Breaking the Deadlock of Brand Management: Six Strategies for Corporate Brand Management
Collen Qiao is a marketing strategist and business consultant who serves as Vice Principal and Managing Partner of Kotler Marketing Group. With nearly two decades of experience, Collen has advised leading companies in China on brand strategy, marketing transformation, and business growth.
In an era of unprecedented market saturation, many enterprises face a “dual involution”—a draining cycle of relentless price wars and homogenized products on one side, and a desperate, low-return scramble for digital traffic on the other. This persistent bottleneck stems from a fundamental disconnect: corporate leaders often relegate brand management to a superficial marketing silo, failing to recognize that a true brand is a structural outcome of corporate operations rather than just a communications tactic. To break this deadlock, organizations must pivot to “Brand Elevation,” a higher-dimensional paradigm that elevates brand management from the communications department into the boardroom, transforming the brand into a strategic compass that orchestrates the entire value chain to drive sustainable, high-quality growth.
Chinese Corporate Brand Management Has Trapped in a “Dual Involution”
While brand building has undeniably become the most critical battleground for modern market competition, the vast majority of Chinese enterprises currently find themselves grappling with a severe bottleneck. The dome
