Patriot Games:
Consumer Preferences for National Products

Latin America consists of many countries of different population sizes. The smaller countries are not self-sufficient in terms of many consumer product items. For example, it may not be economically viable to build an automobile manufacturing plant in Honduras for the sole purpose of meeting local demand. Therefore, many consumer items have to be imported. But a heavy reliance on importing may lead to a negative national balance of payment.

In the past, governments have discouraged imports through the erection of protectionist tariffs and quotas. Such actions incur retaliatory measures from other countries, so that the net result may be one of mutually assured economic stagnation. The contemporary theory of economic liberalization calls for the lowering of these trade barriers, so that all the countries can benefit from the growth of their export sectors everywhere.

In practice, one would not expect these economic developments to occur in an even and symmetrical manner across and within nations. That is to say, some countries and some sectors may perform better than others, for the moment at least. One of the consequences of the uneven development is that there is much anxiety about job losses in some countries and sectors due to the influx of cheap import goods. People in some countries have therefore called for its citizens to purchase products manufactured in their nations as a way to save local jobs.

In the Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica study, we asked the following question: "I prefer to buy products manufactured in my own country." We should make it clear that we did not ask for the reason for the preference, which means that we do nto know whether this was for reason(s) of price, quality and/or image. Across Latin America, 67% agreed with this statement. As shown in Table 1 below, there does not appear to be a large difference between the gender groups. Older people are slightly more likely to agree with the statement.

Table 1: % Agree by Age/Sex

According to Table 2 below, there are greater differences among the countries. There are really some very different situations here.

• The two largest countries, Brazil and Mexico, are by and large self-sufficient for most consumer product items, and they each have a highly developed and sophisticated home-grown consumerist society. These two countries have the highest percent of people who prefer to buy products manufactured in their own countries, because the products are available and of good quality.
• The two countries that have espoused the policies of economic liberalization, Argentina and Chile, have populations that are least likely to prefer locally manufactured products.
• The smaller countries in Central America and the Caribbean region are not self-sufficient in many consumer products, and product quality and marketing may not be as good. This causes lower than average preferences for national products.

Table 2: % Agree by Geographical Region

We can also look in terms of our standard segmentation schemes. In Table 3 below, we see that the preference for national product decreases with increasing socio-economic level. The more affluent people are less price-sensitive as well as more brand-aware and image-conscious, and gravitate more towards the imports.

But the biggest gap in preferences are between the Global Professionals at 38% (affluent college-educated young professionals and managers with multiple interests and hobbies) and the Concerned Traditionalists at 94% (middle-aged housewives concerned about their families and values). In point of fact, the preference for national products is one of the defining factors of these groups.

Table 3: % Agree by Socioeconomic Level and Psychographic Segment

The above discussion is premised upon the assumption that consumers have correct ideas as to which brands and products are domestically produced. In practice, this may not be so easy. Constance Classen cites an example of a woman from Northwestern Argentina, who grew up with Coca Cola all around her. When the subject of Coca Cola's status as an import was brought up, the woman asked: "But isn't Coca Cola Argentine?" Nevertheless, the above results still have significant relevance with respect to consumer perceptions.

(posted by Roland Soong, August 22nd, 1997)

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