An interesting metaphor says - "Glory comes from a rich second-generation family. Brother Huawei is an excellent model student, and Honor is the more naughty and rebellious younger brother."

This metaphor comes from Xu Shufen, the head of the Honor Brand Department.

Honor, which has only been established for 3 years, is not very well-known, and its product prices are positioned at the mid- to low-end. It looks no different from those Chinese products that relied on "high quality and low price" to enter the international market in the past. However, Honor's marketing activities in the global market make it look like a "rich second generation".

During the American labor holiday from September 3rd to 5th, tens of thousands of people gathered in Denver, a plateau city next to the Rocky Mountains, to watch an extreme sports competition. On the playing field, people can see a big Honor (Glory’s English name) and the brand slogan For the Brave.

This is the first competition held in the United States by FISE, Europe's largest extreme sports competition, in the 20 years since its establishment. FISE's largest sponsor this year is Glory.

In fact, the cooperation between Honor and FISE has lasted for three years, initially sponsoring individual events and then single-station events. This year, Honor surpassed Go Pro and some local European brands and upgraded to the official TOP1 sponsor. In addition, Honor will often cooperate with FISE in brand offline activities to introduce extreme sports to more young people.

Promotional video of Honor’s cooperation with FISE:

In recent years, more and more Chinese brands have been keen to sponsor international sports events. Lenovo sponsors rugby in the United States and Hisense sponsors the European Cup. However, Honor does not expect to leverage its popularity in overseas markets by sponsoring mass sports events. What it values ​​more is the brand spirit of youth, freedom, bravery and fearlessness brought by extreme sports.

“In terms of cost, this is not the largest marketing event, but it is the most significant in terms of brand spirit.” Xu Shufen commented on the cooperation with FISE in an interview with Jiemian News. "It's different from Superstar sports. What people care about is not the results, but the spirit of challenge. When athletes fall, there will also be warm applause. This is the spirit that Honor wants to do."

According to Xu Shufen, when she went to discuss cooperation with Brooklyn in April this year, it was a promotional video about FISE sponsorship that impressed the star, who had never heard of the Honor brand.

If you watch this charming Honor 8 commercial film from Brooklyn, you will find that there is no promotion of the product in the film. Likewise, it's an ad about youthful spirit.

At first glance, the film is about Brooklyn's hobbies. He likes skateboarding, art, and photography, not playing football. The subtext actually says, "Although I have a great father, I don't want to live in his 'shadow'. I have my own hobbies and personality. I hope you see me, not Beckham's son."

It can be seen that Honor is working very hard to build a brand.

Young and international, this is the brand positioning given to Honor when it was born three years ago. In order to open up the overseas young market, Honor is also cooperating with various brand consulting and agency companies, including large agencies such as Ogilvy and Mather and Millward Brown, which are responsible for brand strategy and consumer market research, as well as local creative agencies and agencies in various markets.

After market research from various institutions, Xu Shufen found that although the cultures of each country and region are very different, whether it is China, Russia, the United States, or India, young people like things that are surprisingly similar: sports, movies, travel, music, photography, selfies, and games.

So in most of Honor’s overseas advertisements, its themes revolve around the hobbies of these young people. For example, the theme of the Honor 5C advertisement in the Indian market is Dare to Perform, with a badminton player performing various dances; the theme of the Honor 8 advertisement launched on the BBC is We live in the now, which tells the story of a young man traveling outdoors.

Dare to Perform promotional video:

In terms of spokesperson cooperation, Honor’s style is even more obvious. The spokespersons for mobile phone brands such as Huawei, OPPO, and ZTE are all international first-tier brands, but Honor chooses younger and more local rising stars. In addition to Brooklyn, Honor's global spokespersons include China's Wu Yifan, French singer Louane Emera, who became popular through reality shows, and Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal.

The brand’s English slogan has also undergone many revisions. Initially, Honor was preparing to release a literal version of the Chinese slogan "Bravely Be Yourself" in Europe. After discussions with the agency, it was found that it was not in line with Western culture. "Europeans think that being yourself means being yourself, and there is no need to be brave," Xu Shufen recalled. "For the Brave" was born after it was determined that the key concept should be "brave" rather than "being yourself".

The word brave is indeed very suitable to describe the Honor brand. When the brand was founded in 2013, the competition in the low-end mobile phone market under 2,000 yuan was already fierce, and doubts about Honor have never ceased. However, Honor has grown quite rapidly, with shipments reaching 40 million units last year, of which overseas sales accounted for 15%.

What’s even more brave is that, having just established its foothold in the low-end market, Honor entered the mid-range market this year and launched models priced above 2,000 yuan. At this price, not only is competition equally fierce, but it also overlaps with Huawei's pricing.

But what is worrying is that Honor still lives in the "shadow" of Huawei, both in terms of consumer awareness and sales channels, and has not yet become an independent brand. Without relying on Huawei, it would be difficult for Honor, a completely unfamiliar brand, to establish its popularity among overseas consumers.

This may be why Honor needs to rely on Huawei's endorsement on the one hand, but on the other hand it is trying its best to promote a brand spirit that is completely different from Huawei's. “As a new brand, we hope that consumers will first understand the brand spirit when they get to know us. Comparing products will never end. "Xu Shufen said.

In recent years, in addition to Honor, domestic mobile phone brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, Meizu, and Smartisan that target the young market have done quite well in creating a "youth culture" brand spirit. Although they are still far away from true internationalization, they have already taken a big step from being made in China to being a Chinese brand.