Local brand names' visibility on the international stage has significantly increased since several Taiwan-based companies launched intensive branding campaigns last year, and this has paid off in the firms' value, analysts said yesterday.
"We estimated that the value of the nation's top 10 brands has jumped by over 10 percent from a year ago, showing that the public awareness of brands has risen among local companies," said Chao Yung-chuan (趙永全), secretary general of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).
Chao made the remark at a press conference to unveil the nation's top 20 global brands. The valuation is jointly conducted by TAITRA, the Chinese-language biweekly Business Next and the brand consultancy Interbrand Corp.
Veterans of the list that entered the roll again include computer makers Acer, ASUS and BenQ, bicycle manufacturer Giant, online security software company TrendMicro and food and beverage manufacturers Uni-President and Master Kong.
Internet equipment maker D-Link, motherboard and peripheral maker Gigabyte, the nation's No.2 air carrier EVA Airways and office appliance retailer Aurora made their debuts on the top 20 list this year.
Computer and component manufacturers ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems) and AOpen, optical storage equipment maker Lite-On, as well as the nation's largest electronic retail chain, Tsann Kuen, left the list.
Information technology is still the nation's most competitive industry, as IT companies constitute 12 of the quota, said Andrew Lin (林義凱), managing editor of Business Next which co-sponsors the project. Some of these companies, along with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Compal Electronics (仁寶), also were listed in Business Week's top Info Tech 100 list published in July, showing Taiwan's IT development, Lin said.
"Taiwanese companies are waking up to branding ? there has been a considerable increase in the understanding that branding and brand management are vital drivers of corporate value," Lin said, citing Jan Lindemann, Interbrand's global managing director for brand valuation.
However, these brands still have a ways to go to compete with industry giants. Business Next conducted an online survey on its subsidiary PChome Online, an Internet portal, on consumers' preferred brands from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5.
The results showed that Nokia is the first handset brand that will pop into consumers' minds when making purchasing decisions, followed by Sony Ericsson and Motorola. The most popular notebook computer brands are IBM, ASUS and Acer, while the favorite digital camera brands are Sony, Nikon and Canon.
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