后能回到投掷者手中。此处是一个隐喻，喻指中国消费品品牌通过模仿借鉴外国品牌然后发展壮大，走向海外的过程。
2. emporium〔口〕商店，店。
3. 〔口〕坦白, 爽快承认。
4. =Original Entrusted Manufacture：基本含义是定牌生产合作，俗称“贴牌”，即委托他人生产的合作方式。