Branding and retail strategy in the condensed milk trade: Borden and Nestlé in East Asia, 1870–1929

Foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in China, especially during the nineteenth century, have attracted less interest from historians than Chinese firms and expatriate merchant houses. However, in this period, MNEs shaped advertising in Shenbao, China’s most vital modern Chinese-language newspaper. Through our examination of the advertisements they placed during the newspaper’s first phase of publication, 1872–1889, we argue that MNEs were more significant to the history of business in China than heretofore recognized. We contend that they influenced Chinese print media advertising by pioneering product differentiation and branding in this newspaper. They did so, we suggest, because this approach to marketing, which differed from those used by most other foreign and Chinese domestic advertisers, provided a competitive advantage to overcome their liability of foreignness, and was facilitated by their global reach in the form of knowledge flows from offshore bases to onshore branches.

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Branding and retail strategy in the condensed milk trade: Borden and Nestlé in East Asia, 1870–1929

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

China’s Dairy Century: Making, Drinking and Dreaming of Milk

China’s Dairy Century: Making, Drinking and Dreaming of Milk

Patente, geistige Eigentumsrechte und Technologiemanagement in Schwellenländern

Marketing the Multinational in Shenbao, Shanghai, 1872–1889

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