Strategic brand management of Swiss MedTech companies in China

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, course: International Management, language: English, abstract: This study aims to explore how strategic brand management can be conducted to successfully establish a brand in the Chinese market, to which - in seeking growth opportunities - various medium-sized Swiss MedTech companies have expanded in recent years. To date, little consideration has been given in branding literature to this specific research context.

A qualitative exploratory multiple-case study was conducted that followed an abductive research approach.

The study focused on three medium-sized Swiss MedTech companies, which expanded into China over the last ten years. Data was collected through secondary data analysis, observations and 14 in-depth, semistructured interviews withbrand or marketing managers, brand experts and industry experts from Switzerland and China, based on a conceptual framework, developed upon Western branding theories. To file propositions, as the study¿s final objective, within-case and cross-case comparative thematic analyses were conducted.

The data revealed the prevailing macro-contextual conditions in the Chinese MedTech industry and the major challenges that medium-sized Swiss MedTech companies are facing: namely bribery practise, distribution structure and regulations. The study furthermore explicates the origin as a crucial dimension of a Swiss brand and evaluates to what extend branding strategies should be adjusted to a given environment.

For a purposeful positioning in order to survive in the Chinese competitive marketplace, strategic brand management needs to be taken into consideration. The challenge lays in the optimal trade-off between standardisation and localisation; some measures must, some should, some could but also some shouldn¿t be adapted. The developed proposals can be used as a guideline for practitioners and as a basis for future academic research.