Pop quiz: name the country of origin for each of the following brands (no cheating—put away your smartphone.)

1.       Estée Lauder

2.       Samsung

3.       Häagen-Dazs 

Now raise your hand if you said that Estée Lauder is a French company? Wrong—it’s American. Samsung products are made in Japan, right? Nope—South Korea. Häagen-Dazs ice cream is clearly made in Scandinavia or Sweden…or somewhere in northern Europe? Wrong again. It’s made right here in the USA and always has been.

This game could be played with any number of recognizable global brands. But does it matter if a consumer doesn’t know which country produces the makeup she just bought?

Not necessarily for the companies, according to Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, a UNC business professor who researches global marketing. Americans often assume Estée Lauder is a French company because we associate fine cosmetics with beautiful European women. But it’s unlikely that Estée Lauder would suffer if more of us knew it was an American company. American consumers tend to trust American companies.

Samsung, on the other hand, might suffer more.  Studies have shown that U.S. consumers are more likely to have negative associations with products made in South Korea. Steenkamp researches the stereotypes associated with developing countries, and figures out how companies can overcome those stereotypes. In his new book, Brand Breakout: How Emerging Market Brands Will Go Global, Steenkamp and his colleague from the London Business School outline different strategies for brands in emerging markets.  

 “The single most important negative connotation that emerging brands have to overcome is the perception of low quality,” Steenkamp says.

American consumers have a nuanced view about the quality of U.S. products versus British, German, or Japanese products. “Americans are firmly convinced that Italian suits are better than American suits, but they don’t feel that way about Italian cars,” Steenkamp says. “German fashion is not going to make a big splash in the United States. But Italian or French fashion would.”

And then there are clothes, or other products, from emerging markets, like India, China, or Mexico, which most American consumers don’t take the time to separate or characterize. “Across the board, they are assumed to be of lower quality,” Steenkamp says.  

So how do brands overcome these negative perceptions?  

Steenkamp describes several different approaches. For example, when Japanese companies began manufacturing cars in the 60s, they started out with cheap products but slowly improved the quality and raised the price over time. For decades, Japanese cars were considered to be shoddy vehicles. Now they receive higher consumer report ratings than many American cars.      

Another approach is to redefine the stereotypes associated with the country of origin. India is a poor country that many outsiders associate with poverty, hunger, and overpopulation. But Dabur, a natural beauty-care line in India, reminds consumers that India is home to a heritage of healing arts and spirituality. The company markets its products using terminology from the ancient healing rituals of Ayurveda. “Their marketing focuses on balancing the spirit, the mind, and the body,” Steenkamp says. “Most people don’t really understand it, but it sounds good.”

A company may also go in the opposite direction. Instead of trying to highlight positive associations with the country, the company simply leaves its country out of the branding. Samsung and LG are both from South Korea, but most consumers assume those products come from Japan. But the companies don’t make an effort to correct that misconception because they recognize that it helps their brands.

Is this approach fair to consumers? “There are instances where managers and their companies are clearly misleading consumers; that is ethically wrong and not a good strategy,” Steenkamp says. But barring flat-out deception, and looking at it from the other side, he says, “there are brands that just want an honest chance to overcome prejudice, and this approach allows them to do that.”   

In fact, Steenkamp says a more neutral brand name, like LG, can be beneficial for American consumers. Because many Americans are wary of buying products from foreign markets, they might miss out on a good deal. Emerging-market brands sell their products at a lower price than their Western counterparts do. “Consumers may reject a brand because it comes from a certain country,” Steenkamp says. “But if they would give the brand a chance, they’d get much better value for their money.”  

Whatever the approach, emerging markets are set on becoming bigger players in the global economy—none more so than China. Steenkamp predicts that we will see a major influx of Chinese brands over the next decade or two. “Brands are where the profits are, and China is set on making more profit.”

Wages for workers in China have increased so dramatically—300 percent in the last 10 years—that Chinese companies can no longer get away with cheap manufacturing. But financing higher wages for workers is only part of the incentive to push Chinese brands into the global market. “There is not a single country in the world that has risen to global economic prominence without developing its own global brands,” Steenkamp says. “When I talk to Chinese people, they tell me they feel it is their national duty to develop brands.”    

Steenkamp’s book includes eight different strategies for brands in emerging markets, and he did that intentionally. “It’s important to have eight,” he says. “Eight is a lucky number in China.”



Jan-Benedict Steenkamp is the Knox Massey Distinguished Professor of Marketing and area chair of marketing in the Kenan-Flagler Business School. He and his colleague from the London Business School, Nirmalya Kumar, wrote Brand Breakout: How Emerging Market Brands Will Go Global.