Asia's Biggest Brands

Synovate has released results from the first annual Top 1,000 Brands of Asia survey, conducted for Asian Integrated Media, the organisers of the Superbrands awards and publications.

Japanese brands dominate the top ten with Sony on top (as it is in Europe), although Nokia is second and Kodak third. The next ten bring in more of an international / US flavour with BMW and Mercedes, Marlborough, Shell, Yahoo! and McDonalds.

The survey covered nine major product and service categories: alcohol, financial services, automotive, consumer electronics, luxury goods, services, personal quality goods, other personal products and consumer goods. It did not cover certain sectors whose brands may well have featured - for example parts of the travel industry.

Eight countries were covered in this first round of the survey - China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. Around 500 people aged 15-64 were interviewed in each, except for China where c.750 were interviewed across three cities. A further 500 'booster interviews' per market were conducted amongst 25-64 year old adults with household or personal incomes of double the average for their city of residence (except in Indonesia and the Philippines). The results were weighted to the population in each market, providing a representative cross-section of society.

Steve Garton, Media Director of Synovate, said the company was 'delighted to have worked with Asian Integrated Media on such a large-scale and revealing study. Together, we have provided a solid and credible public opinion poll on Asia's best brands - something that is certainly a first on this magnitude.

Peter Jeffery, Executive Director of Asian Integrated Media, says the companies plan to repeat the survey annually, 'effectively making it a brand health monitor for both local brands and global brands in Asia'.

The brands with the highest number of votes (expressed as a percentage) are listed in descending order, with the most popular brand ranked 1 and so on. The 'best' brand was defined in questioning as 'the brand that you trust the most or the one that has the best reputation in [this category].'

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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