Shanghai’s traditional brands find a younger market(2)

The China Time-honored Brand and Famous Brand Expo is a popular haunt for visitors remembering items from days gone by. Photo: Zhao Yashan

But Zhou Dongsheng, a professor of marketing at the China Europe International Business School, said the amount of investment was far from enough. "Just think - the Seagull's competitors are Nikon and Canon."

Natural deaths

Zhou was not optimistic about the renaissance of these popular old brands and believes it will be a huge challenge for the ambitious entrepreneurs involved in the revival. "Every brand has a market life period. Some will die naturally," Zhou said.

He pointed out, as an example, the bankruptcy of the world-famous film producer, Kodak. Photographic film belonged in the past now that the digital age has arrived. Although some photographers still prefer to develop their pictures they are in the minority. Most people now take and display their images on a smartphone or tablet.

Zhou said these resurrected companies would have to pay to maintain the reputations of the brands alongside having to win customer trust. It may cause these companies to lose money in the early stages of their redevelopment.

Qu was not phased by Zhou's concerns. "I know I have not been making money from the time I decided to take over the old Seagull company. It takes time," he said, adding that customer expectations were putting added pressure on him and his company.

Zhou thinks the renaissance of these brands is just a market phenomenon and the government should not get involved. "What the government should do is to ensure there is fair competition and not interfere with the market competition."

But Yuan Zhijian, the secretary of the board of Shanghai Forever Co., Ltd, thinks the government has to become involved. "The city government should advocate a healthy city life by promoting cycling. There should be a public rental network for city cyclists," Yuan said. He said Shanghai should learn from its neighbor city, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, which has built a successful city network for cyclists.

To find a way out

These traditional manufacturers are now having to target the younger generation to stay alive. The new Seagull CK10 camera has a Wi-Fi connection that lets users share pictures immediately in a Wi-Fi area. On tmall.com, a popular online shopping platform, people who bought the cameras are enthusiastic. They like the vintage design and modern functionality. Owners can have their names engraved on the cameras as well.

For Yuan the bike company's online business is a success story, albeit a small success story at present. Shanghai Forever began to expand its online business at the end of 2010 and online revenue for the past six months was 60 million yuan - 20 percent of the total company revenue for the first six months, Yuan said. He is looking to see the online business growing to between 25 and 30 percent in the second half of the year.

Bricks-and-mortar

While the success of Alibaba has inspired some of the traditional companies to establish online stores, younger customers, ironically, seem to prefer shopping in the old-fashioned way. A survey reported in thepaper.cn showed that 70 percent of young people questioned preferred to go to bricks-and-mortar stores rather than shops online for traditional brand items.

Not all young people are impressed by the sense of history or tradition that these old brands have. One young woman, surnamed Shen, dismissed the notion of a renaissance. "These brands belonged to my parents' and grandparents' generations. I don't have any connection with them or feelings for them."

Tang, the lady who had the Japanese cameras, said she would always prefer Seagull cameras - and she often tells her son stories about Seagull cameras.