Selling America abroad

Quite an interesting poll discussed at Slate. The thrust is that some "American" companies are perceived as being more American than others, and thus less desirable to European consumers.

I've no doubt that some things will always be perceived as more or less Americans -- whether this is in fact a bad thing in the long run, as the marketers imply, is less certain. Is Guinness not desirable in part because of its perceived Irishness? (It's now owned by UK-based Diageo). Is a Ferrari not sexy partly because it's Italian? And BMWs not revered because of their German engineering?

National connections don't have to be a bad thing at all. They just won't be universally attached to products. Smart companies will just have to figure out when to play it up and when not to.