The Super Powers Bait on a Hook

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The Super Powers Bait on a Hook

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... 3281203197

US brands defy association with foreign policy
Wed Jan 21, 1:21 PM ET


By John Gapper in Davos

Consumers around the world put aside any ill-feeling about US foreign policy when they choose their fast food, soft drinks and athletic shoes, a Harvard Business School study has found.


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The survey of 1,800 consumers in 12 countries including Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia found that, despite expectations of a consumer backlash against US brands, most people still choose brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's.


About 88 per cent of people, a consistent figure across most of the countries surveyed, selected well-known global brands rather than local alternatives when asked which products they would like to buy. There was a rump of 12 per cent who did not want to buy such brands, associating them with the US and globalisation.


Professor John Quelch of Harvard Business School, who led the study with Douglas Holt, an assistant professor, said that local consumer boycotts following the US response to the September 11 attacks had proved short-lived. People did not seem to have switched allegiance en masse to new alternatives such as Mecca Cola.


"It appears that consumer interest in new brands was short-lived, and they have reverted to trusted global products," said Professor Quelch, who presented findings from the study on Wednesday night at the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Davos.


He said global brands including Nike were favoured by consumers in developing countries because they represented a guarantee of quality in markets where basic standards were not always guaranteed. Coca-Cola, for example, was seen as being a brand that used clean water in preparing its soft drinks.


Prof Quelch said the study, carried out by Research International last year, just before and during the Iraq (news - web sites) war, also found that consumers felt that buying global brands showed they were connected to global society. They did not regard big US brands as identifying them with America itself.


The backlash against globalisation had made companies such as Coca-Cola move away from overt American values before the terror attacks on the US. "They managed to inoculate themselves before the war on terror," Prof Quelch said.


He said multinationals that worked with local partners were often regarded as a positive force in raising labour and quality standards.


Consumers were able to separate their feelings about US foreign policy and US brands more than had been predicted.

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