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I think Tim was referring to taste in a broader sense than what us in your mouth.
Certainly English Tailoring, quality British Motor Marques, music, Scotch and English Gin, movies and television are seen as more refined by the upper classes in the US, now that's not in exclusion to other countries, I'm partial to Armani suits (tailored not off the peg and protected from angry spouses) and Italian Sports cars (though I've never owned one ) and I'm British.
Further if I have something of great value that needed insuring then Lloyds of London is my first and only choice.
In that context then I tend to agree with Tim that the UK can be a marketable brand.
Any higher priced Western European imported product historically implied better quality, regardless of the country of origin. The US only became the cultural export center (in a broad sense) in the XX century, especially with Hollywood and after the war. Until then, the centers of high fashion and high quality were in Europe. Also, until recently, it would be very hard for the European produced mass-market cheap stuff to compete with US produced cheap stuff, so the European imports tended to be at the higher end of the market. So European came to mean quality. Of course now with proliferation of cheap Euro brands like Ikea and Aldi, the lines are being blurred a bit.
And I am not sure that the "upper classes in the US" necessarily see Scotch and English Gin as better than high quality American whiskey. Of course there are some Scotch whiskeys that sell for $400,000 a bottle, and an assortment of Scotch and Japanese whiskeys for over $1000 a bottle, but that's niche product that you can't base your export strategy on.
In the "expensive whiskey that people actually drink" category, Scotland is very well represented - but so is Kentucky.
I think the UK can really be a marketable brand, but it has to understand the American buyers first. Give us something we can't get from the local producers, at the price we can actually afford. The best examples of the UK made stuff that's very popular in the US is the Mini Cooper (although it does have a lot of German blood now), some alcoholic beverages, some lines of clothing, tea. (Not getting into the culture related things here).
Any higher priced Western European imported product historically implied better quality, regardless of the country of origin. The US only became the cultural export center (in a broad sense) in the XX century, especially with Hollywood and after the war. Until then, the centers of high fashion and high quality were in Europe. Also, until recently, it would be very hard for the European produced mass-market cheap stuff to compete with US produced cheap stuff, so the European imports tended to be at the higher end of the market. So European came to mean quality. Of course now with proliferation of cheap Euro brands like Ikea and Aldi, the lines are being blurred a bit.
Aldi is cheaper but surely not lower quality. I can't remember that the leading German consumer organization ever revealed a mediocre test result for an Aldi FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) If quality is particularly important for a specific FMCG then I will buy it at Aldi or Lidl of course (toothpaste or sun milk come to mind).
Quite a few Americans still think "You get what you pay for". But that's absolutely not true for FMCG.
Comparing Ikea and Aldi seems rather odd. Ikea sells mostly cheaply made crap for unjustified high prices. I don't say that everything at Ikea is crap, but overall it's low-end quality throwaway furniture. It would be ok if Ikea would sell their stuff cheap, but for the given quality it's completely overpriced. You can see it at their extremely high profit margins. Ikea is a complete rip-off. Other furniture chains offer similar crap at far lower prices. The parents of the Ikea founder were Germans. Ikea actually stands for "Idioten kaufen einfach alles" = "Idiots just buy everything". Ok, that was a joke
Aldi is the complete opposite. They sell good quality fast moving consumer goods at very low prices.
Aldi is cheaper but surely not lower quality. I can't remember that the leading German consumer organization ever revealed a mediocre test result for an Aldi FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) If quality is particularly important for a specific FMCG then I will buy it at Aldi or Lidl of course (toothpaste or sun milk come to mind).
Quite a few Americans still think "You get what you pay for". But that's absolutely not true for FMCG.
Comparing Ikea and Aldi seems rather odd. Ikea sells mostly cheaply made crap for unjustified high prices. I don't say that everything at Ikea is crap, but overall it's low-end quality throwaway furniture. It would be ok if Ikea would sell their stuff cheap, but for the given quality it's completely overpriced. You can see it at their extremely high profit margins. Ikea is a complete rip-off. Other furniture chains offer similar crap at far lower prices. The parents of the Ikea founder were Germans. Ikea actually stands for "Idioten kaufen einfach alles" = "Idiots just buy everything". Ok, that was a joke
Aldi is the complete opposite. They sell good quality fast moving consumer goods at very low prices.
I am not talking about quality of the individual chain here. Aldi is very good. (Although not everything in Aldi is top-notch, their wine quite honestly sucks).
What I am saying is that historically, the imports from Europe tended to be higher priced, higher quality, luxury or near-luxury items. The cheaper items were not very competitive. I am talking XVIII, XIX, early XX century.
The cheaper alternatives like WV Beetle, and then Aldi and Ikea (yes Ikea is overpriced crap, but still is pushing the "cheap room furnishing" idea) only started showing up relatively recently.
So yes, traditionally, European-made used to imply higher end quality.
But this is no longer the case, as VW, Ikea, Aldi, Fiat etc. were working hard in the past 50 years or so to make the "Europe" brand more mainstream. This helped the Euro companies increase sales, but it also led to the erosion of the "Made in Europe" brand, as it was no longer associated with upscale items. So now it's every brand for themselves. People are not buying BMW because it's made in Europe, they are buying it because it's BMW.
So an assertion by the poster I've originally replied to that British products will sell well in the US because they are going to be seen as "upscale" just because they're British is not quite correct. This would work a 100, perhaps even 50 years ago. Now, every brand needs to prove itself, regardless of the country of origin. I like the real tea, and I am buying either Ahmad tea (British brand, available in many different stores) or a Chinese Jasmine tea (available in small Chinese stores). I don't really care who and in what country packaged it, as long as it's good.
As for cheaply made furniture, I can imagine third world countries being competitive.
As for the original VW Beetle, it wasn't a luxury or near luxury item-but the Germans discovered that there was a niche demand for small cars in the United States.
As for cheaply made furniture, I can imagine third world countries being competitive.
As for the original VW Beetle, it wasn't a luxury or near luxury item-but the Germans discovered that there was a niche demand for small cars in the United States.
As for cheaply made furniture, I can imagine third world countries being competitive.
As for the original VW Beetle, it wasn't a luxury or near luxury item-but the Germans discovered that there was a niche demand for small cars in the United States.
I am stil yet to find any third world made furniture that isn't either homely (marketed as "quaint"), or grossly overpriced, or falling apart.
We used to come to a local store owned by a couple from Ann Arbor who bought furniture direct in China. They had many nice, unusual pieces. We still have a red lacquer, mother of pearl incrusted side table from them that's has absolutely amazing workmanship and Chinese artwork. It was $350 almost twenty years ago. They closed the shop a decade ago because the cost of procuring well made items in China went up so much, they could no longer sell them at reasonable / competitive prices here.
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