The 20th China Brand Figure Annual Meeting 2025, hailed as the "Oscars" of the brand figure community, celebrated its 20th anniversary, gathering wisdom and strength for Chinese brands. The 2025 (Twentieth) China Brand Figure Annual Meeting opened on December 29 in Shenzhen. Centered on the theme "Who Wins Respect for China," this grand event brought together over 2,000 elites from politics, business, industry, academia, and media. Participants collectively reviewed the glorious journey of Chinese brand development and explored new trends and opportunities for future brand building.
During the main forum of the annual meeting, Xu Xiaoliang, Dean of the Boyan Philosophy Business School and an Executive Committee Member of the Guangdong Federation of Industry and Commerce, delivered a keynote speech titled "Philosophical Reflections on Brand Power." The full text of the speech is as follows.
Esteemed leaders, distinguished guests, and friends, good afternoon.
The topic of my speech today is "Philosophical Reflections on Brand Power." In this new era of Globalization 2.0, as we transition from 'exporting' to 'going global,' our understanding of brands must deepen. The essence of a brand is culture, and the underlying logic of culture is philosophy.
I'd like to begin with a very familiar brand poster—an advertisement for Heytea. Let me ask everyone here, what are your thoughts when you see this Heytea poster? Some might say, "Ah, a group of adorable,天真烂漫 children, like little angels, bringing joy to consumers." That's correct. This is Heytea's culture of joy; it conveys happiness.
Others might observe, "Teacher, why does this poster look so familiar? What does it resemble?" If I show the next image, it might become clear. Someone might exclaim, "Wow, isn't that the work of the exceptionally talented Renaissance painter, Raphael?" Raphael painted a very famous work called "The School of Athens." This painting depicts a scene where the School of Athens is in session; after class, all the philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians are emerging. Two figures walk in the center: the one pointing towards the heavens is Plato, and the one gesturing towards the earth is Aristotle. Plato authored a book titled "The Republic." According to Harvard University Library's statistics over 50 years, "The Republic" is the most frequently borrowed book by students.
From this, we can see that Heytea borrowed the well-known cultural element of Raphael's "The School of Athens" oil painting to communicate its own brand. My question is, why did Heytea do this? From a branding perspective, the reason is simple: the domestic bubble tea market is fiercely competitive, so Heytea decided to expand overseas. Consequently, in 2021 and 2022, Heytea successively entered markets like Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Malaysia—all belonging to the Eastern Confucian cultural sphere. Heytea declared its ambition to truly go global, targeting Europe and the United States.
However, would an Eastern bubble tea product gain acceptance among Western consumers? Heytea devised a strategy: leverage cultural symbols familiar to Westerners and people worldwide to promote the Heytea brand. In this poster, Heytea doesn't promote its product's features—low sugar, health benefits, or being non-fattening. Instead, it uses a group of cultural symbols to convey Heytea's culture of joy. The two children in the center mimic Plato and Aristotle, while another child sitting naked in the foreground represents Diogenes, the famous ancient Greek philosopher and founder of the Cynic school. Each character has its own story. Empowered by this cultural strategy, Heytea successfully expanded into overseas markets.
During the 2024 Spring Festival, while at Cambridge University, I specifically visited the Heytea store in London, which had been open for six months. The place was bustling, with long queues—business was exceptionally good. In China, a cup of Heytea costs 18 RMB, but in London, it sells for 18 GBP, equivalent to over 100 RMB, yet it remains incredibly popular. Therefore, I believe that in this new Globalization 2.0 era, Chinese entrepreneurs can set their sights globally, but each step must be taken carefully. It requires us to skillfully leverage the power of culture to empower our companies' global expansion strategies.
Some might question, is using culture to empower a brand really that effective? Let me show you another poster. This poster is a group photo of Sun Yat-sen University's 2023 undergraduate graduates. These graduates, all born in the 2000s, after taking a standard seated group photo, said, "Come on, let's get creative and take a photo模仿 'The School of Athens'."
Young people represent future trends. For entrepreneurs studying the future market, understanding fashion and trends is crucial, and the key is to observe young people. Today's youth are actively "playing" with culture. I often say that many first-generation entrepreneurs must first learn culture themselves; only then can they "play" with culture like the younger generation. When these young people enter society and buy a cup of Heytea, they might not consciously think, "I like Heytea because I had a cultural connection with it." Their purchasing decision might be subconscious. However, while buyers can purchase somewhat intuitively, sellers must operate with clear intent. They need a precise understanding and articulation of trends, the market, consumers, and the future. This is the philosophical insight about brands we gain from the Heytea case.
Guided by this reflection, I researched the philosophical DNA behind many globally renowned brands. Take NVIDIA, for example. When I led a delegation to the US in 2024, NVIDIA's market capitalization was $3 trillion. Remarkably, by 2025, it has surged to $5 trillion. Do technology companies possess cultural power? Absolutely. Consider NVIDIA's logo. When Mr. Jensen Huang founded the company in 1993, contemplating its future mission and name, he settled on "NVIDIA," which translates to "英伟达" in Chinese, derived from the Latin word "invidia."
Invidia is a goddess from ancient Greek mythology. Ancient Greece had many gods, each presiding over a specific domain—Athena over wisdom, Apollo associated with the sun, Venus with beauty. What did the goddess Invidia govern? She presided over envy. "Envy" might be difficult for Easterners to accept, highlighting a cultural difference. Jensen Huang stated that from the company's inception, he vowed to innovate and manufacture products that would astonish, even provoke envy, in the world. This cultural element, serving as the philosophical core of the NVIDIA brand, has accompanied its growth for over 30 years, forging the renowned brand it is today.
Apple, a brand we are very familiar with, also has cultural roots tracing back to ancient Greece. Similarly, Starbucks—some say its logo is a mermaid. But what is this mermaid's name? Indeed, she has a name and identity; she is also a figure from Greek mythology, a siren named Siren, renowned for her beauty and enchanting song.
This leads to a question: Why do brands, whether Chinese like Heytea or international giants like NVIDIA, Apple, and Starbucks, point their cultural DNA towards ancient Greece? As Chairman Mao once remarked, "They never speak without mentioning Greece," because Greece gave us something called philosophy. The topic we are discussing today is precisely the philosophical DNA of brands.
The importance of philosophy lies in its status as the first principle. Aristotle provided a comprehensive discourse on first principles. Ultimately, it was ancient Greece that gave rise to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and the Reformation, shaping our modern world. Of course, I have focused on ancient Greece. Eastern civilization is rooted in the "Two Yellow Rivers" civilization, while Western civilization stems from the "Two H's" (Hebrew and Hellenistic) civilization. The logic of both civilizations is worthy of study by our entrepreneurs to empower our brand development.
Finally, I would like to conclude my philosophical reflections on brands with a quote from the renowned philosopher Hegel, found in his work "The Philosophy of History." He said, "The ignorant man is not free, because what opposes him is an alien world."
I believe each of us aspires to freedom—freedom of wealth, freedom of thought, and freedom of the soul. Through our creations, we hope to use culture to empower brand development. Is a brand not, in itself, a representation of our thoughts? Therefore, I use this quote as motivation. Let us commit to continuous learning, acquiring knowledge, and enhancing our wisdom. In doing so, we can face a familiar world, not an alien one. That concludes my sharing for today. Thank you all.
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