The China brand.

Byline: David Greising

Oct. 1--BEIJING--It's a long way from here to a castle in France, but that was an early stop -- a pilgrimage of sorts -- for a group of senior Chinese executives intent on taking the next great leap in capitalism.

At Chateau Touffou, the Chinese huddled with representatives from the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather to plot a global branding strategy. Ever since advertising visionary David Ogilvy bought it, the agency has used the castle to woo big clients like Motorola and American Express. This time the client was Brand China.

If Chinese companies ever become household names--if Lenovo computers and Haier refrigerators and Chery automobiles ever rival Dell and GE and GM--Brand China can trace its roots to the meetings last October in France where Ogilvy taught the Chinese the secrets of Brand Marketing 101.

"The Chinese going outside is still a very new thing. It's very experimental at this stage," said Joseph Wang, chairman of Ogilvy's southern China business, who attended the meeting run by Ogilvy chief executive Shelly Lazarus. "I can't point to a super success yet. But you've got to remember this one thing: Chinese companies are very quick learners."

Walk the aisles of a local Wal-Mart, Target or Best Buy, and the words Made in China are stamped on everything from sweat socks to auto parts to cell phones. But those products still carry all-American brand names like Fruit of the Loom or Delco or Motorola.

China won't stay Brand C forever, though.

Chinese companies are not satisfied just slapping someone else's name on their products. Some Chinese companies want to buy established western brands, others will build from scratch. They all share a common urge to own brand names they can export worldwide--and import the profits back to China.

Consumer electronics company TCL of China bought Thomson Electronics, maker of RCA televisions. China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. was seeking a western brand when it offered to rescue Britain's failed MG Rover early this year.

Go-it-alone strategies seem likely to be the favored strategy, though.

China's Haier Group tried to buy instant credibility last spring with its bid for Maytag…