American-made goods suffer abroad due to U.S. policies

[JI7]

<Marketing experts say Hormel has little choice but to market Spam as a British product in light of foreign consumers' views about America.

A poll released in October by Seattle-based Global Market Insite shows that people in China, Japan, Germany and other industrialized Western nations are less willing today to purchase American brands — notably Starbucks, Marlboro and Mattel — than before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

More than half of those surveyed cite an increasingly negative perception of the U.S., while 20 percent say they'll avoid its products due to America's position on foreign affairs.

"An actual decrease in purchasing is likely if a product is closely associated with America and there is a good non-American substitute," said Mitchell Eggers, chief operating officer at Global Market.

The poll of 8,000 consumers found that American companies such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Levi's are less likely to be boycotted because there are limited alternatives overseas.>

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2896788