Taiwanese businesses have begun to develop successful brands in China by taking advantage of its large scale of economy before leveraging their business savvy back in this country, several business leaders said yesterday in Taipei.
One such successful example is the popular instant-noodle brand Master Kang (康師傅) developed by Taiwanese-owned Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp (頂益控股) for the China market.
"As a successful mainland brand, Master Kang has greatly stimulated the local instant-noodle market in Taiwan with 20 percent growth in the first quarter," Titan Wang (王德林), managing director of ACNeilson Taiwan Limited, said yesterday at a seminar to discuss the commercial tug of war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Wang said that Chinese brands entering Taiwan's market usually fair well since they are inexpensive but of fair quality.
Stressing the importance of Chinese markets, Soong Chih-min (宋致銘), chairman of Ogilvy & Mather China, said that China's market of 1.3 billion potential consumers is essential to developing any brands in the region.
"Taiwan's market will eventually be part of China's markets," he said, "and it'll be difficult to develop brands in Taiwan since its scale of economy is so small."
Chang Li-cheng (張蒞政), vice president of Chinese portal Sina.com's (新浪網) marketing and sales department expressed a similar view. Chang said that branding in both countries can also be complimentary, instead of being competitive.
"Our branding strategy is that we [Sina.com] are made both in Taiwan and China," Chang said.
"We need to rely on Chinese markets for continuous business growth, but we are ambitious to come back to take over the market in Taiwan," he added.
Chang said that the nation's strategic advantages still lie in its research and development, international business management and its pool of highly educated talent.
With a goal of US$100 million in revenue in China this year, Chang said that Sina has tendered bids for a seven-language Web site project for the 2008 Olympic games, part of its goal of becoming the world's second largest Internet service company.
While many businesses in Tai-wan are working to build national brands, Alfred Chen (陳飛龍), chairman of Namchow Chemical Industrial Co (南僑集團), said he had had difficulties in this area.
"With a lack of resources, I am a deserter and shy away from developing brands," Chen said.
While expanding into Chinese markets, Chen said that his company has been unable to compete with the resources of multinational companies and so it has focused instead on niche markets by offering customer-oriented services.
"The value-added business model may not help the company to grow, but it will help turn a profit to survive," he said.
Both Chen and Soong voiced concern that, after being successful in China, many businesses may not come back to Taiwan.
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