Coca-Cola holds top position as the world's highest-ranked brand name, followed by Microsoft and IBM. Rounding out the top 10 are General Electric, Intel, Nokia, Disney, McDonald's, Marlboro and Mercedes.
We all know these brand names and they have tremendous value, the name itself contributing a large proportion of the company's value as reflected in the share price.
But branding isn't just about products. It's about image and countries also have their own brand attributes. We all associate quality with countries like Japan and Germany. We watch countries like South Korea move from the bottom of the quality scale to a point where some of their products are now widely accepted as high quality. The rapid rise of Samsung cameras and phones is a case that immediately springs to mind.
When we look at Taiwan, we can see a similar movement, from 25 years ago when the country was associated with shoddy products like cheap umbrellas and dangerous toys to where it is today, universally recognized as a manufacturer of quality goods, from cellphones to computers.
But this position needs to be continually reinforced and protected. There are many instances where companies have come close to losing their brand value for many reasons, a classic example being that of Nike, which was exposed in 2001 for abuse of child labor in Pakistan and Cambodia. The furor in the press and on the Internet resulted in the closure of the factories and scarred Nike's brand name worldwide.
In a similar fashion, countries need to continually reinforce and protect their brand name.
In an isolated country like Taiwan, the brand name is even more important than elsewhere. With little international support in it's stance against China, Taiwan needs all the help it can get and the main hope to obtain that help in the future is to advance the fledgling democracy to a point where it is recognized as a beacon for others to follow, a shining light that can be held up as an example well worth protecting against any threat from other less enlightened regimes. It has to be a priority for any president and any political party whose main duty surely is to protect the country's people from harm.
A large factor in the process of being accepted as a truly democratic country is represented by one sentence in the US Constitution: "No state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Until such time as the Taiwanese government can embrace this simple but vital philosophy we should fear for the future of this nation.
But if the nation's future is not that important, then by all means carry forward plans to exclude guest workers from the protection of the minimum wage, continue to allow instant deportations without redress to the law, and permit the use of an labor agent system that only has one thought in mind -- exploitation.
Tony Goodwin
Banciao
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