Made in China: how Chinese brands are redefining global growth

For years, the global success of Chinese companies was largely associated with manufacturing scale, product innovation and operational excellence. Today, a different story is emerging. Chinese brands are increasingly shaping categories, influencing culture and earning consumer preference across markets around the world 

From TikTok, Xiaomi, Haier, and BYD to DJI, Trip.com, and EcoFlow, Chinese brands are no longer simply expanding overseas - they are becoming brands that consumers actively choose, trust, and return to. 

So, what does ‘Made in China’ mean today? Kantar’s latest BrandZ Chinese Global Brand Builders report gives us a way to answer that. Now in its tenth year, it covers 11 international markets and 15 categories, and measures how Chinese brands are building strength outside their home market.  

The findings, which combine consumer opinions with behavioural indicators, have identified the Chinese brands best positioned for global growth. And the big story is that Chinese brands are entering a new phase. Where for years their success had come from product innovation, manufacturing strength and competitive pricing, today Chinese brand growth is increasingly depending on building brands that consumers actively choose and return to. 

In fact, the report has found that Chinese brands are working from increasingly strong foundations for global success. This year’s Top 50 Chinese Global Brands raised their total equity by 7%; this reflects how ready consumers are to choose a brand, so a rise of that size says something significant about the role of these brands on the global stage.  

Looking deeper we see that:

1. These brands are coming to mind more readily and when it comes to what people are actually choosing, they’re getting considered more often.

2. Perceptions are improving across markets. Consumers know these brands and are willing to put them on their shortlist.

3. The range of categories is widening. Consumer electronics, automotive, home appliances and digital services are still the strongest ground, but Chinese brands are now showing up in categories where global incumbents used to be unchallenged.

And reassuringly for Chinese brand owners, this is not a temporary shift. A decade of research suggests Chinese brands are building stronger foundations for global growth.  

Part of this is because of changing consumer behaviour. Consumer confidence is recovering globally, and people are more willing to try unfamiliar brands than they were a year ago. And, after several years of household budget pressure, consumers haven’t simply gone back to old habits.  

While still careful and alert to uncertainty, consumers recognise that they can’t cut back ad infinitum. Instead, in response to unyielding economic conditions, people have redefined what value means for them. Cheapest is no longer the same as best value. Something that works harder, lasts longer or feels better can win, even from a household watching every payment.  

Counterintuitively, the economic challenges affecting people the world over have left consumers feeling able to look around. And this has opened the door for Chinese brands – the challengers – to get a fair hearing they might not otherwise get.  

AI has made this even more important. People are increasingly discovering, evaluating and choosing brands with the help of AI assistants. The underlying principles of how that happens - outlined in Kantar's Blueprint for Brand Growth - remain unchanged. But now, marketers need to make their brand trusted by two audiences: people, and the machines recommending products to them.  

The industries where it’s happening 

The report shows Chinese brands are outperforming local competitors in converting awareness into consideration and consideration into trial. Consumer electronics and home appliances remain an established strength; brands like Xiaomi, Haier and TCL which were built on innovation and everyday usefulness are now competing with local relevance and technology that is solving real needs.  

Automotive offers a compelling example of how disruption can create opportunities for new brand leaders. Electrification has reset the category, eroding decades of engineering advantage built around the combustion engine and creating space for new competitors. Chinese carmakers are using that opening to build consideration in markets long dominated by European, Japanese and American brands. While they have not displaced traditional automakers, BYD overtaking Tesla as the world’s largest EV seller demonstrates that Chinese brands are now being seriously considered in a category where trust and reputation have historically been difficult to earn. 

Success, however, depends on more than selling vehicles. Chery’s 'In somewhere, For somewhere, Be somewhere' strategy reflects its ambition to move beyond exporting products to building a locally rooted global brand and ecosystem. Likewise, Changan is strengthening its global presence through technologies and products tailored to local needs, while connecting with consumers through universal cultural narratives. Together, they illustrate how Chinese automakers are evolving from taking products overseas to becoming globally recognised, trusted and chosen brands.  

Digital services like content platforms and cross-border commerce show a different kind of challenge again. Here Chinese brands are not catching up with a format someone else invented. They’ve exported new ways for people to shop and pass their time. Look at TikTok short video – built in China and then copied by every major Western platform. 

The harder test is loyalty 

Chinese brands have become very good at the first half of the job. They win attention, and they convert that attention into a first purchase. Awareness, consideration and conversion have all improved. 

The second part is harder. Getting someone to try you once can be done with a good product at a good price. Getting them to come back, recommend you and pay a little more next time is a different problem.  

It needs Meaningful Difference: something consumers can recognise, remember and describe to someone else. People want value (whatever that means to them); Chinese brands will need to spell out how they bring clear, resonant benefits to consumers. And given many built their growth on product innovation, speed and price, that combination is now in front of a consumer who is open to being persuaded.  

This is where a lot of fast-growing challengers might stall. For Chinese brands on the cusp of a critical transition from product exports to true brand globalisation, we’ve identified three growth imperatives: 

1. Continuous innovation to create Meaningful Difference 

AI has made competent products easy to build, and culture moves much faster than product cycles. That has made standing out more difficult, but has also crystalised which innovations succeed: the ones that change what people think something is worth or create a completely new reason to make a purchase at all.  

2. Deep localisation builds trust 

Entering a market and becoming part of one are different achievements. In fact, the more global a brand becomes, the more they need to localise. That means redesigning the product, the communications content, the service and the way trust gets earned around how people actually think and behave in each market.  

3. Intelligence turns understanding into growth 

Getting hold of consumer data isn’t the problem. Every CMO has that in spades (in reality they often have too much of it, which creates decision paralysis). AI is helping marketers to close this gap by improving three important capabilities: spotting how people, culture and markets are changing as it happens; making growth decisions with more confidence and connecting brand building to the long-term value of the business. But ultimately, while AI can help marketers spot shifting needs and make decisions more quickly, it can’t - and shouldn’t - decide what a brand stands for. The fundamentals hold: be meaningful, be different, be easy to bring to mind. 

So, what does ‘Made in China’ mean today? It no longer means one thing, and that is the point. It’s a label attached to brands still winning on price, but also now to brands that are ahead on design, engineering and ideas that nobody else had first. The next era will be measured by how many people keep choosing them, and how many markets they genuinely become part of.  

Discover Kantar’s BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders ranking and read more in the full report now available here: www.kantar.com/campaigns/brandz/special-reports