A Ford now as Good as a Toyota

Label: Zero Mind

'A Ford now as good as Toyota', heard across United States

Roy Morgan Update
Debnath Guharoy

Sitting in a hotel room in Detroit last week, watching a new television commercial for an old client, I couldn't believe my ears as I heard the voiceover. The mighty Ford Co. was now claiming that it was as good as a Toyota.

Two decades ago, they were "Japanese tin pots"; today they are the gold standard of family cars in the United States.

The content of the message was no surprise, but the candid admission by the inventor of the Model T to everyone over the airwaves was almost unbelievable. Hearing it in Car City added to the irony. An American icon was appealing to fellow Americans to be American and buy "Made in USA". We don't hear that in Indonesia as often as we perhaps should.

In moderation, there's nothing wrong with being tribal. Many deep down, some very vocally and a few even violently. The United Nations has more than double the number of member countries today than it had when the world body was first instituted, simply because there are more people who fight hard for their rights and their cultures.

As members o any community, we do what we can to help promote local jobs, enrich the local population, not only in our nations. That sense of national and cultural identity is expressed in different ways, even when it comes to the wallet.

Asked which countries they re "most likely to buy products made in", eight out of the Indonesians named their own country. That is a high number by any standard, a celebration of national pride and community spirit.

This finding from Roy Morgan Single Source does not mean that Indonesians will buy "Made in Indonesia" at any price or of any quality. In that sense, they are as American or Japanese or Australian or anyone else.

Value for money will always be the first priority, but "made in Indonesia" will remain a preference if every other criteria in the process of decision making is more or less equal.

The hierarchy of preferences measured does offer a few surprise. Of all other countries of manufacture, Japan leads with 56 percent of Indonesian giving them the thumbs-up. China follows with 49 percent, Germany, Korea and Australia all at 34 percent. USA is at 33 percent, Italy at 31, France at 30.

Then there's a sharp drop to Thailand at 23, Canada and India completing the Top 12 with 21 percent. The United Kingdom is no. 16 lower than Spain, Sweden and New Zealand, but ahead of Chile and South Africa.

In fairness, the question is a broad indicator of products in general. Had the questions focused on fashion or cosmetics, cars or electronics, food or beverages, the results would have been different. But the world is changing, slowly but surely. Those who are glued to the old order will find those changes discomforting.

Last month, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover brands to India's Tata Group. The automotive industry and car expect a turnaround. We are likely to see the big jaguars to be "handmade in England" at a loss, and millions of new small ones to be robot-made for aspiring car buyers across Asia.

This side of the world, Indianans got rid of their colonial hangover many years ago and hopefully Filipinos will lose the last vestiges somebody soon. That Australia's for tunes are inextricably linked with Asia's march forward is old news now.

Across the world, that adjustment is a continuing struggle for many. For the 2 billion people who live in comfort on this planet today, it should be obvious that the maintenance of their lifestyles in the future is dependent on the conversion of 2 billion on the fringe who could become consumers of more products and services, tomorrow.

Then, there's yet another 2 billion living in abject poverty who could indeed fuel further growth, the day after tomorrow.

To do this responsibility, "thinking global and acting local" will need to be more than a slogan for world-stage aspirants. Petty of not, parochial old habits die hard.

As always, a handful of courageous managers will show the way to the millions of followers doing their jobs by the book everyday without imagination. This will happen at a global level, at a regional level, at a local level and not necessarily in that order.

Today, initiatives taken at any level becomes apparent and transferable rather quickly, with technology making transfer so much easier.

Understanding and monitoring those issues seamlessly at boundaries, is the need of the hour. A fe have realized this and are working hard to put robust tools in place, shared by industries at large.

Good common tools cost a lot to build; proprietary "tunnel vision" has no value at all. Conversely, we should remember that NASA spent millions trying to invent a ballpoint pen that would write upside down in space, while the Russians settled for the good old pencil at no cost at all.

These observations are based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the largest syndicated consumer survey in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Pilot studies have also been conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The write can be contacted t Debnath.Guharoy@roymorgan.com