Looking at the 3.0 Upgrade of State-Owned Enterprise Brands Through Kunlun Lubricant

Promote the transformation of Made in China into Created in China, of China speed into China quality and of Chinese products into Chinese brands.
— Xi Jinping, General Secretary
On August 23, Kunlun Lubricant, the lubricant brand under PetroChina, held the “Ultra-Long Lasting, Enjoy the Journey” Kunlun Lubricant ultra-long mileage solution launch conference in Chengdu, Sichuan. At the conference it released an ultra-long mileage solution for road logistics transport, and Kunlun Lubricant announced a brand-new brand upgrade, clarifying the brand strategic transformation from “Kunlun Lubricant Oil” to “Kunlun Lubricant,” from a product manufacturer to a “product + service” comprehensive solution provider, achieving the transformation from production-oriented to service-oriented and from business-oriented to platform-oriented. It officially announced the brand slogan “military-grade quality, a pillar of the great nation,” taking caring for people’s livelihood, leading the industry and supporting the country as its mission, forming ecological and intelligent operations and becoming the lubrication expert at consumers’ side.
Release of the Kunlun Lubricant brand strategic transformation
Through the Asian Games currently in full swing and the earlier Russia World Cup, we were delighted to find that Chinese brands have more and more opportunities to “show their faces” at major world events, with growing international influence. On the one hand this represents the gradual strengthening of China’s economic power; on the other it shows that Chinese enterprises’ branding and operating concepts are gradually aligning with the world and being recognized, understood and accepted by the world.
From “working quietly” to “known internationally,” the development of Chinese national brands has gone through a 3.0 upgrade
National brands are an important indicator of a country’s economic strength. In the 60 years since the founding of New China, the development of China’s national brands has broadly gone through three stages.
The first stage was working quietly. With the founding of New China, everything awaited renewal, and many national brands emerged in response to the rigid needs of the state, the people and the military. Because of ideological reasons at the time and because the primary need was to develop and produce products to close gaps, the brand awareness of national brands in the first stage was extremely weak, with the focus placed on working quietly and vigorously developing production to meet the needs of the state and the people. In fact many people do not realize that Kunlun Lubricant started very early and accomplished many major achievements: in 1956 Kunlun Lubricant produced its first barrel of lubricant; in 1958 the first Hongqi sedan was filled with China’s own Kunlun lubricant; in 1963 Kunlun Lubricant produced No. 8 aviation lubricant and China’s air force began using domestically produced lubricant; in 1968 Kunlun Lubricant provided factory-fill oil for the first Dongfeng truck; in 1969 Kunlun lubricant was used in border defense operations, with domestic lubricant withstanding the test of high-cold and high-altitude regions; in 1970 Kunlun Lubricant’s No. 8 insulating compound and No. 10 aviation hydraulic oil became designated oils for the “Long March” series of launch vehicles, accompanying New China’s first rocket into the vastness of space… Even now, from the “Liaoning” aircraft carrier that people take pride in to the world-renowned Chinese high-speed rail “Fuxing,” this high-value score sheet reflects Kunlun Lubricant’s outstanding contribution to China’s industrial process. Yet few people know about these achievements, which also represents the general picture of state-owned enterprises in the first stage: working quietly, not seeking fame in the world.
The second stage was panning for gold in the big waves, pursuing brand awareness. With the start of reform and opening up and the influx of foreign brand products, competition began to intensify. State-owned enterprises and national brands suffered a huge impact. In addition, some state-owned enterprises transformed slowly, were insensitive to the market environment and had outdated thinking, and many state-owned brands disappeared in this stage. Reform and the market economy became the touchstone for Chinese enterprises; the survival of the fittest meant national brands as a whole went through new challenges, actively explored new brand application and promotion, gradually bade farewell to the idea that “good wine needs no bush,” and began to develop awareness of independent brand operation. In this stage the surviving excellent state-owned enterprises began to exert themselves, letting everyone see their strength and forming influence. Kunlun Lubricant went through the test of the market and grew stronger step by step.
The third stage pursues not only brand awareness but also conveys core values. Today China’s international influence keeps growing, and Made in China and Chinese brands are going global, winning rich benefits and enormous reputation with outstanding quality. Excellent Chinese brands have become powerful national calling cards for China and part of a strong-brand nation. State-owned brands not only build international awareness but also, with the brand as the core, export core values so that the world understands China and Chinese brands better. For example, Kunlun Lubricant’s brand slogan and philosophy of “military-grade quality, a pillar of the great nation” not only shows the enterprise’s deep strength but also conveys a concept — strictly demanding by military standards, pursuing excellence, and setting a benchmark for national-level products and services to become a representative of national quality.
A strong-brand nation: unified requirements internally, an excellent “national calling card” externally, conveying China’s scientific outlook on development
“Promote the transformation of Made in China into Created in China, of China speed into China quality and of Chinese products into Chinese brands” — General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the call for a strong-brand nation, which is as important as key strategies such as Made in China and China speed: to build excellent brands into China’s “national calling cards” and export China’s positive scientific outlook on development both to citizens and internationally.
A corporate brand is a company’s core values, the value orientation of the enterprise and all its employees, and the basic beliefs and goals the enterprise upholds in pursuing business success. Advocating a brand can unify thinking and clarify goals, so that employees take it as their goal and guide in the production process.
As can be seen from Kunlun Lubricant, innovative operation, integrated development and building a comprehensive brand ecosystem have become the new normal for state-owned enterprise brands. Kunlun Lubricant responds to the national call with concrete action and implements it in practice. This year, “Kunlun Lubricant Oil” was upgraded to “Kunlun Lubricant,” making the brand positioning clearer and marking the upgrading of the enterprise’s positioning transformation from production-oriented to service-oriented and from business-oriented to platform-oriented, and marking Kunlun Lubricant’s transformation from a product manufacturer to a solution provider. It covers consumer needs more comprehensively, more efficiently and more humanely, closing the distance to consumers. This is closely aligned both with the new normal of China’s intelligent enterprise development and with the world’s most advanced integrated operation service model. On the one hand, for consumers it exports a one-stop service concept, conveying a consumer-centric approach: solving consumers’ problems, saving their time, enhancing their experience and reducing their costs — everything people-oriented. A truly good enterprise should not have a mere buying-and-selling relationship with consumers; it should be the consultant at consumers’ side.
As can be seen from Kunlun Lubricant, green operation and energy-saving efficiency have become an important direction for state-owned enterprise brand development. In the concrete implementation of “military-grade quality, a pillar of the great nation,” Kunlun Lubricant takes military quality as its standard, national interests as its mission and cares for the people. With China’s economic development and the deepening of the “Belt and Road” strategy, China’s road transport and road freight volume have become the world’s largest. But China’s transport efficiency is still far below that of developed countries, causing massive consumption of time and cost; how to “reduce costs and increase efficiency” has become a pain point for the road transport industry. Against this background, Kunlun Lubricant increased its R&D efforts, placing cost reduction, energy saving and green development in the first position, and through continuous innovation and meticulous R&D has launched several long-life, high-efficiency products in recent years that extend replacement intervals and save product consumption. Combined with reasonable guidance and analysis, product efficiency is maximized. This has largely solved the problems faced by the road transport industry and national transport, and has also exported the green development outlook of Chinese enterprises in the new era, letting the world re-understand China’s development and re-understand Chinese enterprises.
Kunlun Lubricant’s way of brand operation is a classic example of excellent state-owned enterprise brand operation: it responds to national calls, reflects Chinese corporate values, stays close to user needs and narrows the distance to consumers. It truly achieves both loftiness and warmth, both philosophy and practice. We hope that in the new stage of development more Chinese state-owned enterprise brands will rise and truly realize the grand goal of a strong-brand nation.