The problem with American automakers is not that “liberals” prefer buying foreign brands, but rather that American automakers have a severe branding problem.
via BusinessInsider.com
To follow up and expand on my last post, I began thinking about my own personal consumer choices and how many of them could be considered “American.” While there is much acrimony about the supposed decline of America as a brand in the world (both commercially and politically), I think that there is still a ways to fall before we reach an absolute crisis.
Charles J. Brown of Undiplomatic wrote in the Huffington Post recently about, among other things, the problematic perception that American brands enjoy among “lefty/coastie/academic community” liberals. We’re all probably guilty of it in some way or form – it is, as Brown asserts, as part of our self-image as “lattes, Whole Foods, yoga, and Mac laptops.”
Mentioning Apple in this discussion is an interesting one, primarily because they are arguably one of the most successful American companies both in terms of their sheer profit and cultural cachet. Apple is unequivocally successful not only in terms of their sales (which remain strong even in these difficult economic times), but there is a sense that every product they unveil in the Second Steve Jobs Era is one that has the potential to both revolutionize the industry and society at large.
I’m a person who shops less than the average American, and I don’t own a car, which makes me an outsider in Brown’s call for “liberals” to start giving American car brands a chance. But in reflecting on brands that hold a certain appeal, whether it’s for reasons of real or perceived nostalgia, sophistication or actual quality, I realized that many of these brands at the top of my list were American. I wasn’t even sure if some of my preferred brands, such as Häagen Dazs, were domestic in the first place.
Indeed, anyone who’s read a copy of No Logo could argue that American companies invented the whole game of modern product marketing in the first place, with Mac laptops, Nike and Starbucks as obvious examples of the type of “lifestyle branding” that American automakers have adopted at a sloth-like pace – Snoop Dogg and Lee Iacocca notwithstanding.
The problem is not that the “liberals” that Brown describes prefer buying foreign brands, but rather that American automake have a severe branding problem, which is why I’m skeptical that we “liberals” are really the ones to blame when Brown writes:
Let’s make buying American cars cool again. Let’s make it so that movie stars will want to arrive at the Oscars in Ford Fusions instead of Toyota Priuses. Let’s make it so that high school boys will want to drive Mustangs, Camaros, and Tesla Roadsters instead of Porsches and Lamborghinis. Let’s make it so that athletes will want buy the Cadillac STS instead of the BMW 5 series.
Blame us for being snobs, but don’t call us unpatriotic, I say! If the automakers want to succeed as a 21st-century company, then let’s hope that they start acting like one soon. Until then, they’ll find plenty of advice to help them along the way – God help us all that they’ll succeed.
- Kai Hsing
advertising, branding, buy american, class, consumerism, culture, liberals, marketing, shopping
Are American brands really ‘uncool’?
In Commentary, News on 2009/06/26 at 6:19 amThe problem with American automakers is not that “liberals” prefer buying foreign brands, but rather that American automakers have a severe branding problem.
via BusinessInsider.com
To follow up and expand on my last post, I began thinking about my own personal consumer choices and how many of them could be considered “American.” While there is much acrimony about the supposed decline of America as a brand in the world (both commercially and politically), I think that there is still a ways to fall before we reach an absolute crisis.
Charles J. Brown of Undiplomatic wrote in the Huffington Post recently about, among other things, the problematic perception that American brands enjoy among “lefty/coastie/academic community” liberals. We’re all probably guilty of it in some way or form – it is, as Brown asserts, as part of our self-image as “lattes, Whole Foods, yoga, and Mac laptops.”
Mentioning Apple in this discussion is an interesting one, primarily because they are arguably one of the most successful American companies both in terms of their sheer profit and cultural cachet. Apple is unequivocally successful not only in terms of their sales (which remain strong even in these difficult economic times), but there is a sense that every product they unveil in the Second Steve Jobs Era is one that has the potential to both revolutionize the industry and society at large.
I’m a person who shops less than the average American, and I don’t own a car, which makes me an outsider in Brown’s call for “liberals” to start giving American car brands a chance. But in reflecting on brands that hold a certain appeal, whether it’s for reasons of real or perceived nostalgia, sophistication or actual quality, I realized that many of these brands at the top of my list were American. I wasn’t even sure if some of my preferred brands, such as Häagen Dazs, were domestic in the first place.
Indeed, anyone who’s read a copy of No Logo could argue that American companies invented the whole game of modern product marketing in the first place, with Mac laptops, Nike and Starbucks as obvious examples of the type of “lifestyle branding” that American automakers have adopted at a sloth-like pace – Snoop Dogg and Lee Iacocca notwithstanding.
The problem is not that the “liberals” that Brown describes prefer buying foreign brands, but rather that American automake have a severe branding problem, which is why I’m skeptical that we “liberals” are really the ones to blame when Brown writes:
Blame us for being snobs, but don’t call us unpatriotic, I say! If the automakers want to succeed as a 21st-century company, then let’s hope that they start acting like one soon. Until then, they’ll find plenty of advice to help them along the way – God help us all that they’ll succeed.
- Kai Hsing