As reported in this week’s Media, marketers, in their rush to embrace social networking, are neglecting more basic online media formats.  A new Asian survey, conducted by Edelman and Brandtology, indicates that forums and bulletin boards, rather than social networking sites, are key for reaching and interacting with target audiences.

The Digital Brand Index study aimed to identify the most widely talked-about technology brands across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.  The study, which will be expanded to Japan and Korea in the coming months, covered a total of 800,000 mentions of 233 major technology brands on 4,348 online channels including forums, blogs, social networking sites and news websites.

Recent phenomenon Twitter was found to be the most commonly used channel in India and Australia, but in other markets, particularly Southeast Asia, technology-related forums emerged as the main platform for discussion - for example, in Singapore, 90% of conversation took place on forums.

Of the technology sector brands discussed online, Google and Microsoft ranked in the top 10 in all markets.  Google was the most widely discussed brand in both India and Malaysia, while Nokia had the highest number of mentions in China.  The brand Intel was popular in a number of geographical markets including Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Malaysia and Taiwan.

To find out more about the research we conduct in the Technology sector, please visit: http://b2binternational.com/China/b2bsectors/informationtechnology.php 

Alternatively, to learn more about branding studies, please visit: http://b2binternational.com/China/research/cn/branding.php

Media magazine (www.media.asia) recently published the results of its ‘Asia’s Top 1,000 Brands’ survey.

Covering Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, the survey looked to rank the best and most trusted Asian brands across 11 major product and service categories, including: automotive, financial services, food & beverage, and media & telecommunications.

Many of those featuring highly in the list will be familiar names to both Eastern and Western markets and consumers alike.  Some strong brands which are less well recognised outside of Asia include: Lotte at no.21 (Sweets & candy); Meiji at no.29 (Food & drink); and Shiseido at no.41 (Cosmetics).

The Full Top 10 list is:

1.     Sony (Consumer Electronics)

2.     Samsung (Electronics/White goods)

3.     Canon (Camera/Office equipment)

4.     LG (Electronics/White goods)

5.     Panasonic(Consumer Electronics)

6.     Hewlett-Packard (Computers)

7.     Nokia (Mobile phone)

8.     Apple (Consumer Electronics)

9.     Google (Search engine)

10.   Coca-Cola (Soft drinks)