The USA is known for the most and biggest global brands that have been built up over decades.
The U.S stock market has been the #1 choice for global investors.
The best brands, the best returns.
Are these famous brands and the stock market impervious to things like global peace, respect, and how ones culture is perceived?
Do you think most of America's biggest and best brands are bullet proof to any negative global perception of a country?
byu/Other_Attention_2382 ininvesting
Posted by Other_Attention_2382
14 Comments
When immigrants stop wanting to come to USA, then I’ll start to worry. Not even close to that point. So there is your free market answer.
IMO, yes.
What matters is that the fiscal environment is safe/stable/there is better money to be made. That’s not an eternal guarantee tho. But if it was the forth reich, but it was financially very successful, people would invest in it.
I don’t think they’re bulletproof, but they’re more resilient than people think. Big US brands make money globally, not just off America’s image, and most consumers separate politics from products. That said, perception does matter. You can see it in boycotts, regulation pressure, or slower growth in certain regions. It usually doesn’t kill great businesses, but it can dent margins or momentum for a while. Long term, fundamentals like cash flow, innovation, and global demand matter way more than short term sentiment about a country.
Negative global perception in the real world or on Reddit?
No
Well, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels are not immune and I’d say if they are not, none are.
Nothing’s bulletproof, but there’s a higher bar, especially in the short-to-medium term, than just some public opinion change. Network effects (if everyone you know uses WhatsApp to text then you can’t switch to something else by yourself) and ecosystem lock-in (it’s inconvenient to stop using Apple devices once you’ve started because of data migration and worse device integration) usually beat public opinion.
Especially since there isn’t a good replacement for a lot of American products. If you look at those “homegrown European tech” lists floating around, they’re all much worse products from an end-user perspective than the American ones that they can supposedly replace. A few highly politically engaged people on r/europe might be willing to use them, but asking the average person to switch from from Windows, Google Drive, and Instagram to Linux Mint, NextCloud, and BeReal for ideological reasons is a nonstarter.
For the most part yes. The tariffs had some impact on iconic brands like Harley Davidson, Jack Daniels, etc. These tend to be short term issues, that can be resolved with time. I personally won‘t buy anything from a company that is doing business in Russia. There is a reason that so many pulled out when the war began. Reputational damage matters, and has to be protected.
over the last 5-6 years I re-arranged my investments away from the US stocks and ETFs. Bought in into more Canadian and BRICS exposure.
I guess historically the LSE and European stocks just follow the s&p 500 anyway, so I’m just wondering how important brands are, compared to how more advanced the U.S market is in regards to ease that small companies can get listed, for example?
The whole ease of the investment system is better in the U.S for stocks??
Or am I wrong on that?
Costco.
I don’t believe that any person place or thing is “bulletproof”. That is a naïve conception. Even Achilles had his heel.
I don’t think that they’re immune to national reputation but what’s more of a concern is our attempts at coercion as opposed to soft power means that the positive perceptions of our products may now have a negative perception. An example is trying to sell alcoholic beverages in Canada or other parts of the world.
We have a brewery in my town that’s been here since at least the 1980s and they are closing in 2026. I’ve heard other companies are stopping production in 2026 as they have too much inventory and need sales to use it up.
One of the other things is that there is more competition. The rest of the world is economically weak and tariffs are part of that but it means that their locals are trying harder to compete.
Yeah, real world isn’t like Reddit. There’s plenty of people who act based on those instincts as well, obviously, but usually they can not afford things so they don’t matter much for brands. Nor does their stance.