Nothing new perhaps, but from a different source... A Reader's Digest survey has confirmed that Asians prefer well known brands and display strong brand loyalty compared to their Western counterparts.

Our Great Asian Brands survey on our sister Branding Asia dot com site, focuses on what makes great Asian brands, and how they can compete with global brands.. but the competition is strong.

According to Thailand's Nation newspaper today, Thais are loyal to well-known brands

The survey found that Thais had strong brand-loyalty traits like many of their Asian counterparts, preferring well-known brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sony, Canon, Nokia, Panasonic and Nestle.

Acer, Compaq and IBM are the preferred computer brands, while General Electric, Mitsubishi Electric and Sharp beat other brands when it comes to the choice of refrigerators.

As far as beer is concerned, Heineken got the nod, but the local brew Singha, despite brand and market share problems of late, still ranks well.

A thread in the survey results was the confirmation of the importance of country-of-origin in brand preference. Thais, like many other Asian consumers, like to buy brand names coming from countries with a reputation for excellence in a certain product class.