Pat Yourself On The Back!

The world has acknowledged that the United States is best at producing most products and services, including financial services, according to a research survey by the New York-based Angus Reid Group. The study included responses from over 9,100 people from 17 countries. And both U.S. and non-U.S. respondents picked the U.S. in almost all categories as being the best producers. For financial services, 59 percent of respondents rated U.S. as the best, compared to 21 percent for Europe and 9 percent for Asia-Pacific. Surprisingly, the Japanese believed by a wide margin that the U.S. is better at both computer technology and financial services.

The research firm says the results have broad implications for building global brands. Researcher Edward Morawski explained that European and Asian companies might not want to push their regional heritages. However, "if ... you are a global consumer bank like Citibank, being known as an American company could be quite a positive piece of your brand architecture."

Evidently we're much better at financial services than we are at building cars. That was the only category of goods where the U.S. was behind the other areas of the world. And we were behind both Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Copyright © 2001 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 11, No. 11, 11/01