Abstract
This chapter examines current branding trends in significant Asian markets, namely Japan, South Korea, and India, with a special focus on one emerging branding nation, China. No generalizations towards the whole of Asia can be drawn from this research. However, research identified some aspects in the field of branding that have occurred in different Asian markets at different times. For example, the development of branding as a management strategy followed benefit-driven product management in both Japan and South Korea some decades ago. This development can now be witnessed in selected industries in China. Whether or not other Asian nations show similar developments (e.g. Indonesia) would be a topic for further investigation. Nevertheless, the following four Asian branding trends serve as the main outcomes of this research: extending the corporate brand into new fields of business, extending the corporate brand into diverse product categories, acquisition of Western brands by Asian investors and top-management support in brand building.
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Notes
- 1.
“Lenovo”, a leading maker of personal computers is the only world-known Chinese brand in Interbrand’s top-50 Chinese brand ranking.
- 2.
The MG Rover company was purchased by the Chinese Nanjing Automobile company who turned the Rover brand into “Roewe“. The “Rover” brand name is now owned by India’s Tata Motors.
- 3.
See also the company case study on Huawei in this book.
- 4.
South Korean automobile brands such as Hyundai and Kia, for example, first started out as good quality cars priced at the lower end and have now moved upscale into low- to mid-premium car brands.
- 5.
Mentioned to the author of this article in a personal interview with Dr. Alison Lloyd on March, 20th, 2014.
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Bakker, D. (2016). Branding Trends in Asian Markets. In: Segers, R. (eds) Multinational Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23012-2_17
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