Japanese messaging app operator Line Corp has replaced Apple Inc as the company with the second-highest brand power in Taiwan, while Google Inc remained in first place, a survey conducted by Taiwanese research company Eastern Online Co (東方線上集團) and Japanese consulting firm Nikkei BP Consulting Inc showed.
The “Brand Asia 2016” ranking, released yesterday, showed that Google remained in first place with a total brand power score of 83.1, followed by Line with 73.8, YouTube with 73.5, Apple with 68.1 and 7-Eleven with 67.9.
In sixth to 10th places were Sony Corp, 3M Co, Adidas AG, Facebook Inc and Taiwanese food chain operator I-Mei Foods Co (義美食品), which graded 62.6, the same score as Nike Inc.
For the first time, this year’s survey included 46 brands that Taiwanese consumers are more familiar with.
The survey investigated 126 brands from 11 sectors around the world in terms of four indices — friendliness, convenience, market prominence and innovation.
“In the original survey, only two Taiwanese brands — PC vendors Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Acer Inc (宏碁) — were included in the top 80 global brands,” Eastern Online chief executive officer Paul Tsai (蔡鴻賢) said.
“We recommended 46 local brands based on our marketing database. Compared with their international counterparts, consumers in Taiwan place more emphasis on the quality of a product or service based on the level of functionality, convenience, as well as their innovativeness and whether they are eye-catching or not,” Tsai said.
As a result, technology brands and products that have permeated our daily lives, such as Google, Line, YouTube and Facebook, accounted for four places in the top-10 list, he said.
Channel brands that have regular contact with the public, such as 7-Eleven, IKEA (12th), Costco Wholesale Corp (14th), FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店, 17th), Eslite Corp (誠品, 22nd) and Pxmart (全聯福利中心, 29th) were all in the top 30.
Taiwanese consumers also take environmental issues and food safety seriously, Tsai said, adding that I-Mei Foods Co has survived food safety issues and earned the public’s trust.
The survey was conducted among people in 12 nations — Taiwan, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Turkey.
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