Japanese brands experience growth
In the past year, global Japanese brands benefited from the economic recovery in Western countries, despite the weakening of the yen.
The collective value of Japan’s top 30 Best Global Brands in 2014, as ranked by international brand consultancy, Interbrand, rose by 15% from the previous year.
Japan’s top-five global brands are Toyota, Honda, Canon, Sony and Nissan. Toyota has been conducting a variety of activities to reinforce its brand and as a result its business performance has strengthened. Both Toyota and Honda benefitted from their new hybrid cars and the sustainable image projected because of these. Canon showed solid growth in 2014 and has created new B2B transactions on the strength of its technical development capacity brand asset.
Sony saw a small decrease in its brand value due to business moves which were undertaken to keep the brand relevant in the fast-evolving market environment and Nissan was buoyed by gains in Europe, America, China and other overseas markets, that helped outweigh declining sales and share at home. Other brands that made the Best Global Brands top-ten were, Panasonic, Uniqlo, Nintendo, Lexus and Toshiba.
Automotive-related brands witnessed a large rise in brand value, due to a widespread shift in focus towards branding, which largely resulted in stronger engagement with customers overseas. Electronic brands learnt to meet the challenges of the rapidly evolving market through the adaptation of their business models and services.
Retail brands Uniqlo and Yakult made the list for the first time as a result of their aggressive overseas business policies; they have grown to be indispensable brands, particularly in the Asia region.
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