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Euro RSCG survey lists the hottest brands in China

Samsung Corp, Procter & Gamble Co and Colgate-Palmolive Co are gaining popularity in China, while Sega Corp, Nintendo Co and Daewoo Corp are losing ground, according to a survey by advertising company Euro RSCG.

Brands such as Google Inc and Sony Corp, which Euro RSCG says are popular in western markets, are also winning favor in China, demonstrating that consumers there are as savvy as those in the US and Europe, Euro RSCG's UK Chairman Ben Langdon said.

Sega and Nintendo are performing as poorly as in the rest of the world, he said.

"Marketers can't assume that just because China is a newer consumer market, its consumers will buy whatever you try to sell them," Langdon said in an interview. "If you have got a bad product, Chinese people won't buy it."

China, which is hosting Olympics in 2008, is the fastest growing of the world's 20 largest economies, expanding by 9.6 percent in the second quarter. Retail sales in China, home to 1.3 billion people, rose 13.2 percent last month to 421 billion yuan (US$51 billion).

The survey by Euro RSCG, which is owned by Suresnes, France-based Havas SA, asked about 2,000 Internet users in China whether brands had "gained ground" or "lost ground" in popularity in the past few years.

Korean electronics company Samsung gained the most popularity in the survey, followed by Chinese electrical-appliance maker Haier, owned by Qingdao Haier Co, and China Mobile. Sony, Google, and toothpaste brands Crest, owned by Procter & Gamble, and rival Colgate-Palmolive's Colgate were also among the top 10 brands.

Sega, Nintendo, Pioneer Corp, Daewoo and American Airlines, owned by Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp, were among the 20 brands that lost the most popularity. The list includes 525 brands.

Euro RSCG said the performance of consumer electronics brands showed the domination of "gadget" and technology names in the minds of Chinese consumers.

While Chinese companies could be reassured by the standings of Haier and China Mobile, the performance of Procter & Gamble and European companies such as Siemens AG and Royal Philips Electronics NV also showed that foreign brands can be successful, Langdon said.

McDonald's Corp wasn't among the top 100 brands on the list.

Coca-Cola Co, ranked the world's most valuable brand by Interbrand, the consulting firm owned by advertising company Omnicom Inc, wasn't in the top 20.

Langdon said McDonald's and Coca-Cola might seem too American for Chinese consumers. "The success of most global brands is to appear local." Advertising often isn't the solution for brands that are losing popularity, he said.
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