Samsung Corp., Procter & Gamble Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. are gaining popularity in China, while Sega Corp., Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Daewoo Corp. are losing ground, according to a survey by advertising company Euro RSCG.
Brands such as Google Inc. and Sony Corp., which Euro RSCG says are popular in Western markets, are also winning favor in China, demonstrating that consumers there are as savvy as those in the United States and Europe, Euro RSCG’s U.K. Chairman Ben Langdon said.
In contrast, Sega and Nintendo are performing as poorly in China as in the rest of the world, he said. “Marketers can’t assume that just because China is a newer consumer market, its consumers will buy whatever you try to sell them,” Langdon said in an interview. “If you have got a bad product, Chinese people won’t buy it.”
China, which is hosting the Olympics in 2008, is the fastest growing of the world’s 20 largest economies, expanding by 9.6 percent in the second quarter.
Retail sales in China, home to 1.3 billion people, rose 13.2 percent last month to 421 billion yuan ($51 billion).
The survey by Euro RSCG, which is owned by Suresnes, France-based Havas S.A., asked about 2,000 Internet users in China whether brands had “gained ground” or “lost ground” in popularity in the past few years.
The rankings were determined by subtracting the percentage of respondents saying a brand had lost ground from those saying it had gained. Korean electronics company Samsung gained the most popularity in the survey. That company was followed by Chinese electrical-appliance maker Haier, which is owned by Qingdao Haier Co. Ltd., and China Mobile.
Sony, Google, and toothpaste brand Crest, owned by Procter & Gamble, and rival Colgate-Palmolive’s Colgate, were also among the top 10 brands.
From Joongangdaily
