Different theories exist on the best way to blog. Some folks believe that the most important thing to do is to “scoop” your fellow bloggers by posting commentary as quickly as possible following the release of some interesting news. Others say that good content is more important and that calm reflection prior to writing is a better way to go.

I suppose I’m more of a ‘calm reflection’ sort of person, and there certainly are advantages to sitting on a story for a couple of days. Case in point: last Friday, the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) announced the phase-out of the ‘China Top Brand’ logo, which would be discontinued by 2012.¹

This was rather big news. A lot of Chinese enterprises, including some of the biggest consumer brands, proudly display that logo and highlight it in their marketing campaigns.

As with any other government decision, though, there is a back story to this decision, not to mention subsequent clarification that was released over the weekend. As to the reason for the phase-out, one need look no further than the product quality problems over the past few years, including the Sanlu milk powder scandal. Suffice it to say that after those incidents, the government (i.e., the AQSIQ) was no longer so keen on having an official logo appear on sub-standard and dangerous products. Kind of looks bad.

As a result, there have been no new ‘China Top Brands’ selected for 2008 or 2009. The news on Friday suggested that AQSIQ had finally made a decision and that it was scrapping the program entirely, and the story was picked up by several papers and web sites.

AQSIQ responded yesterday with a clarification, saying that the entire program was not exactly being wrapped up, just suspended until it could be amended and relaunched. Here’s a short list of some of the problems (link is to a Chinese-language source) that need to be addressed:

1. Timing – The ‘China Top Brands’ program needed some time off owing to product quality scandals. The question is whether it’s now safe to relaunch or whether more time is needed.

2. Selection standards – There are thousands of top brands, many of which are products that no one seems to have heard of. Some of them may be popular regional brands, but others probably never should have been granted the designation in the first place. Obviously if the standards are too low, then saying your product is a ‘China Top Brand’ becomes meaningless.

3. Corruption – Related to the point above, there have been allegations of companies making their way on to the list the old fashioned way – by bribing an official. Call it a reverse famous brand. You first receive the designation, you publicize the hell out of it, and if all goes well, the product will actually be famous at the end of the process.

4. Innovation policy – China wants to create its own intellectual property. It wants strong products and brands that can be competitive in overseas markets. Encouraging domestic companies is a key part of China’s IP strategy, and branding is a big part of this policy. You can see how the idea of recognizing successful brands sounds like a great idea; it should help to incentivize domestic firms to innovate and invest. But if the regulators drop the ball, letting standards slip and allowing the selection process to become corrupted, then the original goals are no longer being met.

So what’s actually going to happen? Apparently there will be a phase-out of logo use applied to current designees:

According to AQSIQ’s statement, the 493 “China Top Brands” announced by the China Promotion Committee for Top Brand Strategy in 2005 will expire in September this year; the 556 brands announced in 2006 will expire in September 2011, and the 856 brands released in 2007 will no longer be used by September 2012.

After that, well, it depends; the AQSIQ denies that the logo is completely dead at this point. Jaded cynics will say that once the attention is off the program and after the product quality scandals (particularly those that are ‘China Top Brands’!) die down, the old program (with its old problems) will continue with some cosmetic changes. An optimist might say that AQSIQ may take this opportunity to correct some of the program’s defects before a relaunch.

IP Note: Do not confuse this ‘China Top Brand’ designation for what is commonly referred to in the trademark biz as a “famous” or “well known” mark. That’s a different thing entirely and regulated by a different part of the government (i.e., SAIC/Trademark Office). The ‘China Top Brand’ logo itself is best described as a kind of certification mark, similar in a very general way with marks like “UL,” “CE,” and “TUV.”
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1. My first reaction was positive. I’ve never liked the logo. To my overly-sensitive Jew eyes, those two blue zig-zag things together looks like the symbol for the SS. (Now I’ll probably get an email about Godwin’s Law like I did yesterday in a comment on china/divide.) [↩]

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