The World Agrees: U.S. Best At Technology, Health And Entertainment

NEW YORK, APRIL 13, 2000 - New research from the Angus Reid Group shows that most countries believe the U.S. is the best at producing everyday products and services used around the world, especially computer technology and entertainment. As well, most believe the U.S. leads the world in advances in health and medicine and financial services.

The Angus Reid World Poll asked individuals in 17 countries to name the country or region they think is best at producing cars, food products, computer technology, financial services, travel & tourism services, advances in health & medicine, and movies. On almost all counts, the 9,075 respondents to the study identified the U.S. as the best in the world. And, somewhat surprisingly, when given a chance of picking their own country or region, non-U.S. residents picked the U.S. over their own.

"It was very gratifying to find that people around the world were able to break through their nationalistic and cultural biases and believe that a particular region was the best at producing a particular product," said Edward Morawski, a New York-based researcher with the Angus Reid Group.

"For example, in Hong Kong, more people believed that the Europeans are better at producing cars than their Asian neighbors (41% v. 34%). Another example is Financial Services where the US is perceived in almost all countries as being the leader in this field. And the Japanese believe the U.S. is better than they are at computer technology and financial services by a wide margin."

Morawski believes the findings have important implications when it comes to building global brands.

"If you are a European or Asian conglomerate trying to become a global financial services brand you may not necessarily want to push your regional heritage too much. However, if, say, you are a global consumer bank like Citibank, being known as an American company could be quite a positive piece of your brand architecture."

Despite Hollywood's "love-to-hate" image, it still seems to be the movie making capital of the world. Eight in ten people globally thought that when it comes to making movies the US is the best. Even in culturally sensitive places such as France or Japan, the US dominated.

"It sure makes you rethink the cultural backlash phenomena we have been hearing so much about," said Morawski.

However, the US still lags behind Asia and Europe when it comes to producing cars. Even within the US only 4 in 10 people picked the US as the best at producing cars (38% picked Asia and 18% picked Europe). Europe, on the other hand, occupies a strong position and received virtually the same number of mentions globally as Asia.

Methodology These results emerged from an international public opinion survey conducted by the Angus Reid Group. This poll involved interviews among a total of 9,075 adults in 17 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Data collection was carried out in February of 2000.

The target sample size was 500 for each country with the exception of a 1,000 sample size in the United States. In 14 of the 17 countries, the survey sample provided national representation; in the other three countries - Brazil, Mexico and Thailand - the survey sample is urban-only. In-person, door-to-door interviewing was used in these urban-only countries and in Malaysia. Telephone interviewing was used in all other countries. The complete data set was weighted so that the overall survey results reflect the proportional populations of the countries/urban areas in the sample.

About Angus Reid The Angus Reid Group is one of North America's premier market research and public opinion polling firms. The company also provides international clients with a regularly-scheduled quarterly global polling program wherein upwards of 30 countries over a two-month timeframe are sampled for opinions on private sector and public matters. The Angus Reid Group also publishes, on a quarterly basis, the World Monitor - a digest of world public opinion trends and insights gleaned from its world polling activities.

For more information on this media release, please contact:

Ed Morawski Angus Reid Group New York (212)265-3200