China's top marble tiles brand GANI unveils its global branding strategy

The first DACHINA Dialogue was held by DACHINA Interchange Management GmbH, Brand Academy-Hochschule for Design and Communication and China Central Television on Wednesday in Hamburg, Germany, attracting guests such as Shi Mingde, China's ambassador to Germany, and Carsten Brosda, head of the Hamburg authority for culture and media and global brands including GANI, Alibaba, Volkswagen and Molyneux Mont Blanc.

The event invited Chinese and German representative international brands aiming to share multinational brands' experience and future thinking during cross-culture global communication. GANI, as a representative of Chinese traditional manufacturing, attracted discussion with its reinvention of "Chinese ceramics".

Innovation of products and technologies

Founded in 2002, GANI pioneered a new porcelain category - Marble Tiles - in 2009, and has become the world's leading company in the marble tile industry. With over 500 items in its exclusive stone gallery, GANI develops hundreds of marble tiles restoring marble patterns and veins. In the past decade, GANI focused on invention and kept innovating technology and products of marble tiles. The GANI Marble Tiles captures the natural beauty of marble with high performances of porcelain tiles; represent GANI's solution for a responsible use of marbles' application. In this meaning we can consider Marble Tiles as a technological evolution of marbles.

Not only making up for natural defects of marbles' application in home decoration and reducing the cost, the company' s executives said, marble tiles also have a good market and respected brand, and GANI strives to be the best of products and service by focusing on only one category.

The company emphasizes innovation and has upgraded its products every year since marble tiles were established a decade ago. Four core technologies of GANI are all in a leading position in the world: High Temperature Crystallization Technology, Intelligent Soft Polishing Technology, Concave-convex Anti-slip Micro Technology and 3D Full Body Technology, its executives said.

GANI's research and development center covers an area of 12,000 square meters and the company owns a team of professional designers and elite technicians who have built a mature industrial system combining technology and art design, the executives said.

It also uses new-type clear energies for production and gradually implements automation in the manufacturing to upgrade the traditional sector.

Decoration effect of natural design

Design is another priority for GANI to make marble tiles. To make its products naturally beautiful, the company looked for precious marbles globally and set up a marble gallery that houses more than 500 kinds of top marbles.

The company also founded a marble tiles application design institute and employed an Italian design team. It aims to follow international trends and nurture professionals in this field, but also promote marble tiles in home decoration to meet the needs for high-end decoration demand.

As GANI's chief designer Stefano Trovato said, "We want to give ideas about how much GANI cares about the design and also the artistic design of Marble Tiles."

The institute owns nine invention patents, eight patents for utility models and 316 design patents.

GANI said its efforts on design and household aesthetics have received approval of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI) and the company became its first Chinese brand partner.

International branding and marketing

Insiders said ceramics are a bridge for civilization communication between China and Western countries. GANI, by the event in Germany, made "Chinese ceramics" amaze the world and made the world know about it again.

In its development road, GANI also aimed to become an international brand. It surveyed European markets and found local people liked products in natural styles.

In addition, German products have long emphasized quality and functions and when GANI marched into German-speaking markets, it emphasized some properties such as skid resistance.

The company designed exhibition halls and styles of product display according to different countries' cultures, consumers' habits and sales channels. It promotes and sells Marble Tiles in nine German cities, including Berlin, Hamburg and Munich.

GANI has been invited to attend the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings (named as CERSAIE) in Italy for four years including 2018. Insiders said internationally, ceramic and bathroom furnishings brands regard being invited to participate in the event as a great honor.

This year, GANI plans to showcase its 11th-generation products and the concept of "MARBLE+" at the event, to be held in late September, to provide visitors with more Marble Tiles with natural and precious veins.

It is worth noting that GANI once held "GANI in the World-Art, Design & Marble Tiles Forum" in Dubai Burj Khalifa Tower, the world's tallest building. GANI said it was globally in the real sense the first international Marble Tiles design and art communication event. The company also hosted its ninth generation product launch conference in Palazzo Albergati, an Italian royal castle that dates back to more than 300 years, and thus became one of the first Chinese tile brands that organized a new product launch event in Europe.

GANI, a representative of Chinese original brands, has stood tall on international stages several times. It represented national brands to be seen in New York Times Square and said it was one of the first Chinese home furnishing brands to be seen in the square.

At a Boao Forum for Asia, GANI was invited by Zhou Wenzhong, secretary-general at the event, to represent Chinese high-end brands to attend Top Talk, a high-level business TV Dialogue in China.

GANI received praise from the world's mainstream media because of its product innovation and design aesthetics. Media including The New York Times, Bloomberg News, Handelsblatt, Japan Broadcasting Corp, Agencia EFE and Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore have visited GANI's headquarters in Foshan, Guangdong province, impressed with the company's creative measures on products and the brand.

The sales network covers 71-plus countries including Italy, France, Russia, USA, Australia, Japan, Thailand and UAE, with 600-plus global franchised stores.

GANI proactively delivers its quality products and services to dozens of famous projects like hotels, shopping malls, airports, deluxe apartments covering Tokyo, Dubai, Paris, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, Sydney, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, to the world's famous hospitality, residential and commercial projects, serving Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton and fancy commercial buildings.

From "Made in China" to "designed and created by China", more and more Chinese brands have become world's focus.

The company said, as a high-end brand in China, it wants to manifest culture confidence of Chinese ceramics and explore the old art's value under the context of industry globalization.

GANI hopes to use innovative scientific research technology, advanced product design and well-established service procedures to have global customers enjoy a natural beautiful life.