Anti-war protesters take aim at American brands

[thedrifter]

Anti-war protesters take aim at American brands
By Noelle Knox and Theresa Howard, USA TODAY

BRUSSELS ? Mustapha Akel was born in Belgium, and grew up eating McDonald's food, drinking Coke, and watching such American TV shows as MacGyver and Who's the Boss? At 29, Akel has already been to the United States seven times, and says, "I like that country; it's beautiful. I've never had any problem with the people over there."
But now, Akel won't buy any American products, to protest the war in Iraq and the United States' support for Israel against the Palestinians.

"What can we do to fight people who think they are above the law?" he asks. And though he knows many American-brand products are made in Belgium, Akel says he will not end his boycott "until (the USA) ends their aggression against poor people around the world."

He is not a big customer, but Akel is part of a surge of anti-Americanism that threatens to erode the global dominance of American brands.

The boycotts might have only a symbolic impact on the finances of large multinational corporations, but they come at a time when many companies are struggling in weak overseas markets.

The loss of these customers could be more damaging than the sporadic acts of vandalism that some U.S. companies have reported.

With two weeks of combat, U.S.-led troops have closed in on Baghdad, but the war is not over, and the stakes for the USA ? and its marquee products ? are just as high in the rebuilding of Iraq.

"If the U.S. has a short war and the rebuilding of the country goes well, it may turn out to be beneficial for American brands," says Shih-Fen Chen, a professor of international marketing at Brandeis University. "If the war drags on for a long time, and there are a lot of civilian casualties and the rebuilding of the country falls below the expectations of people ... that could be a big problem for American brands."

Commercial protests are taking different forms in different regions:

Ten restaurants in Hamburg, Germany, have banned Coke and Marlboro cigarettes and won't let customers pay with American Express cards.
Almost one out of four people in the Asia-Pacific region said they have avoided purchasing American brands, according to a survey of 1,000 released last week by the Leo Burnett ad agency. The agency polled consumers in India, China, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines.
German bicycle maker Riese und Mueller has canceled all business deals with American suppliers. The company, which buys about $3 million worth of parts from a half-dozen suppliers, wants the American companies to renounce the war in Iraq.
Almost 36,000 people have signed a "Boycott Brand America" petition on the Web site adbusters.org, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Web site says that some plan to target their protests against "the greatest symbols of the Brand America warriors: McDonald's, Philip Morris, ExxonMobil, Texaco, the major automakers, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap, Starbucks, Nike, Disneyland, the Hollywood cinemas."
The Qibla-Cola company, a soft drink maker based in Great Britain that markets to the Muslim community, called for a boycott Thursday of "U.S. global brands."
Consumers in Europe and the Middle East have snapped up 4.5 million bottles of Mecca-Cola, an anti-America soft drink launched in October. Mecca-Cola ? with the motto that translates as "Don't drink stupidly, drink responsibly" ? has orders for 14 million more bottles. The cola is also sold in Middle Eastern neighborhoods and in the USA in Detroit and soon in New Jersey.
Mecca-Cola founder Tawfik Mathlouthi also plans to open Halal Fried Chicken restaurants, to be called HFC, a jab at the KFC chain. His aim: "People will stop eating and drinking American goods and using American goods," he says. "And that will increase the social problems in the United States and increase joblessness, and Americans will awake from their long sleep and maybe ask the U.S. government to respond."

Mom, apple pie and Chevrolet

Nike, Coca-Cola and McDonald's are just a few examples of U.S. companies that sell more than half their products abroad. Their value and the prices they can charge depend strongly on their brand image.

A brand is a symbol that conjures up qualities and attributes that people associate with the product. Some products are so closely identified with the USA that the brand becomes a stand-in for the Stars and Stripes. Think Mom, apple pie and Chevrolet.

"People in China and Taiwan, and even Europe, go to McDonald's, not because they love the food, but because they want to have the American experience," Chen says.

These companies have ridden the coattails of America's economy and superpower stature, but they have also spent billions of dollars to open and build factories and restaurants in foreign countries. Last year alone, McDonald's and Coke spent a combined $1.5 billion to market their brands outside the USA.

And in many cases, the American companies have partnered with local franchisees, just as they do in the USA.

"These are local businesses run by local people," and products are produced locally and sold locally, says John Chandler, a spokesman for Coke.

"Our opinion on boycotts is that, unfortunately, they do more harm to the people they are intended to support. Typically, if you're targeting a company or a brand in a given location, you are more likely to hurt the local communities and local employees than anyone else."

And though Coke, Levi's, Budweiser and the like have nothing to do with the Bush administration's foreign policy, they become de facto targets for protesters lashing out at the USA's dominance.

The same is true in the United States, where some people are pouring French wine down the drain and steering away from German Volkswagen cars, because the governments of Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder stopped the Bush administration from winning international support for the war through the United Nations.

A recent survey showed that 47% of Americans were "very" or "somewhat" likely to substitute products made elsewhere for German products, according to the joint poll by the public relations firms of Wirthlin Worldwide and Fleishman-Hillard.

How long this brand fight will last depends on the length of the war and the rebuilding of Iraq and diplomatic bridges. So far, the war has been more gruesome than many expected. And there is no sign of a kiss-and-make-up between the USA and France.

America criticized

America, the brand, continues to take a beating in the foreign media, where coverage of the war portrays the United States as an imperialist bully fighting an unjustified war.

An editorial cartoon on the front page of the French newspaper Le Monde last week showed a GI trudging through a sandstorm, walking over the bodies of dead Iraqi civilians, complaining, "It's terrible, this sandstorm."

Meanwhile, a poll in Spain, one of the U.S. allies in the war, found that almost two-thirds of the people do not believe the real objective of the war is to liberate the Iraqi population.

America's brand image is so tarnished in the eyes of some that hockey fans in Montreal last month booed when the Star-Spangled Banner played for the New York Islanders in front of a sell-out crowd. Though Montreal Canadiens President Pierre Boivin later apologized on behalf of the fans, the sentiment spoke of the community at large. More than 200,000 Canadians showed up for an anti-war demonstration in Montreal days after the war began.

Companies linked to brand-USA are studying ways to protect their own brands.

Since the war started, American Express has been asking consumers directly about their attitudes toward the brand. The company is conducting phone interviews and inserting questionnaires in monthly bill statements.

"We're doing everything we can to keep a pulse on consumer sentiment," says Desiree Fish, an American Express spokeswoman.

Market experts say there is little these companies can do in the next few weeks.

"The impact will get worse before it gets better," says Richard Pinder, a director and regional manager in the Asia-Pacific for Leo Burnett. "Especially for those brands that are always lightning conductors."

Noelle Knox reports from Brussels and Theresa Howard from New York.



War protesters stage a die-in next to a display of Coca-Cola products in Anglet, France.
By Bob Edme, AP


Sempers,

Roger

[nang]

Blah Blah Blah


By the way
God Bless the USA

[RocelsGirl]

hmm...now this got me to thinking.
Does that mean that there might be a chance that some of those companies might bring there plants back home?

OK I will admit I have never understood why a we would import the exact same thing that is made here only to export it.

Does that also mean that the US will have to cut back on it's Foriegn aid to some contries to help bail out our companies. (actually I don't think they need to be bailed out I think they should downsize their management and quit being so greedy.)

I will have to go look into that technical paperwork crap.