Taiwanese brands
Somebody asked me the other day what I thought the best-known Taiwanese brands were.
That's quite a difficult question: Although many consumers in Europe and America have heard of such brands as Acer, Benq, Trend Micro, Giant, Asus etc., they may not know their country of origin. The companies that own these brands often prefer not to communicate the country of origin for fear of undermining the brand's image. In other words, they are being a bit cautious about shouting about their Taiwanese origins.
Trend Micro is one such company. I heard a report on CNN recently where the presenter commented that they were a Japanese company. I'm sure that Trend Micro isn't complaining about this slip!
One Taiwanese-owned brand that I think has great potential is ASUS, a so-called 3C brand. The name sounds good; the products are manufactured by the same company that makes/designs products for other world-class companies (Dell, Microsoft, Sony); but most of all, just look at the products' design.
You can see some photos here.
The only thing about this brand is that they seem to be a bit schizophrenic about the color in their logos and other marketing material: sometimes blue, sometimes black/grey. I think the black/grey is the way to go!
PS. Think that country-of-origin effects don't matter? Try this test: You see these two products on the shelf, which one do you grab?
1. Sparkling mineral water (from Ukraine)
2. Sparkling mineral water (from Switzerland)
innovation, innovation management, China, Taiwan
That's quite a difficult question: Although many consumers in Europe and America have heard of such brands as Acer, Benq, Trend Micro, Giant, Asus etc., they may not know their country of origin. The companies that own these brands often prefer not to communicate the country of origin for fear of undermining the brand's image. In other words, they are being a bit cautious about shouting about their Taiwanese origins.
Trend Micro is one such company. I heard a report on CNN recently where the presenter commented that they were a Japanese company. I'm sure that Trend Micro isn't complaining about this slip!
One Taiwanese-owned brand that I think has great potential is ASUS, a so-called 3C brand. The name sounds good; the products are manufactured by the same company that makes/designs products for other world-class companies (Dell, Microsoft, Sony); but most of all, just look at the products' design.
You can see some photos here.
The only thing about this brand is that they seem to be a bit schizophrenic about the color in their logos and other marketing material: sometimes blue, sometimes black/grey. I think the black/grey is the way to go!
PS. Think that country-of-origin effects don't matter? Try this test: You see these two products on the shelf, which one do you grab?
1. Sparkling mineral water (from Ukraine)
2. Sparkling mineral water (from Switzerland)
innovation, innovation management, China, Taiwan
Labels: innovation, taiwan
posted by Gordon Graham at 10:49 PM
5 Comments:
Clyde Warden Said:
Gordon, although you infer people want Taiwan brands to be linked with a country, this is simply nationalism and meaningless to brands. Brands have long sought to avoid the country of origin effect as it can be unpredictable and, at times, a big negative if something were to happen politically, i.e., America and France, China and Japan (recent examples).
What I find most interesting about the local insecurity on this issue is that Taiwan has long been a major leader in a number of brands (not to mention leadership in most of the cutting edge OEM developments), yet local consumers are always feeling Taiwan brands are unknown. This is more a reflection of the political insecurity than of the products. There are very few people here yelling buy MIT products, and thus the whole awareness of the issue is very low. When someone wonders about "Taiwan" brands, what they are really wanting to know is, Does anyone know Taiwan exists?
Hi Clyde!
I think country-of-origin effects play a positive role for the likes of Asus and Hon-Hai in terms of designing/making stuff for other firms. After all, people "in the know" have a pretty good idea what Taiwanese firms can and cannot do. But, I really don't think that the likes of Asus can continue with their strategy of keeping the "Made in Taiwan" element of their brands low key. I can't think of any product category where country-of-origin effects don't [eventually] impact a brand's image.
These firms are trying to create an identity that is detached from Taiwan, which is unsustainable IMHO.
Clyde Said:
The whole COO issue is not what it was years ago. Lenovo is a good example, with the made in China image clearer than ever, yet sales of the newest X series computer have taken off. Everyone knows that all the notebooks are manufactured in China, so the COO means little. The complications of 'manufactured in,' 'assembled in,' and 'supplier locations' make it all hard to judge. The places where COO effects are still strong are in SouthEast Asian countries, where MIT products have a very strong halo effect, yet Taiwan marketing departments are often not targeting these markets with strong brand image and COO messages (maybe for good reason).
My main point is that it is social and political situations that complicate this "unsustainable" situation. It is hard to take advantage of a COO effect without the C, and Taiwan does have a serious C problem.
Personally, as a sales guy, I now want my product to be made in China if only to prevent my buyer from assuming he could get a 10% - 30% better price from China. I think I could sell at a slight premium from China and they would not mind, but it's now in their heads that if its made in Taiwan, it must be overpriced (labor wise) and could be sourced more cheaply from China. I think they are right.
Hi Red!
Why are many of the buyers still coming to Taiwan to get their Numark CD players, Apple gear, PDAs etc.? Are these buyers choosing Taiwanese firms over Chinese firms?
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