TAITRA on Taiwan and Branding

Ok, so maybe its a little bit of "blowing our own horn" propoganda, but hey, somebody has to do it right? In a press release TAITRA speaks about their efforts to brand Taiwan products:

Taiwan’s information and communications technology (ICT) companies play a key role in the global supply chain for electronics products. Taiwanese companies account for about three-quarters of the world’s production of PCs and half of the world’s liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). In addition, Taiwan makes about a quarter of the world’s semiconductors and about a fifth of the world’s mobile phones.

Taiwan has a population of 23 million and a land area of only 36,260 square kilometers, less than half of a percent of the 9.6 million square kilometers of land in China. Yet the well-educated, industrious people of Taiwan have helped to carve out a huge niche in the global ICT industry.

The press release continues:

To promote the Taiwan’s industry, the government has made the development of branding the key task for raising the competitiveness of Taiwan’s economy. There are two ultimate goals of the Branding Taiwan programme. The first is integrating resources to assist the establishment of brands and create a favourable environment for development. The second is to aid Taiwan enterprises in brand development and increase the value of Taiwan’s international brands.

Actually, it may be a little bit of self promotion but what TAITRA is doing is great. Previously on this blog we have bemoaned the lack of ability in branding in Taiwan and TAITRA have seen the weakness and have stepped in to help. If they can acquire and pass on the relevant expertise and transmit effective and meaningful branding capabilities to more and more tech companies, the sky will be their limit.

You may scoff and scorn at this suggestion but this is a very typical Taiwanese method: importing expertise and knowledge. It should be recalled that one of the fathers of the tech industry here (K.T. Li) developed an advisory council that comprised soley of foreigners including the then head of Texas Instruments. The sole purpose was to understand how to import/transfer technologies to Taiwan.

If TAITRA can successfully import and transfer the neccessary branding skills and knowledge to companies here, Taiwan will become an even more potent force in the global technology landscape.

All I can say is go Taiwan (now that sounds a bit biased doesn't it?)

Taiwan Top Brands 2008

China Economic News (CENS) reports the Taiwan External Trade Development Council has release a list of the top 20 brands in 2008. CENS writes:

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) will officially unveil Taiwan’s top-20 international brands Sept. 30, which bear an estimated production value of US$9.141 billion, breaking the US$9 billion level the first time; and of which US$7.537 billion is generated by the top-10 brands.

The top 20 brands listed alphabetically are:

• Acer
• Advantech
• Asus
• Biostar
• Danze
• D-Link
• Depo
• Genius
• Giant
• HTC
• Johnson
• Leadtek
• MasterKong
• Maxxis
• Merida
• MSI
• Synnex
• Transcend
• TrendMicro
• Uni-President
• Zyxel

According to CENS:

TAITRA reportedly cooperates with Interbrand, a U.K.-based branding consultant, to organize the yearly event, which has been gaining increasing attention in recent years, hence drawing increasingly more Taiwan manufacturers to vie for the coveted title.

Yes, as we have discussed before, branding for Taiwan is becoming and imperative but so few companies do it well. Some heads of the giant companies in Taiwan agree. According to the Taipei Times:

The future of business in Taiwan lies in branding, no matter how difficult it is to achieve, Acer Inc (宏碁) founder Stan Shih (施振榮) said at a business seminar in Taipei on Saturday.

“The days of doing OEM [original equipment manufacturing] and ODM [original design manufacturing] are numbered,” Shih said. “Perhaps these businesses will thrive for another five to 10 years, I don’t know. But going forward, in order to elevate Taiwan to the global business scene with added value, we have to invest in branding right now. This is our social responsibility.”

Stan Shih received support from HTC head Peter Chou.

High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電) president Peter Chou (周永明) was the other guest of honor at the seminar on Saturday. Echoing Shih’s stance on the future of Taiwan, he said: “Manufacturing is no longer a value Taiwan businesses can provide. Vietnam, China and other emerging countries are quickly catching up.”

Branding in Taiwan is very important but so few companies know how to do it well. Many companies think sticking a name on a product is equivalent to branding the product and see that as the end of the game. Taiwanese tech companies need to learn that branding is an essential part of their future and learn how to do it properly.

CENS: Top-20 Global Brands in Taiwan Worth More Than US$9 B.
Taipei Times: Acer head stresses branding at Taipei business seminar

Why build a brand?

Taiwan has started to focus on brands. This blog has always supported the branding efforts of Taiwanese tech firms and would encourage them to do it properly. So why brand? Found a great article on the Interbrand website about branding where IE Singapore deputy chief executive officer Ted Tan explains why branding is important in a 2004 Today article. The article may be old but the ideas remain relevant.

What is Branding

The legal definition of a brand is a "trademark or distinctive name identifying a product or manufacturer". However, in today's fast-paced and rapidly-changing marketplace, a brand is simply a promise. When consumers look at a brand, they see a promise of performance.

"Branding is about perception," said Mr. Tan.

"In branding, perception is reality. A successful branding programmes is one that is able to create a certain perception about the brand in the consumers' minds.

"For example, most people perceive Volvo as the safest car in the world, and if they want to buy a safe car, the first brand that comes to mind is Volvo. Therefore, Volvo's branding programme s a success because it has made the brand stand for something in the consumers' minds."

Over time branding can add value to enterprises by building strong emotional links with customers and this, in turn, results in higher levels of loyalty.

Why should companies build a brand

According to IE Singapore, evidence indicaes that strong branding leads to increased profitability, brand loyalty, market share and higher stock prices.

The article continues:

All companies can go on the brand-building route

A common misconception about brand-building is that only large companies with abundant resources can afford to build brands.

However, branding is something that all companies can undertake right from the start. The reason is very simple.

Effective branding is the reason why companies become successful brands.

Branding can benefit companies tremendously. Lets hope Taiwan firms can get involved and start branding more effectively.

Today: Branding for Success [Link opens PDF file]

Taiwan Brands - A Phenomenon in Far Formosa

This little island we call home is 390 km long and 140 km wide, is home to approximately 23 million people, continues to be treated as pariah state in world politics and lacks natural resources. Yet, this little Island and its industrious people have managed, somehow, to continuously produce some of the worlds best companies and some top brands.

Last year Business Week listed 14 Taiwanese companies in their Info Tech 100, their ranking of the top tech performers globally. These companies are listed (with their rank) below:

4 Hon Hai Precision Industries.
28 Wistron
29 ASUSTEK Computer
42 Nanya Technology
43 High Tech Computer
53 Siliconware Precision Industries
59 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.
63 Compal Electronic
67 Powerchip Semiconductor
77 Inventec
85 Quanta Computers
92 ACER
96 Advanced Semiconductor Engineering
99 D-Link

To keep Taiwan competitive internationally, The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has held an annual Taiwan Excellence award over the last five years. Last year ASUS won the award for the first time however Taiwan Branding reported that in 2007 Taiwan had four companies with brand values over US$1 billion. These included ASUSTEK, ACER, HIGH TECH COMPUTER and Trend Micro. Taiwan Branding continued:

"The 20 Taiwan International Brands now has a total value of US $ 8.444 billion, a growth of 33% compare to 2006. This statistic survey not only shows that Taiwan has the top quality in the process and manufacture of the world supply chain, but also recognizes the extraordinary potential of brand values and proves the accomplishment of the project 'Branding Taiwan'."

Interbrand in their 2007 survey of Taiwan's brands said:

"This growth follows a strong year of general growth in Taiwanese companies, reflecting improved financial performance overall."

Interbrand continued saying:

"A key reason for this strong performance is the success of Taiwanese companies in China, the fastest growing country in the world."

Advantech, one of the top Industrial PC companies in the world, was ranked 13th on the list with a brand value of US$234 million or NTD7,785 million.

Yes, Taiwanese companies continue to amaze and may they continue to do so for a long time to come.

Atom Chips from Intel

Intel will launch a new chip family branded as Atom. The chips will be used on Mobile Internet Devices (MID) and low end laptop computers. The chip has two variants, one originally branded as Silverthorne and the other branded as Diamondville. According to Intel:

"The Intel Atom processor is based on an entirely new microarchitecture designed specifically for small devices and low power, while maintaining the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo instruction set compatibility consumers are accustomed to when using a standard PC and the Internet. The design also includes support for multiple threads for better performance and increased system responsiveness. All of this on a chip that measures less than 25 mm², making it Intel's smallest and lowest power processor yet.1 Up to 11 Intel Atom processor die -- the tiny slivers of silicon packed with 47 million transistors each -- would fit in an area the size of an American penny."

(Original Press Release: Intel Announces Intel® Atom™ Brand for New Family of Low-Power Processors.)

The Wall Street Journal has a great article on Intel branding strategies (Intel Plans for Ultra-Small Chips). According to the article:

"Intel's branding moves attract unusual attention, partly because they typically come along with lucrative marketing funds for hardware companies that agree to use its logos and meet other requirements. The concept started with the chip maker's Intel Inside campaign, a fixture of advertising and marketing materials since the early 1990s."