Nokia and Visa reach platinum brand rank

<p>HONG KONG: Nokia and Visa have made their debut as Platinum </p><p>SuperBrands, one of 12 companies to achieve "brand domination in their </p><p>category" in Reader's Digest's third SuperBrands 2001 poll. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But Sony still retained its hold as the leading brand in Asia, with </p><p>platinum wins in four key consumer electronics categories - television, </p><p>CD/MD player, DVD player and video camera. Although Sony takes home two </p><p>fewer platinum trophies this year, this is partly due to a cutback in </p><p>categories, from 41 last year to 38 this year. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The magazine eliminated video recorders, which Sony dominated last year, </p><p>along with APS camera, cooker and vodka. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>It added a credit card category for the first time, with the platinum </p><p>award going to Visa, which beat gold award winner American Express for </p><p>the top prize. Similarly, Nokia pipped gold award winners Ericsson and </p><p>Motorola. The other platinum winners are Shell (gas station), Coca-Cola </p><p>(soft drink), Lipton (tea), Nescafe (coffee) and Nestle (milk). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Reader's Digest associate publisher Peter Jeffery said the platinum </p><p>award is the equivalent of category domination since the winner must </p><p>achieve a score that is three times more than its nearest rival. "So </p><p>there is a huge gap between the platinum and gold awards," Jeffery </p><p>said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The magazine's associate director for regional marketing services, </p><p>Anne-Louise McWilliam, said this year's results closely mirrored last </p><p>year's findings, confirming that "the winners are indeed </p><p>SuperBrands". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>McWilliam said: "The multinationals have performed very well in Asian </p><p>markets across most categories. The cooking products and beverage </p><p>categories show more local brands performing well in individual markets, </p><p>especially Taiwan." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Compared with the first year when the magazine was inundated with more </p><p>than 30,000 responses, this year's target was a total of 1,000 replies </p><p>from its readership base in the six markets polled - Hong Kong, </p><p>Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A key element of the survey is the qualitative part, which requires </p><p>respondents to rate their choice on five brand values. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Jeffrey said: "At any one category, there might be one, two or maybe </p><p>three products which really stand out. So the competition is really </p><p>strong. Having this qualitative measure means that people become a </p><p>little more selective because they actually have to go through the </p><p>process of thinking whether their choice is a truly great brand." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The success with the SuperBrands poll in Asia has spawned similar </p><p>projects across 35 other markets, but under a different name, Trusted </p><p>Brands. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>