In time for the 4th of July, a survey of 4,500 consumers selected to represent the US population was conducted by New York-based branding researching firm Brand Keys to know which brands are perceived as “patriotic.” 197 famous brand names in 35 categories were researched. Especially around Independence Day, marketers “waving the US flag” will motivate consumers more positively toward their brands.
Which brands own the emotional deepest patriotic brand equity? A few surprises. Jeep leads (the brand known for winning WWII and now the symbol of American ruggedness and adventure), with Coca Cola 3rd, Harley-Davidson 13th and Walmart 22nd. Although General Motors brands, including Chevrolet, use a lot of American patriotism ad themes, none ranks in the top 25 brands (Ford is 16th). The top 25 most patriotic brands, or at least perceived as such, are listed after the jump.
1. Jeep (98%)
2. Hershey’s (tie, 97%)
3. Coca-Cola (tie, 97%)
4. Levi Strauss (tie, 95%)
5. Walt Disney (tie, 95%)
6. Colgate (94%)
7. Zippo (93%)
8. Wrigley’s (92%)
9. Ralph Lauren (91%)
10. Kodak (tie, 90%)
11. Gillette (tie, 90%)
12. New Balance (tie, 89%)
13. Harley-Davidson (tie, 89%)
14. Budweiser (tie, 88%)
15. Marlboro (88%)
16. Ford (86%)
17. Louisville Slugger (tie, 85%)
18. Smith & Wesson (tie, 85%)
19. General Electric (84%)
20. John Deere (tie, 82%)
21. L.L. Bean (tie, 82%)
22. Walmart (81%)
23. Craftsman Tools (tie, 80%)
24. Wilson Sporting Goods (tie, 80%)
25. Wrangler apparel (tie, 80%)
Interesting. Harley is losing its American stamp. It saysa lot.
Colgate and Zippo are in the top 10? Just because your lighter comes with an American flag that doesn’t make it a patriotic company. People are dumb, ugh.
Jeep is owned by Fiat
Levi is NOT made in USA anymore
Harley has lots of non-American parts
The USA is going th way of the Roman Empire
The irony is that many of these companies sell goods made in China.
Jeep is about the most Patriot brand name there is. Not surprised to see it’s #1, however I’m VERY surprised to see Craftsman as #23?? wow….
This is clearly based upon perception and not fact. None of those clothing retailers have any significant manufacturing in the US. Remember the brush-up when the Olympic athletes wore Ralph Lauren made in China clothing? Jeep is not American owned and the parts come from everywhere; Korea, Mexico, Canada…
And how did Walmart get perceived as a patriotic company? They have done more to hollow out the American retail landscape and kill more retail jobs than anyone.
Ironically, the only 100% made in America company is probably Smith and Wesson, although I imagine some of their specialty wood stocks come from some rain forest somewhere.
Were is Colt ?Smith and Wesson worked for colt. Jeep was good back in the day ,but is now one of the biggest piece of crap built today !!
It would be interesting to be informed of where exactly the marketing evaluation took place, ie: an up-market area, slum (to use an extreme) or a complete mix. As this would certainly affect the outcome, no?
Indeed Tobby, it is perception and not fact and we should not forget that our perception holds more weight in many choices than facts do!
I’ve read that the new Indian Motocycle Co has embraced the Made in USA theme and wants to make their new bikes with all USA manufactured goods. They’ve ingrained Made in America in their corporate culture and marketing programs. They even bought a clothing company in Idaho to insure the quality of the riding gear with their name on it. Meanwhile, HD is becoming less and less American made and I won’t be surprised to see more parts from India on Harley’s in the future. We’ll see but someday we might consider Indian more patriotic than HD. Time will tell.
I’m surprised at Ralph Lauren ranks so high in American patriotism. I’d guess almost all of their merchandise is made overseas. Wal-Mart is loaded with Chinese product and are known for underpaying and not offering benefits to their ‘associates’ . I know first hand that they have zero allegiance to American made goods plus they’ll kick you out of their stores if someone can sell them for a penny less. Some patriots.
Levi’s are made in Bangladesh. I lost count of the number of workers killed in their factories in the last months. I think it’s around 1000. Not much on the list solely American made. ..Z
Jeep leads (the brand known for winning WWII ) LOL
History being rewritten as I read.
Mad Dog,The Russians won WWII by decimating the Germans on the eastern front.The Jeeps just cruised to Berlin after most of the real the real fighting was done.Why fight when some other country will do the dying for you,or from the safety of high altitude bombers? ” (the brand known for winning WWII ) LOL” : LOL.
“Jeep leads (the brand known for winning WWII “…
and that’s they rank #1 – because of that one army model shown above – because everybody would want to buy one and have a vehick with no doors – one that can sit out in the rain, drain from the floorboards – wipe the seats off with a towel and drive off like a native. That’s why the jeep is rated #1, because everyone dreams of fining one covered in cosmoline, in a crate with the wheels stacked in the back seat…. not the modern peeling paint from a skip-dipped rust treatment stage of painting. Think?
The people who run the jeep salvage/parts yard in Otay Mesa near the US/Mex border know where every single W-2 jeep is in San Diego County, no matter the condition or hybrid. For a fact.
I’m having a little problem understanding on how a foreign car company (Fiat) can have the most U.S. Patriotic Brand (Jeep).
It wouldn’t surprise me if 80% of the U.S. public still think Chrysler is a U.S. Company!
Terence, you need to spend a little more time with the history books. The 8th Air Force lost over 4,145 pilots and crew over Europe during WWII. Not a lot of “safety” in high altitude bombing!
Also, it must be noted that Russia received a lot of equipment that was used to defeat the Germans from the Lend Lease program. (I.E. United States)
Your comment ” why fight when some other country will do the dying for you”
is a little disturbing. More American servicemen and women have died for freedom around the world than any other nation.
Smitty,in WWII The Russians lost between 9 and 20 million military personnel and the U.S. lost a lot less than 1/2 a million.Your last sentence has no basis in reality.Avoid Herman Hermann,he is not a military historian.Patriotism is one thing,facts is another. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_War_II_Casualties2.svg .There is no accounting for any human loss,but there are figures.
As little as 5 years ago, I had a few friends in high places with Harley-Davidson and knew a ton of folks that worked at Buell. I see a very common misconception on here quite often, and that is the misconception that a new Harley-Davidson has “a bunch of foreign parts on it.” It simply isn’t (or wasn’t) true.
While the Showa forks are Japanese, and some other parts are imported, the domestic content of a new bike coming down the line is (or was 5 years ago) well over 90%. Many of the parts are indeed American made on a new bike, while the replacement parts that we buy over the counter are imported. A lot of that has to do with taxes and tariffs.
I’m certainly not defending the Motor Company, as I find many of their business practices distasteful to say the least, but when a guy tells you he bought an import because “it has just as many American parts as a Harley does” he’s mistaken.
Enjoy the 4th, everyone, and stay safe out there.
How do they define “Patriotic”? (They don’t, by the way)
Polaris Industries is an American brand that has built its own entire lines of snowmobiles, watercraft (now defunct), ATV’s, Side x Sides, founded its own Motorcycle brand (Victory) and the first company to ever really put some “meat” behind reviving one of our great lost motorcycle brands (Indian). And they have an entire military division that makes specialty vehicles for our troops (bad ass ATVs & SxS’s beefed up to survive a parachute drop into a battlefield fully laden with supplies & ammo and some featuring a ma-deuce mounted on top). They have administrative offices, R&D facilities, manufacturing & production facilities, warehousing facilities and final assembly facilities all over the mid-west. Think of all the Americans they have employed in doing all this over the years (founded in 1954). I ask, how many of those brands’ products in that list above will you regularly find supporting our troops on today’s battlefields with critical equipment?
This is the 2nd sham survey I’ve seen reported this week that uses charged words like “Patriotism” and shoddy research methods just to grab some headlines. This isn’t “news”, its an attempt by the New York firm who conducted this whole misguided effort to get some free advertising for itself under the false-pretense of editorial coverage.
(Forgive spelling/typos… Banged out on my tiny mobile phone.)
People are living in the past if they believe all that hype of patriotic brands. Those days are long gone! We live in the new global society run by CEOs and Boards who only care about their personal pocket books and lack any sense of nationalism or patriotism.
Walmart can’t even tell you exactly where the beef they sell comes from! It says made in Canada/USA/Mexico. Could be in any one of those nations. Must be a result of NAFTA, that we’re considered a continent instead of three individual nations these days. Most of the jobs from “American” companies are outsourced overseas where working conditions can’t be criticized or held to the same level as American jobs.
It’s pathetic how far we have slid into the cesspool of globalism just to pad the pockets of the greedy CEOs/Boards, citizens of our nation be damned! Sorry, there’s no work here, but we do have Uncle Sam that will pay you for not working through government assistance or perhaps you can claim a disability and lounge around that way…
Terence. You’ve been drinking too much cool-Aid! The United States lost over a 1/2 million (your numbers) soldiers fighting for the freedom of Europe and Asia. The Russians lost between 9 million and 20 million (again your numbers) fighting for their own preservation. The reason for Russia’s high number if casualties was because Stalin had gutted the officer Corps prior to the war thus leaving them with little leadership and because the army was ill equipped to do their job.
Marketing is just another way for companies to get you to buy their products. The research by Brand Keys will only further that goal.
Anyway, reading through some of the comments and seeing how these people believe it’s companies who are at fault for the globalization of products sold in the USA. The sad reality is we brought this on ourselves by buying products not made in the USA. People of the US decided they wanted their products to be cheaper and the corporations out there made sure that happened.
Smitty,The Russians and the other Allied powers were allies fighting the same enemy.So the Russians fought for “preservation” and the US/Allies fought for “freedom”? They say that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel,I say it is the refuge of the historically illiterate in your case at least.That people still believe this self-righteous and myopic patriotic guff that is about as real as John Wayne’s shoulder pads amazes me.That’s a “patriot” for you,I guess.History’s numbers are not “my numbers”.Spent less time with Herman Hermann.
Will,It’s not purchasing power that has changed the big manufacturing countries productivity positions around the world.It was Milton Friedman’s globalization philosophy implemented by many western govts worldwide twenty-five years ago.I can’t think of any big U.S.brand name that designs or manufactures any quality consumer product that I would buy unless it was on somebody else’s credit card.Globalisation means we don’t have to buy junk like AMF Harleys and Detroit’s V-8 guzzle-boxes any more,and that’s great.Just about every thing I touch during the course of a normal day was made by little yellow people,and that is good.The”good old days” weren’t that good.
I think that you and some other readers don’t understand that this research is about perception, not reality. The public at large doesn’t know and most of the time is not interesting to know how corporations function. American companies who produce abroad are still US corporations employing Americans. Even when a US corporation is owned in part by a foreign corp., it’s still a US corporation because incorporated in a US State. The perception of patriotism has nothing to do with producing for the army. Corporations manufacture for the army for money reason, not by patriotism. Come on. How dumb are you? Patriotism is a very different concept.
Manny. Polaris can built whatever for the US army, it’s completely foreign to the concept of being a patriotic company. I agree with Gary. Polaris just found a market and makes money with it. Fine. If Polaris sells to Chinese or Japanese or Europeans, does it mean the company is not patriotic? Of course not. Your demonstration is ludicrous. And fyi, a lot of things in life are about perception, not reality. Marketing and advertising techniques are for this purpose. Form, modify, correct perception.
People don’t understand the status of being a US corporation. The citizenship of a corporation is where it is incorporated, not where production is made.
Moore Sensible, 90% US made is nonsense.In the case of the Buell Lightning the wheels and forks came from Japan,and the alloy frame was made in Italy.Sportster gearbox gears cogs came from the U.K.last time I was told by a authorized H-D mechanic.H-D should have moved it’s entire factory to China a decade ago and kept it’s R&D and design studios in America.If I held H-D shares that’s what I’d vote for.I can’t wait to see if the Indian H-D factory pumps out 500cc Harleys as good as a Jap bike.
Terrance: Purchasing power, the consumer, is what controls the market. A company can manufacture products all they want, but if the consumer doesn’t buy it they will stop making it no matter where it’s manufactured.
Your example of the AMF years of Harley is a perfect example of this dynamic. Quality went down, bike sales went down, and Harley was almost bankrupt. Purchasing power showed AMF exactly what the consumer wanted and it was not Harley.
Your example of the American V8 is another good one. Until a gas crisis happens, nobody worries about how efficient an engine is because gas is cheap and plentiful. When gas becomes short and prices rise, people start complaining about the price of gas and the fuel efficiency of their cars engine. Car companies start loosing money on their vehicles and start investing in R&D to make them more fuel efficient. Again purchasing power showed car companies where to invest their R&D so people would purchase their vehicles again, including V8 equipped vehicles. This happened in the 70’s and is happening now.
And globalization was beginning to happen much earlier than 25 years ago. But that’s not the point of all of this. The point is, if people want made in USA (not just assembled in USA), purchasing power is what it will take to get companies to do it.
Take it for what it is-a snapshot of how the people polled were thinking and a way for those companies to giggle and high 5 that so many people are so ignorant. Personally I love the new ads for the FIAT 500 where it’s implied they’re all swimming over to the US from the Mediterranean or the Revolutionary War soldier screaming, “The Italians are coming! the Italians are coming!”. All for a craptastic little shitbox from a plant in Toluca, Mexico 🙁
Harley isn’t even an American company anymore. Every part they sell is made in Taiwan.
Typical survey BS! They asked 4,500 of our 314 MILLION population a question and tell world what you and I believe.
If they think that I think that I should think like they think the rest of America thinks, I think thy have another think coming.
Dave Smith. You seem very uneducated about the way surveys are done and about the marketing techniques used since many, many years. They are very reliable. You never need to interview each habitant of a country to know what an entire country is thinking. You just sample the population with a group of individuals with the same socio demographics, affiliations, etc than the whole country. A good sample will give you results within a 1 to 3% margin or error. It’s the way polls are made before elections, at poll exits, etc. And the results are 99% accurate. To state that the results are BS because it’s not what you think is BS. Nobody is asking you to think or to feel like others. This survey tells you how others think or feel, that’s it. Just fyi, not to convince you of anything. I bet you never went beyond high school.
Thanks for the lecture. It’s great to know that the 1st amendment is alive and well, even for pompous a$$es like yourself.
I’ve polled 27 people and 98% agree that holding a Masters degree qualifies as being educated. That result is accurate 3% points as representing the opinion of the majority of readers of this site.
Dave Smith,the current lernin trend is many people are credentialed,but very few are educated.It is a error common in the late self esteem age.