Made in USA: Brand America

How is brand America perceived abroad? Back in December I did a post that built upon the opinions of Italian author Beppe Severgnini. Mike Wagner at Own Your Brand! left a comment about mistakes:

"The European view of mistakes is always interesting to me. It seems to me a disconnect from their appreciation of design. Their lack of creativity and risk tolerance seems to limit their new business development. They play it safe. How you can be creative in an activity without risking mistakes."

That is an interesting take and certainly European nations have had their fair share of problems in history and business. Building a brand does not mean throwing money after expensive campaigns; those will not color people's perceptions. As demonstrated in many of my "Made in Italy" posts, there is true substance and style behind the brand -- even if public policy and internal politics are sometimes fodder for jokes.

So when it comes to brands, Italian companies know how to navigate the global marketplace. There's a new book out that talks about Rebuilding Brand America and how American companies can learn to do just that successfully. Public relations specialist Dick Martin says that:

"Rebuilding Brand America... needs to start with a clear-eyed, unapologetic assessment of how the rest of the world perceives it.

That's the easy part, and much of it has already been done. You can practically Google the results. The harder part is understanding why, without making excuses, discounting the uncomfortable or inconvenient facts, or seeking shelter in bromides like 'it comes with the territory.' Understanding 'why' requires a depth of fluent listening that has never come easy to a people who are so practical and so impatient they want to move immediately to solutions. But it is critical to understanding all the forces tugging and pulling at America's brand."

This country has a tremendous reservoir of talent and experience in global marketing and communications. Think about the professionals working at and for American corporations. Martin is one of them; he worked at AT&T as Vice President of public relations.

It has been demonstrated that improving a company's and brand's reputation begins with substantive and concrete action -- and reputation is good not only for the soul; it's also good for the bottom line. A 5% increase in corporate reputation has been measured to account for a 3% change in market value (data on publicly traded companies, Dr. Terence Flynn, Syracuse University).

This is a call to action for the made in USA and as one of the reviewers says on the site: this is easier said than done. If you were called to action on crafting an integrated communications plan to market brand America abroad, what would it look like?

Comments

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valeria,

I don't have a complete plan in mind, not my cup of tea and all that. I would insist on having some sort of 'client advisory board' consisting of representatives from other countries that:

1. Would be courageous enough to give constructive critical feedback
2. Would want America to be successful in accomplishing the rebuilding of brand effort.

The last thing that usually works is a bunch of really smart people, holed up in a conference room somewhere (dare I say an 'offsite'!) 'strategizing' on what to do next. This leads to unwelcome surprises when the plan meets reality.

[gianandrea facchini]

valeria, it's just a matter of recognize when you make a mistake, apologize and learn the lesson. america is not good at this. just see what happened with mr. calipari or with the cermis accident.
this lack of sincerity is clearly reflected in its popularity across the world.
i'm rather confident that america could market itself better.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Joe -- This is a bold proposal and you rightly qualify it with 'courageous enough'. And I think there are two separate issues: America as a brand and the Made in USA (products, services, companies, etc.) as brands. Dick Martin's book speaks to the latter and that was where my question had the greatest potential for the readers' of this blog, many of whom live abroad.

Gianandrea -- I see from your comment that you also talk about America as a brand vs. the Made in USA, what American companies export worldwide. Is it so difficult to set them apart? As I said in my post, Italy may not have a great brand politically, yet the Made in Italy enjoys good reputation.

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valeria,

I am still thinking 'Made in USA' on the client advisory board recommendation. Going back to the genesis or roots of why an organization (or country) came to be helps. Think Apple and innovation. Think the changes at Starbucks in light of efficiency that is getting in the way of 'experience'.

There are positive things inherently American that resonate with the world. (think the freedom of riding a Harley motorcycle).

It is important to solicit and utilize feedback, not just 'voice of the customer' (which is one-way communication), to drive change.

[gianandrea facchini]

valeria, you are right about italy as not having a great brand politically. but there is a significant difference between our poor political brand and america political brand: we do not go around the world assuming that our model should fit in every country. and this is exactly the same model applied in business by american fmcg multinational companies. but even if i can set made in usa and america apart from a customer point of view, from a marketing point of view i feel that they should be analysed with the same instruments.

[NW Guy]

Valeria,

I agree with the separation of the political versus "Made in" brands, but don't they interact? Take a second to think of the qualities of "Made in" Italy and the US. Now take those attributes; greatly increase the intensity and see if that doesn't start to hint at why people like/dislike the political brand. Interesting experiment.

Joe has a good point that performing this exercise would be enormous. One major barrier is the different communication filters that everybody has, which are amplified when going cross-borders.

However, you bring up the point of people living in other cultures. They have some of their own biases; but it would be interesting to seek them out to understand what your country' brand image is within a different country. This would take some work to identify a representative group but they may be closest to providing "on the ground" feedback.

Thoughts?

[Valeria Maltoni]

Joe -- This is a potentially polarizing topic and I have all of you here to thank for keeping the conversation on track. Being interested in soliciting feedback is very positive. Martin talks about seeking to understand "why" without making excuses. So the listening piece is key: joining the conversation in real time and being open to the advice.

Gianandrea -- yes, Italy is not perceived quite as the superpower... what I'm reading you say is that the US should work more on understanding the experience from a different cultural and historical point of view.

Bruce -- thank you for joining this conversation. I was just at an event on qualitative research that utilizes Web 2.0 tools and I'm thinking that those might be helpful in capturing real time experiences and thoughts across cultures. First one would need to agree on methodology and get people versed in different cultural environments to facilitate. The advantage of having a view on how people interact with the brand is seeing it in context.

[gianandrea facchini]

valeria, this is exactly my thought. i read a book titled "managing cultural differences" from lisa hoecklin and published for the economist intelligence unit by addison-wesley. amazingly this book is dated 1994. it is worth reading. it can be found on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Cultural-Differences-Strategies-Competitive/dp/0201427702/ref=sr_1_1/002-5075326-6104052?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173424186&sr=8-1

[Valeria Maltoni]

Thank you, Gianandrea. A useful resource.