• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, February 12, 2008

While it would be easy to blame the world's increasingly negative view of America and its brands on politics, a new report from consumer research firm Iconoculture says that Gen Y is also part of the unraveling.

"It's true that 'Brand America'--brands seen around the world as primarily American--have been devalued and tarnished by world events," says Jeff Yang, vice president/global view consumer strategist of the Minneapolis-based firm. "But it's also true that the entire idea of nation brands is starting to fall apart." For one thing, he says, consumers around the world are less inclined to believe any 'Made in ____' label. "Chrysler might be an American brand, but it's got a German owner, and the car you buy may well have been built in Canada or Mexico."

But another big issue is that younger consumers--especially Gen Y, with its passion for cheap airfares to any place off the beaten path--"are increasingly cosmopolitan. These are consumers who embrace products because they are unfamiliar, not because they are familiar."

In its survey, based on cultural "fluents" in 17 world markets, Iconoculture identified a few brands that had become "nowhere" brands --so universal that most consumers don't perceive them as having a national identity. Coca-Cola, of course, falls in this category, Yang tells Marketing Daily. "But so does Visa International, and consumers really do believe 'It's everywhere you want to be'."

In addition, the report isolated five brands--Apple, Disney, Harley Davidson, Nike and Starbucks--that have bucked the trend, and are somehow seen as brands that exist on an entirely different global plain, appealing to core values that transcend national identity. "Apple has come to stand for self-expression, for example," Yang says. "Nike has come to mean the ultimate in status, in achievement, and in victory. Harley Davidson is about rebellion."

"People know these brands are American," he says, "but even in cultures that are extremely anti-American, these brands seem to be almost Teflon, vaccinating themselves against negative attitudes toward America."