Chinese mainland brands retain most representation in Asia ranking

Brands from the Chinese mainland continued to have the most representation in the latest global ranking from research group World Brand Lab, according to a release from the end of last month.

According to the Asia's 500 Most Influential Brands of 2021 list, China, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, has 212 brands, accounting for 42.4 percent of the top 500 positions, and it was crowned as No 1. Meanwhile, the Chinese mainland has 166 brands, maintaining its position at the top as well.

Japan has 134 brands selected this year, accounting for 26.8 percent of the top 500 positions, ranking second. South Korea comes in at third, with 50 brands selected.

The list is based on the brand's Asian influence, which refers to the brand's ability to explore and occupy the market and make profits. The basic indicators used by the World Brand Lab to evaluate the influence of Asian brands include market share, brand loyalty and global leadership.

The Asia's 500 Most Influential Brands list has been issued annually since 2006. Brands from 19 countries and regions were selected in the list this year.

From 2016 – 2021, the number of listed brands from the Chinese mainland has increased from 139 to 166, and its portion has risen to 33.2 percent this year compared with 27.8 percent in 2016, about 5 percentage points up in total during the past five years.

Yu Mingxuan, associate professor of the Renmin Business School, told China Intellectual Property News that more and more Chinese brands appeared in the list, which shows their influence in Asia is growing and getting more market recognition.

At the same time, brand loyalty in China has seen a consistent lift to 61 percent in 2021.

Toyota, State Grid and ICBC are listed as the top three brands. Haier, Tencent, Samsung, Sony, Honda, China Life and Huawei are also listed in the top 10.

Haisen Ding, founder of the World Executive Group and CEO of the World Brand Lab, said although Asian brands such as Toyota, Samsung and Sony have long-term global influence, when compared to American super brands, there is still room for improvement in Asian brand leadership.

From the perspective of consumer psychology, to improve the global influence of Asian brands, it is crucial to have deep customer insight, which would allow brands to better understand what consumers think and build a better, more effective branding campaign, said Ziv Carmon, a professor at INSEAD.

Carmon noted there are two ideas related to effective branding: First, good, effective branding will deliver emotional benefits additional to rational and functional ones to customers; second, using effective branding will improve market share, customer loyalty and willingness to pay, and more importantly, it will improve customer experience and help the brand to gain higher influence.

Elie Ofek, a professor in the Department of Marketing at Harvard Business School, said a brand creates a bond between a company's products and consumers, thus influencing the consumers' perception of the company, their connection to the company and the resonance.

The brand plays a pivotal role in the overall customer journey, and such a role is crucial for Asian brands to go global. To increase global influence, Asian brands need to dig deeper into the market and identify potential market gaps to position the brands properly. The brands also need to be built as different, relevant and credible to make global impressions, he added.

Yu believed that brand value is closely related to the brand's improvement in global leadership, and said to China Intellectual Property News that building up brand value could help expand the brand's influence, and more consumers will recognize Chinese brands and Asian brands, then the companies' leadership will be further established.