Taiwanese companies have significantly increased the value of their brands from last year, and TrendMicro, Asustek and Acer remained the nation's top three brands for the third consecutive year, according to a report released yesterday.
The report was conducted by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, the Chinese-language biweekly Business Next and the brand consultancy Interbrand Corp based on companies' brand name management, profitability and other factors.
The report said that the value of the top 10 Taiwanese brands reached US$4.6 billion, up 11 percent from last year. The list shows that information technology (IT) is still the nation's most competitive industry, with IT companies securing eight of the top 10 spots.
Climbing higher
BenQ Corp, which ranked No. 6 last year, jumped to No. 4, followed by food and beverage manufacturer Master Kong, tire maker MAXXIS, bicycle producer Giant, information technology product supplier SYNNEX and network equipment makers ZYXEL and D-Link.
TrendMicro's brand value jumped by 14 percent to US$1.077 billion this year, making it eligible for Business Week's list of the world's top 100 brands.
"This is a milestone for us, and we look forward to entering the world's top 100 brand list in the near future," Steve Chang (
The brand value of BenQ shot up by 27 percent, the highest growth this year, to US$354 million, pushed by its acquisition of the handset division of German electronics giant Siemens.
"Whether BenQ will be able to stay in that position depends on if the company can deliver the expectation of the industry, as well as its capability to resolve labor and culture disputes," said Stuart Green, managing director of Interbrand's Asia-Pacific region. "It is a real challenge."
The hardest part in making the shift from being a contract manufacturer for other firms to being a brand name operator is a change of mindset, Green said. Over the past few years, local companies have shown great improvement in brand name marketing and investment, especially after they encountered setbacks due to stiff price competition from Chinese counterparts, he said.
Little change
Overall, the top 10 brand names for this year did not change much, with only a reshuffle in the ranking. The exception is the leading IT product distributor SYNNEX, which fell off the list to 11th place last year but made a strong comeback this year after reporting a steady financial performance.
To help local companies enhance their brands' competitiveness, the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs organized a series of events this month. Activities will began today at the Taipei International Convention Center. An exhibition of Taiwan's top 20 global brands will be held in the World Trade Center through tomorrow.
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