For some people abroad, a Jim beam and Coke does not descend as easily as in the past.
Business which means that some of the biggest American brands have noted different degrees of pain because some consumers abroad avoid their products to protest President Donald TrumpThe trade war.
Globally, consumers are less likely to buy many major American brands than they were a few months ago, the survey data published at the end of last month by Morning Consult.
“This suggests that foreign consumers uniquely choose certain American brands because of their country of origin,” said the report.
American companies are already faced with many problems due to prices, mainly in the form of growled supply chains and higher import costs. The backlash abroad indicates another problem: what happens when the connection of a brand with America begins to become a responsibility instead of an argument of sale?
In Mexico, for example, the share of customers who declared that they were “absolutely some” to buy a Coca-Cola product in the near future went from 40% in January to 28% in February before rebounding at 34% in April, according to Morning Consult data.
The CEO of Coca-Cola, James Quincey, said that some Latin consumers in the United States and Mexico had fell their purchases of company products during the first quarter after the videos circulating on social networks in February, without proof, that Coke had brought some of his own employees to the American immigration authorities.
Quincey said that the videos were “completely false, but they have an impact on the business” anyway.
McDonald’s The CEO, Chris Kempczinski, said in a call for results last week that the fast food chain had not seen a success of the guests abroad raising the results in the first quarter. But the chain noted an increase in anti-American feeling in general, he said, especially in Canada and Northern Europe.
“What we have seen in our survey work is that there has been an increase in people in various markets saying that they will reduce their purchase of American brands,” said Kempczinski.
Since the beginning of the year, Suntory Holdings, based in Japan, has proven himself for a blow to Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, two brands of American whiskey he has.
Suntory expected that in 2025, American products were “less accepted by these countries outside the United States because of the first, prices and secondly, emotion,” CEO Takehi Niinami told Financial Times in February. Suntory has not answered questions about how whiskey brands have occurred in recent months.
Instead of buying products associated with the United States, foreign consumers could transfer their expenses to local brands. This is already happening in Canada, where Buyers avoid American products In grocery stores and other retailers in favor of Canadian manufacturing equivalents.
“The risk for American brands is that the growing antagonism of consumers towards the United States resulting from an assault of prices emanating from Washington will lead them to seek alternative goods and services provided by local and foreign (non-American) brands,” wrote Morning Consction in his April report.
All the major American brands that sell abroad do not feel the same pinch.
Tapestry, the company that makes luxury handbags and other accessories under the coach and Kate Spade New York brands, said on Thursday that it saw no slowdown in sales due to anti-American feeling abroad.
Levi Strauss & Co., the Jeans brand, said that its sales had not been affected either.
Financial director Harmit Singh said during a call for results in April that “we are rooted with local consumers” in other countries. He added that in some international markets, Levi Strauss has been selling jeans for several decades.
“Right now, international affairs are quite strong,” said Singh.