An Exploration of the Contributing Factors - How can Chinese Apparel Companies build Global Brands in the European Market?

Abstract: Nowadays having a global brand is essential in the business world and it is a goal for some Chinese apparel companies to pursue. The main purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the different views on the importance of the key factors influencing global brand building among the European customers, Chinese clothing companies and European apparel enterprises, and also to give some suggestions to Chinese apparel companies that have the intention to build strong brands in the European market. A deductive approached was used. A new model, named Customer-Based Brand Factors Model, was based on the existing models and a successful case—Esprit. The newly created model consists of nine factors that influence the global brand construction and it applies Bernstein’s spiderweb model as a basic structure. In order to investigate the different views on the key factors, a survey was conducted. The questionnaires were designed for three groups—European customers, Chinese apparel companies and European apparel companies. Based on analyses of data collected from the survey, an explanatory analysis was given about the different views on the factors. Hopefully, this paper will give Chinese apparel companies some insight into how to build their brands in the European market.