RoperASW Reports On 'Global Cooling'
July 18 2003
Consumers in most countries feel closer to their own culture than they did a few years ago, and more distant from American culture, according to the recent Roper Reports 2003 Worldwide study. Some of the likely causes are short-term and results vary with region, but generally consumers are more likely to be thinking as well as acting local.
RoperASW studied consumer attitudes in more than 30 countries, and identified growing antipathy to US brands and shifting attitudes towards American culture. There has been a broad increase in the number of consumers who feel distant to American culture with an average jump of 2 percentage points from 1999. The strongest increases were in:
| Taiwan | 49% | (+20) |
| Argentina | 74% | (+17) |
| Thailand | 60% | (+13) |
| Hong Kong | 34% | (+12) |
| France | 50% | (+10) |
| Poland | 39% | (+10) |
Local affinity meanwhile is on the rise with two-thirds (66%) of global consumers feeling closer to their own culture than they did a few years ago (up 5 percentage points from 1999). 'Closeness' to local culture has risen the most in:
| Japan | 52% | (+20) |
| Venezuela | 84% | (+13) |
| Indonesia | 73% | (+13) |
| Turkey | 78% | (+13) |
| Australia | 70% | (+12) |
The study also measures the market strength of nearly 40 leading brands from across the globe, looking at familiarity, likeability and usage. Of 10 brands improving their rating this year only one was American. Consumers also ranked the level of trust they felt for leading companies from around the world, and it is clear that the corporate scandals of the last year have made an impression, with American organizations dominating the bottom of the list.
According to Tom Miller, MD of RoperASW 'The winds of consumer change were in motion well before the US entered Iraq. A confluence of factors including rising nationalism, economic uncertainty, and corporate scandals have led to 'global cooling' and a weariness of American culture'.
The Roper Reports 2003 Worldwide study is based on 1,000 in-depth, in-person interviews with consumers age 13 to 65 in each of 30 or more countries each year. The sample is nationally representative of the population in North America and Western Europe and the urban population in other regions, and excludes lower-income groups in Latin America, developing Asia and Africa. Results are projectable to 1.3 billion consumers worldwide.
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
