Recently, Interbrand (hereinafter referred to as Interbrand), a global brand strategy management consulting and design company, released the "2024 China's Best Brands Ranking", in which the total value of the brands on the overall list in 2024 reached 3.37126 billion yuan. Although the increase is not large compared with last year, Interbrand believes that the global economy is currently facing headwinds, and everyone is feeling the pressure of the downward cycle in both the international and domestic markets. On the one hand, economic growth has slowed down, market competition has intensified, and price wars have intensified; on the other hand, consumer confidence has declined, resulting in limited spending power and reduced shopping enthusiasm. Therefore, it is not easy to buck the trend in a down cycle.
As for why it has achieved such results, Interbrand believes that the explosion of AI is indispensable and has even become the key to the rise in the value of many brands. According to Interbrand, AI brings the power of reshaping to brands from two levels: First, it allows brands to achieve value reshaping from the inside out , helping brands reduce costs and increase efficiency , accurately link , empower creation , and strengthen The four major aspects of leadership enhance brand value; second, the brand makes a qualitative leap in the three dimensions of existence , empathy , and connection , thereby driving the implementation of brand ideals and creating new value .
However, Interbrand also found in in-depth communications with many brands that under this wave of AI, many brand builders are both excited and anxious. They are excited that new changes mean new opportunities, but they are also anxious about this great change. will be left behind. In this regard, Interbrand said that it is true that many Chinese brands are still in the exploratory stage of using AI, especially how to use AI to increase brand value and lack practical experience. Therefore, Interbrand conducted an in-depth analysis of the AI practices of the brands listed in the "2024 China's Best Brands Ranking" and proposed four major evolutionary directions, hoping to provide more reference for Chinese companies to use the power of AI to buck the trend.
Direction 1: Break through the ceiling of service capabilities. Reduce costs and increase efficiency | AI productivity makes it possible to accompany brands 24/7
According to Interbrand, in the past, on the one hand, brands relied more on "manpower" in content production, and it was easy to reach the upper limit in terms of quantity and quality; on the other hand, due to manpower constraints or the lack of standardized training, it was difficult for brands to serve everyone well. A specific "person". All these make the relationship between brands and consumers too loose, making it difficult to truly enhance brand stickiness and loyalty. With the help of AI productivity, brands can break through the ceiling caused by the limitations of this service capability and provide more consumers with efficient and specific services. Let us focus on the e-commerce platform, the vanguard of the digital economy, and we will see the changes in service experience brought about by AI productivity. Here, AI is no longer just an auxiliary tool, but has become the core engine that drives business growth and optimizes user experience.
Taking JD.com ’s Yanxi digital model as an example, it is fully in line with JD.com’s vision of “technology-based and committed to a more efficient and sustainable world”. In particular, the Yanxi Digital Human 3.0 platform is based on JD’s Yanxi large model and multi-mode With dynamic interaction capabilities, it has achieved a leap from a single product to an intelligent platform. The platform has launched more than 100 personalized roles and more than 50 industry-specific attribute scenarios, covering 90% of common inquiries with zero configuration, and providing accurate product recommendation responses. The rate exceeds 90%. Currently, more than 5,000 merchants are using JD Cloud Yanxi digital human anchors, driving GMV to exceed 10 billion yuan.
Alibaba Taobao ai agent-Quick Butler can provide small and medium-sized sellers with five e-commerce virtual employees including AI mathematics, AI operations, AI design, AI editors and AI assistants to provide merchants with intelligent agents for daily operations. Reduce the complexity of e-commerce operations. It is reported that the five virtual employees have mastered 129 skills in e-commerce operations and can handle about 80% of manual work. Through intelligent data analysis and optimized store operation strategies, AI business managers can effectively cope with the daily challenges of e-commerce platforms and reduce labor costs by about 70%.
Direction Two: Deeper Connection. Fine interaction | From “ people looking for brands ” to “ brands looking for people ” , brand connection can be both personal and human
In the past, brand building was mostly done behind closed doors. Even though many brands have used digital empowerment to close the distance between “brand” and “people”, the gap between the insightful analysis of “people” and the shaping of brand value is still very important. There are still gaps and disconnects. Interbrand believes that the explosion of AI technology and the continuous implementation of its applications have made it possible for brands to truly understand and respond to everyone's demands from the crowd to the individual. In his view, many leading brands are relying on breakthroughs at four levels to achieve deeper connections between brands and people, thereby promoting the growth of brand value.
Insights into users run through the entire chain. Interbrand believes that with the power of AI, brands can feed audience insights into the entire chain of product design and production, thereby further achieving the generation of accurate personalized solutions. This is particularly true for consumer brands Mengniu and Yili. Among them, Mengniu launched MENGNIU.GPT, a large language model in the field of nutrition and health in 2023, and launched an AI nutritionist based on this model to provide around-the-clock professional nutrition services to hundreds of millions of families. This AI tool can not only provide services such as health assessment and nutrition plan formulation, but also adjust Chinese health plans according to consumer needs, as well as provide thoughtful services such as intelligent empathic companionship and dynamic plan adjustment. For example, users of zero-sugar and zero-fat products maintain a good BMI after using the AI nutritionist; users of probiotic products are more likely to adhere to the 21-day health plan. Through AI means, Mengniu has truly achieved precise access to personalized services. Yili, on the other hand, has made great efforts to shorten the insight time and intervals, promoted "full domain, full scenario, full life cycle" consumer digital operations, and developed an intelligent insight system that collaborates with 150 million consumers online to create new products. Complete a market insight in 3.5 days and become an "intimate person" for consumers.
Scenes and crowds are segmented and then segmented. Through the analysis of the brands on the list, Interbrand proposed that with the support of AI technology, brands can further subdivide scene tags and crowd tags, and under the guidance of segmented scene and crowd tags, they can more spontaneously and proactively find their audiences and tap into them. need . Take Ctrip, which showed rapid growth last year and still maintains strong growth momentum this year, as an example. It launched the first industry vertical large-scale model "Ctrip Wendao". With its precise understanding of users' needs before, during and after travel, it can not only quickly In response to users' personalized needs, it also provides users with reliable travel suggestions. At the same time, relying on 20 billion high-quality unstructured tourism data and advanced intelligent algorithms, Ctrip has also launched three major lists: "Ctrip Reputation List", "Ctrip Hotspot List" and "Ctrip Special Price List" to provide users with Carefully selected travel destinations and services significantly reduce decision-making time. This kind of accurate recommendation not only makes Ctrip a trusted travel consultant for users, but also makes "assured recommendation" Ctrip's third biggest selling point.
Achieve an experience that is both personal and human. Interbrand said that with the strengthening of AI technology, the "non-human" dialogue experience that existed in AI communication in the past has gradually improved. Therefore, with the enhancement of AI , brands may further achieve the reconciliation of human nature and personality, and enhance the brand's reach and influence on each individual . Meituan’s AI takeaway assistant Miru is a leader in this area. By deeply understanding users’ needs in terms of price, restaurant type and taste preferences, Miru is able to provide users with customized restaurant recommendations, which not only greatly shortens decision-making Time also makes the selection process easier and more enjoyable. When users feel hesitant during the selection process, Miru helps users find the food that best suits their needs by making their vague needs concrete. From this perspective, Miru is not only a takeout assistant, but also a source of food inspiration for users. At the same time, Miru also combines food encyclopedia knowledge and chat functions to meet users' multiple needs when shopping and waiting, greatly improving the user experience.
Break the limitations of the industry and provide overall solutions around "people". Interbrand observed that Haier presented a new experience in 20 scenes in 8 major spaces at 2024AWE, providing users with more integrated, intelligent, and space-efficient home appliance and home integrated services. By building an ecosystem, Three-winged Bird has broken industry boundaries. In view of the experience pain points brought to users by the past separation of home decoration, home decoration, home appliances and other fields, Sanyiniao has opened up the entire chain of ecological resources through full-process digital capabilities to achieve a "one-stop solution" covering home appliances, home decoration, home furnishing and even home life. "Customized" service provides smart life solutions for each user's individual needs.
Direction three: real interaction. Empowering Creation | The threshold for creativity is lowered, and everyone can have higher levels of creativity
Co-creating rich UGC content with as many users as possible is the ideal state that many brands dream of. However, in the past, due to limitations of interactive methods and creation thresholds, it was difficult for brands to promote users to participate in co-creation activities on a large scale. In this regard, Interbrand’s view is that brands can now use AI to lower the interaction threshold. On the one hand, brands truly have a wide range of interactive people and can interact with them to establish deeper links; on the other hand, users can also interact with Brand co-creation has great potential, and it is in this two-way stimulation process that users' strong dependence on the brand is enhanced. Interbrand also provides two different empowerment methods for brands to learn from.
Empower users to create through technological innovation. Internet brands have made great achievements in this regard. Among them, Kuaishou launched a new tool based on AI Generated Content (AIGC) in 2024, Keling, to help users achieve one-click transformation from creative conception to video generation, fully realizing unmanned and automated script creation and shooting. So far, more than 1.6 million people have used Kuaishou's video generation large model Keling AI, and a total of more than 16 million videos have been generated. Officially through innovative AI technology, Kuaishou has democratized creativity, allowing every user to display higher-quality creativity on the Kuaishou platform.
Use AI technology to improve the creative efficiency of key links. Regarding this point, NetEase has a lot of experience in its deep cultivation of games and creation. In the gaming industry, NetEase has innovatively developed new gameplay methods such as smart NPCs, AI face pinching, and fashion design, bringing revolutionary changes to the gaming experience; and in the music field, NetEase Tianyin has launched the AIGC algorithm through its self-developed AIGC algorithm. It provides a series of creative auxiliary tools, including AI lyric writing, AI arrangement, and one-click demo, which greatly improves the efficiency and quality of music creation.
Direction four: strategic layout. Establishing leadership | The active introduction of AI is necessary for brands to demonstrate forward-looking trends in technology
When AI becomes an important battlefield for brand building, brands are no longer faced with how to keep up with the pace of AI. Instead, they need to create unique AI applications and put forward their own views on AI. Only in this way can they stand out. However, Interbrand also reminds brand builders that while brands demonstrate leadership through pioneering exploration and application of AI, they must also think deeply about how AI can serve people and tell more about the value of AI to people, in order to avoid AI becoming a brand-level Show off your skills. Similarly, as leading brands in their respective fields, the exploration of AI by these brands on the list is not only related to their own development, but will also represent Chinese brands' breakthrough and leadership on a global scale. Therefore, they need to be deployed from a higher dimension. .
From +AI to AI + , it not only drives the industry forward at the business level, but also achieves brand breakthrough in terms of pioneering and leadership. The brand combines AI with core industry technologies, which not only demonstrates its foresight in the field of science and technology, but also promotes the intelligent upgrading of the entire industry through continuous practice and expansion of AI application scenarios, thereby demonstrating the brand's leadership. Here, AI is not only a technical tool, but also an important driving force for brands to lead the trend in the field of innovation and shape the future. Last year's new brands Mindray Medical and CATL are still leaders in their respective fields this year. Among them, Ningde Times in the new energy field launched "AI for Science" to lay out cutting-edge battery technology. AI for Science is not only used in liquid batteries, lithium-air batteries, energy storage batteries and other fields, but can also significantly improve battery performance, allowing battery technologies with good performance and stable digital performance to be continuously optimized. CATL's strategic vision of driving scientific progress through AI will drive the entire industry toward intelligence and digitalization. Mindray Medical in the field of general health has established a new benchmark for AI applications leading the global market through cooperation with Tencent Health. Mindray has combined its core smart medical businesses, such as "Ruizhilian", "Ruiying Cloud++" and "Mindray Intelligent Inspection Laboratory", with the powerful computing capabilities of Tencent Cloud to create a model case for the digital upgrade of domestic medical devices . This cooperation not only aims to improve domestic medical standards, but also focuses on the global market and sets a new benchmark in the global medical field through the power of AI.
It is not limited to actively using AI to show new ideas in brand initiatives, but also showing the concepts behind AI from a higher perspective and promoting the upgrading of the brand image. For Internet and technology brands that are more closely related to AI, the public has higher expectations for their exploration in the field of AI. The development of AI technology is only one aspect. More importantly, it needs to express its thinking about "where AI will go" and convey the brand's original intention of doing AI. Take Baidu as an example. Different from the concept of many companies that put AI in the technical cloud, Baidu is committed to making AI a tool available to everyone. At the 2024 Baidu AI Developer Conference, Baidu launched three easy-to-use AI development tools: AgentBuilder, AppBuilder and ModelBuilder. These tools significantly reduce the difficulty of AI development. In addition, Baidu has also significantly reduced the computing cost of large-scale AI models, making the inference cost of Wenxin's large model only one percent of what it was a year ago, making the concept of "everyone can become a developer" possible. This approach has allowed Baidu to establish a brand image of "promoting the popularization of AI" and stand out in the fierce competition for large AI models.
Interbrand emphasized that brand construction in the field of AI is not only a reflection of technological strength, but also a sign of the brand leading the industry. In this AI competition, brands must not only stand out through technological competition, which is an important manifestation of brand responsiveness, but also need to lead the exploration of AI applications to strengthen the brand's determination and courage to stay on top of trends. More importantly, in this cycle where everyone is talking about AI empowerment, it is possible to create differences by expressing the brand's intentions and thinking .