China is the world's factory, but its top firms remain oddly anonymous.

[Neil]

I won't buy anything from the Student-Tibetian-Muslim killers until they allow the Republic of China to claim it's rightful place as the government of China.

I won't buy anything from them until they restore the extraterritorial rights for non-Chinese, restore the Taiwanese government to power over the mainland, grant independence to Tibet, restore to Japan all the territories of Manchuoko and restore Hong Kong to its rightful place in the Empire.

[KRonn]

China can never have a global brand, as China can't ever produce anything of quality.

They said that of the Soviet Union too, and look at the great brands they went on to produce.

I can't think of any specifically right now, though.

Coke-ski-Cola ??     

[Josquius]

A better comparison is Japan, it used to have a reputation for cheaply making inferior crap and its brands weren't too well known. These days though everyone knows Sony, Toyota, etc...
Give China time, this biggest Chinese company was only formed 20 years ago. They'll have known companies in a decade or two.
Just 10 years ago no one would have had a clue what on Earth LG was but now its pretty known. And S.Korea is a lot smaller and less important than China.

[Jacob]

Yeah, it's only really in the last decade or so that Korean brands have reached any kind of international recognition and association with quality.  I expect that there'll be quality brands out of the PRC within the next two decades.

[Neil]

Yeah, it's only really in the last decade or so that Korean brands have reached any kind of international recognition and association with quality.  I expect that there'll be quality brands out of the PRC within the next two decades.

People actually associate Korean goods with quality?

[garbon]

My LG phone is crap.

[Jacob]

People actually associate Korean goods with quality?

Not quite yet, but they've moved from "never heard of them" to "they make that cheap shit I'd never buy" to "they make that fairly cheap shit lots of people buy because its good value for money" to "they make some pretty decent stuff that's quite competitive".  Samsung, LG and Hyundai are doing pretty good.  It won't be too much longer before they have proper entries in the high end part of the markets as well, I'd wager.

[DontSayBanana]

People actually associate Korean goods with quality?

Samsung, LG and Hyundai are doing pretty good.  It won't be too much longer before they have proper entries in the high end part of the markets as well, I'd wager.

Hyundai. Huawei.

Consumer branding rule number one: the one that anglo-saxons can be confident they can pronounce will win.

I'm pretty sure that Koreans and Japanese have an easier time marketing to anglos because it's easier for Americans to pronounce their names.

[Jacob]

Yeah, Lenovo is pretty hard to pronounce, isn't it? :p

I'm pretty sure that by the time Huawei is seriously try to sell their products to Anglo-Saxon consumers they'll do so using branding that you'll be somewhat confident in pronouncing it.

[garbon]

I'm pretty sure that by the time Huawei is seriously try to sell their products to Anglo-Saxon consumers they'll do so using branding that you'll be somewhat confident in pronouncing it.

Like how Hyundai "branded" its name with a new pronunciation that Americans could handle.

[DisturbedPervert]

My LG phone is crap.

Mine is fine, it makes calls, that's all I want from a phone.  I had no idea what country it was from though.

[garbon]

Mine is fine, it makes calls, that's all I want from a phone.  I had no idea what country it was from though.

Mine doesn't. Many times it drops out and often the clarity is horrible. Turns out the woman next to me also has the LG Shine and has the same problems. I'm not amused. My ancient nokia was so much better, why did I have to lose it?

[CountDeMoney]

China is also the world's factory for counterfeit drugs that claim hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.  But nobody's talking about that. 

[DisturbedPervert]

Mine doesn't. Many times it drops out and often the clarity is horrible. Turns out the woman next to me also has the LG Shine and has the same problems. I'm not amused. My ancient nokia was so much better, why did I have to lose it?

Hmm, actually, mine disconnects from the network sometimes and I have to restart it.  My old Nokia, which I  lost as well, never did that.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Yeah, it's only really in the last decade or so that Korean brands have reached any kind of international recognition and association with quality.  I expect that there'll be quality brands out of the PRC within the next two decades.

First they have to come up with their own stuff, though, instead of just copying other companies. China might not care that their companies infringe, but America, etc. certainly do, and if China wants to sell overseas they'll need to start designing their own stuff.