Global good, but local better: APAC view on brands

For all the column inches written about the clash between global and local brands in Asia-Pacific, it turns out consumers have lots of time for both, even though local love is definitively increasing.

The findings are part of McCann Worldgroup’s latest Truth About Global Brands study, from which the APAC findings were launched yesterday in Singapore. McCann surveyed 24,000 people across 29 markets, including 8,500 from nine APAC markets: Australia, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Japan and Korea.

Of those surveyed in APAC, 59% said when it comes to trust, they think of local brands (the global average was 56%) a 19% increase since the first iteration of the study in 2015.

Yet coupled with this is the fact that 85% of APAC respondents said global brands have the power to make the world better, highlighting that local love is not coming entirely at the expense of global brands. But, McCann said, global brands have to make a better case for their value to APAC consumers: 46% agreed with the statement “it would be better if global brands would disappear forever”, compared to 41% of global respondents.

More broadly, APAC consumer consider themselves ‘global citizens’, more so than other regions, and believe globalisation has expanded their opportunities (85% versus 79% globally). In a world where unease and conflict are becoming the new normal, APAC consumers also value truth more than those in other regions, with APAC respondents requiring twice as many sources as North Americans or Europeans before they’re convinced.

“At a time when the world is becoming angrier, scarier and more intolerant, people across Asia-Pacific are handing global brands a serious mandate: they want brands to help stitch up some of the tears in the social fabric, to appeal to our more communitarian nature,” said Judd Labarthe, McCann APAC regional planning director.

“Local brands are definitely on the rise, but global brands enjoy much greater influence, so long as they wield it sensitively.”