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8 Jul, 2013

Samsung Heads Asia’s Top 1000 Brands for Second Year

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HONG KONG, July 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Samsung has claimed the number one spot in the Campaign Asia-Pacific 2013 Asia’s Top 1000 Brandsreport, the biggest and most influential survey of the brands that consumers most value in the region.

It marks the second consecutive year that Samsung has clinched the coveted top spot, signalling that the Korean brand has cemented its appeal among Asian consumers.Celebrating 10 years of the region's definitive brand study.  (PRNewsFoto/Haymarket Media Asia) Other brands to appear in the top five are Apple, Sony, Nestle, and Panasonic, respectively.

In its tenth year running, the 2013 report is based on a survey conducted by Campaign Asia-Pacific and global information and insights provider Nielsen. It  targets consumers in 12 key regional markets across Asia-Pacific: Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The survey revealed that Samsung has gained ground across the region over the past 12 months. It claimed top spot in eight of the 12 markets: Singapore, mainland China, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Last year Samsung was the top brand in five markets (South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia).

Apple is the top brand in two markets – Japan and Australia. Sony also takes the number one spot in two markets – Vietnam and Taiwan.

For the past 10 years that Campaign Asia-Pacific has run the survey, Samsung has successfully manoeuvred to gain traction across the region. In 2004, Samsung ranked 17th in the survey. It has since steadily climbed through the rankings, and last year overtook Sony to claim the top spot for the first time.

Brand trends in 2013

As one of the region’s most anticipated and bespoke top of mind brand study, 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.

Aside from identifying the top brands, the study also features experts’ analysis, which helped identify key trends that are affecting brands in the region, and in individual markets.

Consumer electronic brands continue to dominate across the region, taking the top three spots in six markets. Notable exceptions were seen in Australia, which included Nestle in third place; mainland China, which placed Nestle third; India had Nestle third; Taiwan placed Chanel second; Indonesia had Nestle second; and Vietnam placed Nestle second.

Luxury brands, which have held sway over Asian consumers in recent years, did not enjoy the same level of positive movement as last year’s survey. The rankings of Chanel, Gucci and Prada remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, Dolce & Gabbana dropped 102 places, Armani moved down nine places, Hermes seven places, and Louis Vuitton six places. Notable movers up include Versace (moving up 30 spots), Ralph Lauren (moving up 15 spots), Bvlgari (moving up nine spots), Christian Dior (moving up five spots) and Burberry (moving up one spot).

Domestic brands are gaining prominence across the region, although there is still a long way to climb to rival their global counterparts. Nine of the top ten climbers this year were homegrown brands: 17 Tea (up 224 spots), Aeon (up 179 spots), Mizuno (up 167 spots), The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (up 164 spots), Saizeriya (up 163 spots), Sapporo (up 157 spots), Gusto (up 150 spots) Doutor (up 136 spots), Kuroneko Yamato (up 129 spots).

Methodology

The Asia’s Top 1000 Brands study is based on a survey conducted by Campaign Asia-Pacific and global information and insights provider Nielsen. The survey was conducted online in 12 markets: Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. A total of 400 respondents were surveyed in each market, bar India and mainland China where 800 and 1,200 respondents were surveyed respectively. Quotas were based on age, gender and monthly household income to be representative of the population. Brands are ranked according to the responses to the two questions:

Question 1: “When you think of the following category, which is the best brand that comes to your mind? By best, we mean the one that you trust the most or the one that has the best reputation in this category.”

Question 2: “Apart from the best brand that you entered, which brand do you consider to be the second best brand in the category?”

Nielsen covered 14 major categories (alcohol, financial services, automotive, retail, restaurants, food, beverage, consumer electronics, computer hardware, computer software, courier services, media and telecommunications, travel and leisure, and household and personal care) and 73 sub-categories.

About Campaign Asia-Pacific

Campaign Asia-Pacific is a brand dedicated to the business of communications in Asia-Pacific. Published by Haymarket Media Group, the UK’s independently owned publishing group, it is part of a global marcoms portfolio that includes market-leading titles Campaign, Marketing and PRWeek.