A Study of How the Branding Strategy of Container Shipping Lines Influences the Freight Forwarders in the Selection of Carriers in Taiwan Market

• Main Authors: Fu-Chiao, 林福僑
• Other Authors: Quang-Hua Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/72906519012431766822

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 管理學院高階主管管理碩士學程 === 94 === In the marketplace, we have seen many enterprises adopt multi-branding strategy for their business. Their ultimate purpose is to hope to draw over the rivals’ customers, thus increasing their market share and raising profits. The container shipping industry is faced with severe competition. Each shipping line has its own marketing strategy in order to secure its market share. Many documents discuss about the critical factors that drive customers to choose their carriers. These elementary factors can roughly be categorized into five aspects, namely the Shippers and Consignees, Economy Factor, Vessels, Containers and Cargoes, and Waiting Time. Apart from these five factors, the multi-branding strategy can also be an advantageous factor in influencing customers on their selection of shipping carriers. However, this has not been discussed yet. The world’s leading container shipping conglomerate, Maersk Line, merged the U.S. carrier, Sealand Services, in 1999, and lately acquired P& O Nedlloyd in 2005. After the merger and acquisition, Maersk consolidated its brands into one. By contrast, another container shipping giant, the Evergreen group, acquired Italy's state-run company, Lloyd Triestino, in 1998, and further set up its affiliated company, Hatsu Marine, in the U.K. in early 2002. The Evergreen group introduced its three brands in the marketplace. These two shipping consortia apparently take different branding strategy in this field. Therefore, this document will try to make a study in order to understand if the multi-branding marketing tactics can influence the customers’ purchasing behavior. In the container shipping industry, the freight forwarders are their major customers and will be used as the samples of this research. By so doing, this document would hope to be able to figure out and provide as a reference for the interested parties how the influential factors affect freight forwarders in Taiwan in choosing their business partners - the container shipping lines.