An article on the Ad Age website contends that consumers are not motivated to buy a particular product based on where it comes from.
According to the article, consumers once sought out particular products based on a country's reputation for manufacturing excellent goods. If a consumer wanted consumer electronics, they would compare Japanese manufacturers. If they wanted beer, then perhaps they would seek out a brand from Belgium (we'd go with Germany, ourselves).
Today, according to a study conducted by Anderson Analytics, most college-aged consumers do not even know where their favorite products originate. More importantly, they don't care.
Tom Anderson, managing partner with the firm, told AdAge.com, "For the most part, this next generation of educated American consumers either have no clue where the brands they use come from or simply assume everything comes from the United States, Japan or Germany."
According to the research, less than five percent of college-age consumers knew that Nokia phones are from Finland. Nearly 54 percent believed the phones were manufactured in Japan.
Many others including Lego, Samsung and Adidas were also matched to countries other than those in which the brand originated.
Among those that consumers were able to match up was IKEA, which itself was only matched correctly to Sweden by 31.2 percent. Nearly one in four thought IKEA was an American company.
Jupiter Research analyst Emily Riley told AdAge.com that college-age consumers may eventually come to know where the brands they buy originate from.
"As consumers age, we see value for quality become more of a concern and that's when things like geographic associations come into play," Ms. Riley said. "Teens may be too young to even know those, and are probably too young to care."
The lesson to be learned here, some say, is that no amount of wrapping a brand in a particular country's flag is going to have much effect on younger consumers decision to purchase.
Jonathan Paisner, brand director at CoreBrands, said, "This younger generation has a more cynical perspective on things like patriotism, and that [marketing approach] can strike this group as heavy-handed or an old-world approach. ... That can be kind of a dangerous star to hitch yourself to."
Discussion Questions: Does a national or other geographic heritage have any useful role to play in brand marketing today? Will consumers who do not know or care to know about a brand's country of origin change in that respect as they age?