The purpose of this study has been to quantitatively measure the brand image of Taiwan by means of a survey hosted in social media. This quantitative research is a good step in order to fully comprehend what people think and perceive about Taiwan.
The questions used to measure the brand image of Taiwan were formulated taking into consideration the brand messages presented by Taiwan’s official tourism website. Such messages are distributed along 10 major concepts such as festivals or food. These concepts have been used and distributed by the tourism board along major travel channels to convey the brand image of the country.
Although the Taiwanese designed and implemented a specific brand image, through this study we wanted to test what our readers actually perceive about the country. As such, the research question of this study has been the following: “To what extent the brand messages introduced and widespread by Taiwan’s official tourism board are perceived as being true by our readers?”
11 questions were asked to our readers via “instagram Stories”. This is a format that allows researchers to ask questions to a specific segment of the market – composed by the most devoted users of the Instagram account. The responders are normally strongly attached to the corporate brand.
Initially, each reader had 10 seconds to answer each question. This is an ideal timing for them to provide an instinctive and spontaneous answer. Yet, they could go back to the previous question in order to read it again (if necessary) and provide a meaningful and trustworthy answer.
The first question was answered by 210 readers. However, question number ten (the last multi choice question of this survey), was answered by 190 readers. Some of our readers did not provide an answer to all the questions, reducing the reliability of this study.
The results presented along this study reflect the perceptions of our readers towards Taiwan’s country image. Yet, further studies need to be completed in order to understand in deep such feature.
Main highlights of Taiwan’s brand image
Dàjiā hǎo! Time to update you about Taiwan!
Although the results of our research show that you seem to know some things already, there might be quite some things that surprise you. Keep reading!
Happy to see that most of you disagree (78%) that Taiwan is part of China and thus similar, we will clarify the relation between the two countries a little. Taiwan, also Republic of China (ROC), got independent from mainland China in 1949, but there are still discussions about the island’s status. One China or Two China’s? Beijing and Taipei don’t really agree, but now they are separated for more than a century, a growing number of Taiwanese feel they deserve the right to continue a separate existence. The first ethnic Han Chinese settlers arrived in the 17th century and Taiwan is inhabited by a Han Chinese majority. However, 55% of them identifies themselves as exclusively Taiwanese according to a survey conducted by National Chengchi University in 2018; Just 4% considered themselves only Chinese. Issues of Taiwanese identity and independence will become clearer when the island holds a presidential election in early 2020.
Anyway, you said that China and Taiwan were not very similar, so what are the actual differences between them? Well, Taiwan has a messy but rich history of invasion, occupation, colonization, refuge, and intermarriage and all this has had an influence on Taiwan today. First of all, the Taiwan (ROC) is a newborn democracy, while China is still a dictatorship – which indicates already that Taiwan might be more ‘free’ talking about freedom of speech, media usage, etc. which affects people’s behavior and therefore its culture. We don’t talk about negative or positive, but that it creates diversity between the two cultures is obvious. Also, their passport has more visa free accesses than Mainland China’s passport. Besides that, Taiwan seems to be more traditional than mainland China, in their language (in China they use simplified Chinese, while Taiwan has maintained the traditional characters) but also in religion and values. Another interesting thing is that Taiwan is friend with Japan, while China and Japan seem to be kind of enemies. Oh, and of course the currency is different.
Most of you mentioned that Taiwan is mostly known for… food! It can be delicious, but Taiwan is known for many more things! Off course their beaches (48% of you thinks that it’s Taiwan’s most beautiful scenery) but also its mountains, its temples, the safety and the high developed technology are highlights of Taiwan.
Talking about its mountains, Taiwan has mountain ranges with many peaks reaching over 3,000 meters – including Jade Mountain (Yushan), East Asia’s highest. Taiwan also features volcanic mountains, tablelands, coastal plains and several islands in the South China Sea. The government has reserved about 20 percent of the nation’s land area as protected areas, comprising nine national parks and one national nature park, 22 nature reserves for special ecosystems, six forest reserve areas, 20 wildlife refuges and 37 major wildlife habitats. Unfortunate is that the whole “two China” policy means that Taiwan can’t get UNESCO World Heritage status (rejected by China) for any of its amazing natural scenery or centuries-old monuments.
With regard to the other highlights… Most of you were right about the safety in Taiwan. Among you, 76% said that it is a safe destination, and that is true. The Global Peace Index (2019) put Taiwan 36th on a list of 163 countries. Off course pickpockets exist in Taiwan as well, and there’s a real threat due to seismic activity. Besides that, it is very secure and people are very respectful. Respectful and good with technology! Because although 47% disagreed, Taiwan really is one of the world’s leading producers of information and communication technology products. With government support, the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the National Applied Research Laboratories and the Institute for Information Industry all played important roles in jump-starting the nation’s rise as a technological powerhouse by conducting research, aiding the private sector with R&D and exploring new technologies.
All together, Taiwan is a great travel destination. Though living in Taipei can be very expensive – the 2018 Mercer Cost of Living Survey ranked Taipei at 27 out of 209 cities, making it slightly more expensive than Paris and Milan! – backpacking results to be very affordable if you use public transport, sleep in dorms, eat the typical street food and join the free cultural activities Taiwan has to offer. By the way, as 88% of you thought, Taiwan is super rich in culture and you will be entertained 24/7 with temple celebrations, night markets, dance troupes and its vibrant music scene – did you know that Taiwan is capital of Mandarin pop music?
So… Who is going to Taiwan soon?!
“What do we know about Georgia? We did a country brand image survey in order to know what our readers think and perceive about Georgia!”
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