Abstracts

This thesis aims to answer how Taiwanese SMEs can successfully build brand equity and introduce their brand to the European audiovisual market. The theoretical concepts of building brand equity and country-of-origin effect have been used to analyze the approach of Kaohsiung-based case company BXB, the successful Taiwanese brands Acer and Giant as well as competitors present at trade fair ISE Amsterdam. The posi-tive country-of-origin of Taiwanese products today has a positive influence on their brand equity; however European brands are often still preferred by local customers.Brand awareness has been identified as a critical barrier for Taiwanese SMEs entering Western markets that needs to be overcome; innovation is furthermore crucial in order to increase perceived quality. The target market has been identified as highly frag-mented and saturated, with system integrators being the major customers for producers of AV equipment. European competitors have been found to focus on high quality and usability with their branding, whereas Chinese players mainly stress their technical competence. Taiwanese SME BXB has been found to be lacking a clear brand posi-tioning focus between these two approaches, which should be overcome by adopting a new branding strategy based on the method of a successful Japanese competitor.Advisors/Committee Members: Sung Chao-Hsien (committee member), Chun-Tuan Chang (chair), Thijs Velema (chair).