Among China consumers, Apple is the number one brand in the country, according to the Campaign Asia-Pacific 2012 Asia’s Top 1000 Brands report. Campaign Asia-Pacific provides insights and intelligence into ideas, work and the personalities shaping the region’s marketing communications industry.
In its 9th year running, the report is based on a survey conducted by Campaign Asia-Pacific and the global information and insights provider, Nielsen, targeting consumers in 12 key regional markets across Asia Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The survey covered 14 major products and services categories across a total of 73 sub-categories. The ranking of the brands were ascertained based on responses to questions that asked the respondent to name the best brand that comes to their mind in a category. The results are then weighted to reflect the age, gender and monthly household income representative of the general population.
In the China country survey, the top ten brands to make it to the list are Apple, Nestle, Chanel, Sony, Samsung, Uni-president, Panasonic, Nike, Canon and Starbucks respectively, with notable new entries including the luxury retail brand Chanel.
“Its meteoric rise to land within the top 3 in the China rankings is a stark reminder of the exponential growth in wealth, and increase in disposable income amongst the mainland Chinese,” says Jolene Otremba, Reports Editor, Campaign Asia-Pacific.
Other luxury brands to show a rise are Gucci (17), Armani (24), and Louis Vuitton (38).
Another trend to surface in the China country ranking is the weaker standing of homegrown brands. While last year’s survey showed eight out of the top 20 brands being domestic brands, this year’s results show only three local brands within the top 20 — Tong Ren Tang (11), MasterKong (14), and Haier (15). Brands such as Baidu and Mengniu, which appeared in the top 10 last year, rank 37 and 89 respectively this year.
“The fact that there are no home-grown Chinese brands in the Top 100 of the Asia-Pacific Brands list reiterates the challenges Chinese brands are facing to gain consumer recognition beyond their home markets,” Otremba said.
Despite its strong standing in the China survey, Apple came up short against fellow consumer electronic brand Samsung in the consolidated survey rankings across Asia Pacific. Samsung claimed the coveted top spot and Apple came in second. Both brands managed to relegate last year’s top brand, Sony, to number three, while Nestle and Panasonic round up the top five.
GOLD MONEY TALK 