Attitudes toward American brands and Brand America in three Pacific Rim countries

A study of 556 students at colleges and universities in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore explored the relationship between attitudes toward the United States and brand attitudes and preferences. Singaporean student attitudes toward both the U.S. government and U.S. people were higher than were those of the Australia and Hong Kong students. Coke, Nike and McDonald’s were among both the most liked and disliked U.S. brands among the international students, a finding which suggests that brands may possess both “lovemark” status, as described in the literature, and its opposite -- “loathemark” status -- within the same demographic group. U.S. Brand Preference scores did not offer support for the belief that international consumers ‘vote with their pocketbooks’ by refusing to purchase U.S. brands if they have a negative attitude toward the United States. Among Hong Kong and Singaporean students, favorable attitudes toward the purchase of U.S. brands was found to be positively related to favorability toward the U.S. government.