[Canton Fair Story] Lin Hailin: Leveraging the Canton Fair to Polish Brands

“The Canton Fair is not only the weathervane of China’s foreign trade, but also the ‘good friend’ of exhibitors like us. It provides us with a window for product display and a platform for corporate growth.” At the 125th Canton Fair, Lin Hailin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zhejiang Double-lin Valves Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Double-lin”), said that only with independent brands can companies keep a foothold in personalized and differentiated production, better launch ingenious and eye-catching products, and obtain growth while empowering the Canton Fair.

As an “old friend of the Canton Fair”, Lin Hailin has participated in the event for 15 consecutive years. “To ‘validate your presence’ at the Canton Fair is an effective way to open up the market and expand spaces for cooperation.” According to Lin, over the years, the Canton Fair has won the favor of many buyers and sellers from countries along the “Belt and Road”, which means many business development opportunities. How to take initiative in the market, make innovation in marketing model, better match market demands, improve product visibility, and seek resonance from consumers in the design, function and human-oriented development of products are issues to be taken into consideration by entrepreneurs, and also secrets for enterprises to “go global” and expand overseas markets.

In recent years, Double-lin has established a number of independent brands, and run business in more than 100 countries and regions. It works hard and strives to transform from “extended development” to “intensive development”. Intensive development has become the company’s strategy. Walking into its stands, we saw some staff guiding customers to use its self-developed mobile phone software: Product category and quantity based on custom tailored choice, “place an order with one click” self-service shopping experience, etc. polish company brands once again.

According to Lin, in the past, due to limited conditions, fixed production was the “mainstream” of valves industry. In international trade, goods were used as a carrier for labor export, which meant lacking in production enthusiasm and market competitiveness. Later, many companies realized that they must see themselves as “masters” in doing business. If they have their own brands, they will have more say and power in international trade and boost their confidence in participating in international cooperation. Lin suggested that peer companies bring more products that bear China’s culture imprints to foreign countries through the Canton Fair, and gather core competitiveness in the market to promote Chinese culture to “go global”.

Sources: WeChat account of Ministry of Commerce, Canton Fair Press Center, xinhuanet.com

Reporters: Li Junhao, Lu Jian