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Korea's Samsung rapidly established itself as a leading player in consumer electronics. It used advertising, sponsorship and significantly, design, as a tool to take the brand to a leadership position.

BenQ is another company out of Korea that needs to become a brand fast. It's the company that used to be known as Acer. Its most recent origins lie in being an OEM for laptops and mobile handsets, but its rapidly loosing this business to lower cost Chinese competitors, and as a consequence, it needs to stand alone as a brand.

To do this, BenQ are relying heavily on design. In the Korean design lab, dubbed "Lifestyle Design Center" the company already employs 70 designers. However, it's most proud of the awards it keeps winning, such as the, Bronze IDEA 2004 sponsored by Business Week, for its 17" LCD monitor. In fact, BenQ is now the No 6 seller of LCD computer monitors in the US market.

However, many Korean analysts and commentators recognize that to succeed and achieve high levels of awareness, BenQ needs to advertise, and fast. However, to do this the company faces a number of cultural and fiscal challenges; it has no past experience as an advertiser and is somewhat wary of the significant financial contribution that will be required.

For the moment, design is the key driver for the company and much depends on whether it can innovate ahead of its competition. Recent developments have been mixed, for example, it's just launched a Treo-like device that's faster than the Treo and has a better camera, but it also launched a camera that allows "fun, fearless, females" to "scrawl" over pictures, that came in for much criticism.

BenQ's flirtation with cool communication has also been somewhat mixed. It recently attempted to gain notoriety for its LCD screens by partnering with noted Italian fashion designer, Roberto Cavalli, at the Milan Fashion Show. Cavalli designed a bag for the monitor, so at least, if someone had to transport their 17" monitor around, they could do it in some style.

For BenQ, its future depends on executing not only in design and also having a smart communication strategy, but most important of all, making sure the two are aligned.