Germans struggle to name Chinese brands

China has the world's second-largest manufacturing industry, but it still lacks brands that stick in foreign consumers' minds.

A survey of consumers in Germany, China's biggest trading partner in Europe, found that few can identify a single Chinese brand known for its quality.

The survey by globeone, a Cologne, Germany-based marketing and strategy consultancy, found that only 17 percent of 1,000 German consumers could easily recall one Chinese brand.

The survey also found that 32 percent of the consumers surveyed generally avoid Chinese brands, which they view as low in quality.

"Chinese brands have much work to do in building up the images of their brands in terms of perceived product quality and sustainability in the European Union and Germany in particular," said Niklas Schaffmeister, managing partner at Globeone in Cologne.

"They still lack the right approach for penetrating the complex European market with a clear brand positioning."

China overtook Germany as the world's largest exporter in 2009. China's total trade reached nearly $3 trillion in 2010. Trade between China and Germany, the world's two biggest exporters, has increased tremendously over the past two decades.

But "there still is a very large share of German consumers who mistrust Chinese brands and see China as a competitor for Germany", according to the report.

The survey does contain one bright spot. When prompted a bit, many consumers do come up with a few names of Chinese brands - Lenovo, Huawei and Air China among them.

The study found one reason that names like Lenovo or Huawei are relatively well-known is that they present themselves as local or global brands in target markets in order to overcome the country-of-origin challenge.

The survey suggested that Chinese companies should attempt to position themselves as multinational companies or global brands.

Andreas Maennel, an automobile expert at Roland Berger in Shanghai, said that Chinese vehicle brands need to build appropriate brand images.

"Car safety is a major concern for consumers in Germany. Although Chinese manufacturers are aware of this concern, they still need to improve in this regard."

"The Chinese government could also start to support the creation of a more positive perception through a smart national image campaign," Schaffmeister said.

Experts said China is still in the process of urbanization and industrialization, so the manufacturing sector will remain a core industry for at least one or two more decades, posing a challenge to reshape the image of "made in China".

Xu Heping, deputy director of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that sustained investment in technology, along with research and development ability, will change Chinese companies' competitiveness in the global market and the way global consumers look at Chinese products.