Giana Eckhardt, who led the Australian Graduate School of Management study in collaboration with McKinsey Consulting (Seoul), said: "We found that China was being considered more often than Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, demonstrating that it has already leapfrogged more economically-advanced countries. This was quite surprising and shows that China has really started to put emphasis on its brands as demonstrated by Haier and Lenovo. Consumers clearly feel they can trust these brands."
The study, which will be released at the end of this month, also found that consumers in the region considered buying products from their home country more often than from other markets.
Products made-in-China were considered on average 54 per cent of the time by respondents, followed by products from Korea 32 per cent, Hong Kong 29 per cent, and Singapore and Malaysia 22 per cent. At the bottom-end of the scale were brands with labels from Thailand at 15 per cent, Indonesia at 11 per cent, and India at eight per cent. "Japan and Korea as countries of origin are considered more often for TV, cars and mobile phones, while Singapore and Malaysia for services such as air travel and banking," added Echkardt.
"Vietnam and Indonesia do better with products such as soft drinks, jeans, athletic shoes and noodles. It is clear that it pays off to develop reputations in particular product categories to increase acceptance throughout the region.
