On the afternoon of April 17, "the first lecture of the alumni rostrum in 2018" was opened on the second floor of the Science and Technology Museum of minglun campus of Henan University. The rostrum invited the fifth global partner of AL Ries, the general manager of Ries in China Zhang Yun to make a lecture on "ultimate enterprise strategy -- the latest development of positioning theory and China’s practice". The dean of the school of journalism and communication Yang Mengya, the faculty of Advertising Department, faculty of Arts, and the faculty of College of Business Administration attend the forum.

"Positioning theory" was born in the United States in the 1960s and introduced to Taiwan in the early 1990s and then introduced to mainland China. Today, the "positioning theory" pioneered by AL Ries has had a broad and profound impact on the business circles. “When we think about our country's strategy,” said Mr. Zhang, “we will look at it politically and economically, but on the microscopic level, we are supposed to focus on how many brands our country has.” He use the "trade war between China and the US" as an example, pointing out that this theory has some problems in practice, such as too much emphasis on finding a "positioning" concept and relying too heavily on advertising.

In a question-and-answer session, for the fading of advertising major, sophomore of the Advertising Department Rao Chenghuan expresses his doubts. Zhang Yun replied: "we are also face the fading of advertising industry; however, this is not that advertisement itself has a problem, but that there is something wrong with our ideas. It’s time to renew our ideas."

At the end of the forum, Shou Wen, associate dean of Cliff Positioning College, points out the current situation and plans for the future development of Cliff College from four aspects of an internal publication, an open class, two big conferences and an internal training class. Then he said that he sincerely invite students of our school to work in Cliff College. Finally, Dean Yang said “We will keep the alumni forum. I hope more excellent alumnus like Zhang Yun come back to share his experience. I also hope to set up the platform to cultivate more talents.”

Zhang Yun, general manager of world famous brand strategy consultancy company AL Ries’ partner in China, expert of brand strategy, one of the founders and practitioners of the new development of positioning theory and brand strategy. He has been committed to Ries’ brand strategy study and practice in China for many years.