Weichai sees its link with Ferrari as a winner

The 2014 Formula 1 season continued recently with the latest Chinese Grand Prix from Shanghai, with hundreds of millions watching worldwide.

But what was noteworthy about this year's Chinese Grand Prix was not just the continued dominance of British driver Lewis Hamilton and his new Mercedes team and teammate Nico Rosberg; it was also the presence of a Chinese corporate brand, Shandong province's Weichai Power Co Ltd, seen proudly sponsoring the Ferrari Formula 1 team car.

Weichai, one of China's largest automobile and equipment manufacturers, is the first Chinese company to sponsor the Ferrari team, easily the most recognizable, exciting and flamboyant of the Formula 1 brands.

As a result of this deal Weichai's new logo will now be present on Ferrari's Formula 1 team cars and on the drivers' uniforms from now on.

Not that Weichai's brand building initiative represents the very first such maneuver by a Chinese company. Aigo Digital Technology Co Ltd, one of China's leading digital technology brands, signed a long-term sponsorship deal with McLaren ahead of the 2007 season and Lenovo Group Ltd, easily China's largest personal computer producer, also sponsors McLaren, having switched from a previous sponsorship agreement with Williams.

But Weichai's association with Ferrari marks a tremendous step forward for the emergence of not just Chinese companies internationally but for Chinese brands and their understanding of brand-building principles and processes.

This is because Ferrari is so much more than a Formula 1 team brand and even far more than a luxury automotive brand. Easily one of the most Italian of Italy's world-famous brands, Ferrari epitomizes the ultimate in elegance, panache and prestige.

Unlike all other current Formula 1 brands, Ferrari possesses a brand heritage rich in styled speed and wealth. Perhaps Mercedes is the only other team that can lay claim to any close rivalry.

Both brands were founded in the early 1900s and have achieved considerable success ever since but with quite different brand-building strategies.

Mercedes most definitely possesses an enviable brand image but, unlike the Ferrari brand, this is not an image associated with a unique combination of sophistication, passion and excitement. Far less emotional, the Mercedes brand has formed an association with a more rational set of values such as reliability and durability.

As a result, Weichai's brand association with Ferrari should contribute to a more emotional corporate brand.

Originating from east China's Shandong province and the city of Weifang, an area rich in historical significance, Weichai has already built an enviable reputation domestically for high-quality, high-tech production engineering.

Despite offering an increasingly diverse product portfolio, Weichai is best known for its expertise in the research, development and manufacture of diesel engines, used mainly to equip automobiles, maritime vessels and power generators. Weichai is an ingredient brand, which makes the Ferrari foray all the more audacious and pioneering.

For far too long, high-tech and engineering brands, and for that matter business-to-business brands generally, have overlooked and underestimated the importance of emotional attachment in the development of their brands.

Intel remain a remarkable, but almost solitary, example of the power of effective rational and emotional brand values from which even ingredient brands can form a significant sustainable competitive advantage.

Weichai's incisive, inspired initiative should, therefore, serve as both an example to China's army of high-tech engineering companies and as a warning to overseas competitors. Weichai's Ferrari bond also appears to be part of an extremely ambitious international growth strategy.

The Chinese Grand Prix may have gone for another year but with a long-term Ferrari sponsorship deal, just watch Weichai go global over the coming years.

Way to go, Weichai !