We Need Brands to Stay Bigger than Nations (original) (raw)

Published Aug 15, 2018

This month, the Trump administration launched the third volley of tariffs in a trade war that began with China in the spring of 2018. The effects are beginning to be felt everywhere. Ships brimming with cargo are stranded at sea. U.S. Farmers and manufacturers are under strain. Decades-old international trade agreements are in question. And prices for products like cars, pork, maple syrup, bourbon and even tanning beds are rising.

The trade war is part of a larger trend which is seeing the globalization that drove growth in the 1990s and early 2000s being replaced by more inward-looking nationalism. Rising nationalistic sentiment, causing political realignments in North America and Europe, is making it difficult to reach consensus on key issues from immigration to participation in trading blocs to membership in longstanding international alliances.

Voters may elect governments, but every purchase is a vote for a brand, which has a duty to follow through on the promise it makes to its purchasers, no matter what stands in the way.

In short, walls are going up, both economic, like the one between the U.S. and China, and literal, like the one proposed between the US and Mexico.

But there is one form of economic activity that remains borderless--the influence and promise of brands. Even if the raw materials used to make computers aren't as easy to find in this economy, the distinctive Apple logo still shows up on the backs of phones and laptop screens on every continent on earth. You can just as easily find the Nike swoosh on the feet of people in Asia as you can in the United States. When people see the swoosh, they think of athletic performance and personal excellence. When people see the Apple, they think of creativity, connectivity, and simplicity.

Brands promises are universal benefits which no new regulation or international strife can ever fully stand in the way of.

Brands remain a powerful force for international collaboration

Fueled by consumer desire, trends, and a spirit of innovation, brands can sometimes force governments to get along even when their leaders are suspicious of one another. On Sentosa, the very same resort island where Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un met, Disney is successfully opening a new theme park, despite pressure on Beijing from Chinese entertainment giant Dalian Wanda not to do so (and despite some awkward tensions with Xi Xinping and Disney property Winnie the Pooh). When it comes to establishing a more competitive environment, even the protectionist Chinese government is coming down on the side of borderless brands, and the tens of millions of Chinese consumers who are already enchanted by the influence of Disney's brand are no doubt one.

Even heavyweight brands like Google, once shy to enter the Chinese market over disagreements about censorship, have acquiesced to certain Chinese demands to establish a beachhead in Chinese markets. China's economy, with its growing consumer base and booming demand for business-to-business services is no doubt part of the reason.

Perhaps the biggest success story of a transnational brand is McDonalds, which began expanding into Asia in the 1990s, the decade most associated with exuberant globalization. Since then, the brand has won more customers and more esteem in an unbroken upward trend.

Around the world, McDonald's food is so universally consumed that The Economist uses the cost of a Big Mac, in the form of "The Big Mac Index," as a way of measuring inflation. Of the magazine's 1.5 million readers from Beijing to New York to Buenos Aires, there is likely not a single one who can't immediately relate. Almost no national leader nor national brand can claim that.

Economic growth is based as much on hope for the future as it is on hard facts and numbers. And that's why we need global brands to stay global at this moment in history. We need them, by their very existence, to stand for international economic collaboration and all the benefits it brings. Voters may elect governments, but every purchase is a vote for a brand, which has a duty to follow through on the promise it makes to its purchasers, no matter what stands in the way.

Brands—as ideas, promises, and trust marks—have the freedom and responsibility to reach consumers everywhere and, in doing so, the power to unite an increasingly fractured world.

Paul Suchman has built his career understanding, building, and rebuilding iconic global brands, making them resilient and relevant in the face of cultural and technological change. He has held senior positions with CBRE, BBDO and Ogilvy, and serves on the advisory board of USC's Marshall School of Business. He also currently serves as CMO-in-residence with WPP.

We Need Brands to Stay Bigger than Nations (original) (raw)

Paul Suchman

Brands remain a powerful force for international collaboration

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