品牌排名下滑 中國“四大”銀行被互聯網公司搶走風頭

In the early 1980s, people in China had a one-stop shop for all their banking needs: the People’s Bank of China.

在上世紀80年代初的中國，人們的所有銀行需求都可以“一站式”解決：中國人民銀行(PBoC)。

It was, in fact, the only bank in China at the time, as well as the central bank. During the early years of economic reform in the country, citizens, government-owned enterprises and the first green shoots of private business had little choice about who to bank with. Marketing and branding for the state Monopoly was virtually nonexistent.

實際上，當時它是中國唯一的銀行，也是央行。在中國實行經濟改革的頭幾年裏，公民、政府所有的企業以及剛興起的第一批民營企業對於去哪家銀行辦理業務幾乎毫無選擇。對於這家政府壟斷企業而言，市場營銷和品牌建設之類的活動基本不存在。

More than three decades later, branding for banks in China has taken on new urgency.

30多年後，中國銀行業在品牌建設方面呈現出了新的緊迫感。

The banking sector has opened up, adding thousands of new institutions. Choice has proliferated for consumers. Speed, efficiency and convenience in financial services has fashioned new household names, mainly for the internet companies that have experimented in finance.

銀行業已經開放了，出現了數千家新的金融機構。消費者的選擇大爲增多。金融服務的速度、效率和便利性塑造出了許多家喻戶曉的新品牌，主要是那些試水金融業的互聯網公司。

Meanwhile, the brands of powerful state banks are in an early stage of decline.

與此同時，對於實力雄厚的國有銀行來說，它們的品牌已然步入衰落期的初步階段。

“Beyond the bank’s traditional image, another important thing is convenience,” says Yang Cao, chief operating officer at Yirendai, one of China’s largest peer-to-peer lenders and one of the institutions competing head on with banks. “Younger consumers value convenience a lot. They will look at how convenient your mobile app looks and they pick the bank because of that.”

“除了銀行的傳統形象之外，另一個重要因素是便利性，”宜人貸(Yirendai)首席運營官曹陽表示，“較年輕的消費者非常重視便利性。他們會看你的手機app有多方便，他們會因此選擇銀行。”宜人貸是中國最大的P2P貸款機構之一，也是與銀行展開正面競爭的金融機構之一。

The 2017 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking shows China’s top four state-owned banks losing ground in 2017. Bank of China, the oldest and most international of the four, tumbled 23 rankings to 94th, while Agricultural Bank of China fell 10 places to 72nd.

在BrandZ 2017年“全球最具價值品牌百強榜”(Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands)上，中國四大國有銀行的排名均出現下滑。歷史最悠久、國際化程度最高的中國銀行(Bank of China)下滑23位，位列第94，中國農業銀行(Agricultural Bank of China)下滑10個位置，排在第72位。

China Construction Bank fared slightly better, losing eight positions to 54. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of the world’s largest banks by market capitalisation, fell one place to 28th, retaining its position over global competitors such as Citi, JPMorgan and ANZ. The four Chinese banks did not respond to requests to comment on the fall in ranking.

中國建設銀行(China Construction Bank)表現略好，下滑8個位置，排在第54位。全球市值最高的銀行之一中國工商銀行(ICBC)下跌一位，排在第28，繼續領先於花旗(Citi)、摩根大通(JPMorgan)和澳新銀行(ANZ)等全球競爭對手。對於記者提出的就排名下滑置評的請求，中國四大國有銀行均未迴應。

By comparison, Tencent, an internet group that launched one of China’s first privately owned banks in 2014, is ranked eighth in global brand recognition, climbing three places in 2017 and trumPing the likes of IBM. Alibaba, an ecommerce company that now runs the world’s largest money market fund, rose four places to 14th.

相比之下，互聯網集團騰訊(Tencent)排名第八，上升3個位置，超過IBM等公司。騰訊在2014年推出的銀行是中國首批民營銀行之一。電商集團阿里巴巴(Alibaba)上升4位，排在第14，該集團管理着全球最大的貨幣市場基金。

Banks are late to the branding game because they have focused mainly on servicing state-owned companies, experts say, often ignoring the rapidly building wealth of Chinese people around them. In sharp contrast, companies such as Tencent and Alibaba founded their businesses on directly serving customers over the internet and have been much more in touch with the financial needs of ordinary people.

專家們表示，銀行很晚纔開展品牌建設活動，因爲它們主要專注於爲國有企業服務，往往忽視了周圍的普通人已快速累積起財富。與它們形成鮮明對比的是，騰訊和阿里巴巴等公司的業務基於直接通過互聯網爲客戶服務，與普通人的金融需求有更多的接觸。

Alibaba, for example, founded Alipay, an online payment service, in 2004. State companies such as China UnionPay followed that lead more than a decade later in December 2015. Alibaba’s Yu’e Bao became the world’s largest money market fund in March when its assets under management hit $165bn, a testament to how non-financial companies have enjoyed the same trust as banks.

例如，2004年，阿里巴巴推出了在線支付服務支付寶(Alipay)。國有企業則晚了十多年，中國銀聯(China UnionPay)直到2015年12月才推出在線支付服務。今年3月，阿里巴巴的“餘額寶”成爲全球最大的貨幣市場基金，其管理的資產總額達到1650億美元，證明非金融公司也能像銀行一樣獲得信任。

“China’s financial services [sector] in the past was focused on services for corporations. But over the past 30 years, the personal wealth of ordinary Chinese people and retail financial services have increased dramatically,” says Richard Sheng, brand director for Ping An Group. He reels off a number of services that banks and insurance companies have deployed over the past decade with the hope of catching the eye of consumers, such as credit cards and new types of insurance products.

中國平安(Ping An Group)品牌總監盛瑞生(Richard Sheng)表示：“在過去，中國金融服務（行業）專注於爲公司服務。但過去30年來，普通中國人的個人財富顯著增長，零售金融服務也大有發展。”他歷數了過去十年中銀行和保險公司爲吸引消費者眼球而推出的許多服務，例如信用卡和新型保險產品。

“This is all part of the effort to serve more and more consumers?.?.?.?It shows how the brand of the business has become more and more important,” Mr Sheng added.

盛瑞生補充稱：“這些都是爲了服務於越來越多的消費者……這表明，企業的品牌已變得越來越重要。”

Ping An Insurance ranks 61st, making it the world’s top insurance brand due to its modest increase in size over the past year, its enormous network of agents and its extensive product offering. As a large financial service provider, with banking and asset management units, it has invested heavily in technology and now runs Lufax, China’s largest online wealth management group, with Rmb438bn in assets under management from retail customers at the end of 2016.

平安保險(Ping An Insurance)位列第61，因其過去一年在規模上小幅增長、擁有龐大的保險代理人網絡以及多樣的產品而成爲全球排名第一的保險品牌。作爲一家兼有銀行業務和資產管理業務的大型金融服務提供商，平安在技術方面大舉投資，並且運營着中國最大的網上理財公司陸金所(Lufax)。截至2016年底，陸金所爲零售客戶管理着4380億元人民幣的資產。

Peer-to Peer (P2P) lending, where retail investors are connected with borrowers via an online platform, has also started to make off with a significant chunk of capital from the formal banking system. The loan balance for P2P lending in May hit Rmb996bn ($146bn), up from only Rmb184bn two years earlier, according to industry consultant .

P2P網貸平臺——爲零售投資者與借貸者牽線搭橋的在線平臺——也開始從正規銀行系統吸走大量資本。據行業諮詢公司網貸之家()表示，5月P2P貸款餘額達到9960億元人民幣（合1460億美元），而兩年前僅爲1840億元人民幣。

Banks have not taken these losses to their capital base lying down, says Richard Cao, an analyst at Chinese securities house Guotai Junan in Shenzhen

中國券商國泰君安的深圳分析師曹柱(Richard Cao)稱，銀行並未坐視自己的資本基礎被削弱。

“In order to face up to the competition, they have been launching all sorts of new operations, like their own P2P businesses,” he says. ICBC, for example, has started its own P2P platform and has an online shopping network that has mimicked Alibaba’s service. It claimed in its 2016 annual report that 250m people use its mobile application.

“爲了應對競爭，它們開展了各種新業務，比如它們自己的P2P業務，”曹柱表示。例如，中國工商銀行開通了自己的P2P平臺，並擁有效仿阿里巴巴服務的在線購物平臺。它在2016年度報告中聲稱，有2.5億人使用其手機app。

The state banks could be losing some ground to internet finance rivals, Mr Cao says, but they still have much greater visibility compared with most other companies because of their vast branch networks. Agricultural Bank of China alone, for example, had 23,682 branches across the country by the end of last year, making it one of the most visible banks in the world.

曹柱稱，相對於互聯網金融公司，國有銀行或許失去了一些優勢，但由於它們龐大的分支網絡，與多數其他公司相比，它們的品牌知名度還是要大得多。例如，截止去年年底，單單中國農業銀行在全國就擁有23682家支行，使其成爲全球知名度最大的銀行之一。

In some respects, branding for the state banks may not have changed much from the early days of reform. The government-controlled lenders are still focused on corporate business, with corporate deposits still outweighing those from retail depositors.

在某些方面，與改革初期相比，國有銀行在品牌推廣方面可能沒有多少變化。由政府控制的銀行仍然注重企業業務，企業存款仍然超過零售儲戶存款。

“The branding is important for the retail business,” said Jonathan Koh, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian, a Singaporean broker. “But corporate banking, this is still a relationship-based business. Branding will not change it much.”

“品牌推廣對於零售業務十分重要，”新加坡券商大華繼顯(UOB Kay Hian)的分析師喬納森?科赫(Jonathan Koh)表示，“但企業銀行業務仍然以關係爲基礎。品牌不會有太大影響。”