Does trade follow the flag? Consumer product boycotts and national policies

The extent to which international trade is affected by political considerations has long been a concern of economists and political scientists. A recent study by polling firm GMI suggests a new wrinkle on this old topic. GMI surveyed 15,500 consumers in 17 countries to learn how politics asffected their purchases.

Overall, 36% of all consumers worldwide –- and a higher percentage of men than women – said they were boycotting products. The most boycotted brands ... were Nike, Coca Cola, McDonald’s and Nestle. The Germans had the highest number of brands on their black lists including local ones such as Adidas, Opel and Mercedes, while Chinese consumers said they avoided mainly local brands and Sony.

"These findings will be very concerning to these adept marketing companies, as it demonstrates the risk to the value of their brands. Clearly they are not connecting with their local marketplaces as well as they could," said Allyson Stewart-Allen, Director of marketing consulting firm International Marketing Partners.

"This is why we are currently developing a Brand Barometer together with GMI to allow companies to monitor on a regular basis how they are perceived around the world. They can then act on the insights about their brand perceptions and implement more focused local marketing programs."

Among the most frequently given reasons for boycotting were unfair labour practices and unhealthy products. Bad publicity and country origination played a less important role. However, 18% of those asked also said they wouldn’t buy products produced by countries that don’t respect the Kyoto agreement aimed at slowing down global warming, while 28% weren't aware of the agreement at all.

A fourth of all consumers worldwide claimed they were 'environmentally responsible' or 'socially responsible' rather than average shoppers

GMI has also conducted international polls that attempt to evaluate the appeal of nations as "brands." The questions tap attitudes of respondents on six dimensions of attitude towards a sample of twenty-five nations: people, investment & immigration, exports, tourism, governance, and culture & heritage. Overall, the U.S. places 11th. It scored well on exports, investment & immigration, slightly less well on tourism and people, below average on governance, and well below average on culture & heritage. The study author observes that

One could argue that a degree of unpopularity is the unavoidable price of being the world's only military superpower. However, the culture score is associated with the maturity, prudence, wisdom, cultivation, humanity and intelligence of the nation. Such a low score for Brand America hardly provides a positive context in which to evaluate America's political and military acts.

The complete text of the report can be found here:
http://www.gmi-mr.com/gmipoll/docs/NBI_Q2_2005.pdf

Only two such studies have been released, and there is some instability in the rankings. It will be interesting to see how durable these findings are after several more such surveys are completed.