According to relevant data, there are more than 2,111 "Time-honored Chinese Brands" in China, which are distributed all over the country. However, only 31% of them can still operate normally, which is a regrettable fact. Some people say that the time-honored brand is "senile" and can't keep up with the times. Others say that the time-honored brand is "old and strong", with profound foundation and great prospects.

At the beginning of p>2113, Wang Mazi Scissors Factory, which was founded in 1651 and has a history of 352 years, declared bankruptcy, which caused people to think about where the old brand should go. Why did the "time-honored" gold-lettered signboard, a symbol of prosperous business and good quality, quietly disappear in the prosperous market economy after standing for a hundred years? Where is the outlet of the old brand? Facing the new competitive environment after China's entry into WTO, how can time-honored brands keep pace with the times and regain their glory? This is a question that China's time-honored brand needs to sit down and think seriously.

"There is Wang Mazi in the north and Zhang Xiaoquan in the south". Beijing's "Wang Mazi" is almost a household name in the north of the Yangtze River. The scissors of "Wang Mazi" are well-known for their good quality and good service, and they have won a good reputation. People from different regions are eager to buy them. After hundreds of years of development, "Wang Mazi" knife scissors are even more famous all over the world. However, because "Wang Mazi" failed to keep up with the changes in the market and consolidate its own brand, product innovation could not keep up, and brand extension blindly led to bankruptcy. At the same time, its market has also been seized by rising stars such as "Yangjiang Eighteen Sons". Taken together, the reasons for the decline of time-honored brands come down to the following points:

1. The enterprise system inhibits the vitality of enterprises. Because the store is old, the "time-honored brand" has too many aging people, whose educational level is generally low, which affects the vitality of the enterprise. It is precisely because of its old age that the "time-honored brand" has too many retirees and the burden is generally heavier; At the same time, "time-honored brands" basically became state-owned enterprises after the founding of the People's Republic of China. In the planned economy era, profits were handed over to the state, and enterprises accumulated less, which made the development potential obviously insufficient; Take "Wang Mazi" for example. As an old state-owned enterprise, "Wang Mazi" has a heavy burden of mechanism. Relevant data show that in 1997, there were 697 employees in the factory, but more than 511 retired employees. The deficiency and restriction of enterprise mechanism, management mode, product development and external environment have led to the increasingly difficult situation of Wang Mazi.

2. Lack of strength in brand maintenance. Counterfeiting in China market has always been rampant, and some lawless elements often use the gold signboard of "time-honored brands" to copy products for huge profits. After the brand name of "Time-honored Brand" became famous, counterfeiters took advantage of it to flood the market with a large number of fakes, which reduced consumers' trust in the brand, and at the same time shared the brand assets of "Time-honored Brand", which seriously damaged the brand image of "Time-honored Brand". If "Time-honored Brand" did not invest in the key links of brand maintenance, the market would be eroded by these counterfeiters sooner or later, thus seriously affecting the brand image. Guangdong's "Huang Zhenlong Herbal Tea" is a well-known time-honored brand in Guangdong, and many branches have been opened in Guangzhou. Later, some people opened stores in imitation of the decoration of their stores, claiming that their descendants of Huang Zhenlong were discovered in time by the existing operators, investigated and dealt with these stores through the industrial and commercial departments, and clarified to consumers in the media to safeguard their own brands in time. However, in the "time-honored" enterprises, there are few people who have such awareness.

3. Brand promotion can't keep up. Some "time-honored brands" rely on the old and sell the old, thinking that they are a century-old brand, so they don't need to carry out brand promotion and communication. This is very wrong. In today's information explosion era, the homogenization of products and excessive communication gradually cultivate consumers' critical eyes. If they can't maintain continuous communication, consumers will forget you, just like some people say that if Coca-Cola doesn't advertise for a day, its sales will drop by 11%. The failure of "Wang Mazi" also proves the role of brand publicity. In recent years, "Wang Mazi" has invested less in publicity and relied more on word-of-mouth communication of some old consumers, and its popularity has shown signs of decline. The "time-honored brand" often ignores the continuous promotion of the brand and the continuous cultivation of the brand emotion of the constantly updated consumers, which leads to the transfer or disappearance of the customer group.

4. insufficient promotion of brand value. "Time-honored brand" has its own brand value after hundreds of years' baptism, so in the face of new market competition, it is necessary to upgrade the brand value and make efforts in the construction of brand connotation and extension. Just like the "crossing the bridge rice noodle" in Mengzi, Yunnan, it attracts and retains consumers by telling the story of "crossing the bridge rice noodle" and combining it with minority culture, and makes more consumers interested in it.

5. The product quality declined. Some "time-honored brands" have changed their original quality system with new operators, so that consumers think that the time-honored brands are not as good as before, just like Nanjing Guanshengyuan, which was originally quite good. No one can do anything about it, but they don't cherish their own reputation, shoddy them, smash their own signs and destroy them. Each time-honored brand has its own unique quality system, which is the foundation of the enterprise's survival. If it is not adhered to, there is no way out.

6. Insufficient product innovation. With the advent of market economy, if products lack innovation consciousness and rest on their laurels, it is bound to be an embarrassing situation that the development speed of new products is too slow and it is difficult to keep up with the pace of the market. For example, the "Flying Man" brand sewing machine is a typical example. However, compared with some new brands such as "Shibazi", "Wang Mazi" has become rustic in product style and scientific and technological content, and the gap between product development concept and modern consumption concept is widening day by day. If there is a sense of innovation, "time-honored brands" can completely produce more products that meet the needs of modern consumers, rather than standing still.

7. Blind brand extension. Some time-honored brands are under the banner of time-honored brands, thinking that they can engage in other industries, which leads to the loss of competitive advantage. In 1995, Wang Mazi Scissors Factory merged with dozens of unrelated factories such as Beijing Cultural and Educational Equipment Factory to form Wang Mazi Industry and Trade Group Company, and re-registered the trademark of Wang Mazi, which should be regarded as a major failure of the brand extension and blind expansion of "Wang Mazi". The brand association of "Wang Mazi" lies in the products of knives and scissors. However, the new "Wang Mazi" after the merger, in terms of the trademark use of products, the new and old trademarks are disordered, and the products of "Wang Mazi" in the market are chaotic, which causes serious diversion and destruction of the brand assets of "Wang Mazi" and weakens the loyalty of consumers to the brand, which directly leads to the unsalable products, with a loss of more than 1 million yuan only in the year of merger.