BUYING BRITISH
Published in Letters to the Editor, Marketing Week

Dear Sir,

The Marketing Week/Corporate Edge survey on perceptions of Britishness (cover story) confirms that the British brand still has an inherent strength and appeal, even among younger consumers. There is another side to this story - illustrated by the recent survey undertaken for the trade union, Amicus, which found that, across all age groups, 87% of UK consumers said that they would prefer to buy British when offered the choice.

The difficulty for consumers, however, comes in identifying products that are genuinely UK-made. Since the demise of 'Made in England' labelling and the move towards European branding, few UK manufacturers have been prepared to proclaim the British origins of their goods. Indeed, under EU rules imported goods need only be labelled with the importer's name and postcode, making it impossible for consumers to identify a product's country of origin.

The Dyson vacuum cleaner company - a British institution strongly associated with the modern entrepreneurial image of Britain - announced that it was shifting its production from Wiltshire to Malaysia (and this from a company whose founder, James Dyson, is an enthusiast for UK membership of the Single European Currency, claiming that joining the euro is the only way to safeguard British jobs). Moving production offshore, especially to the cheap-labour economies of Asia or Eastern Europe, may seem an attractive proposition for UK companies at first sight, but there are numerous hidden costs in abandoning Britain - in Dyson's case, most significantly, the loss of goodwill that comes from the growing perception that the company is being unpatriotic.

The problem is not just about UK companies shifting their manufacturing overseas. There are, however, deeper issues at work here. Britain's shift away from its longstanding role as a strong manufacturing and trading nation, to an overwhelmingly service-led economy actually endangers jobs and, ultimately, consumer safety, as goods flood in from Asia or Eastern Europe that are poorly-made and often sub-standard. Many such goods, emanating from China and elsewhere, are blatant rip-offs - illegal copies of British designed and patented products. Boosted by recent consumer surveys, such as your own, it is now up to those British manufacturers - regrettably a minority - who have kept their production facilities here in the UK, to trumpet their Britishness and their pride in the quality of their products.

Yours faithfully Andy Smith MCIJ MIPR
Director of Public Relations British Made for Quality (BMFQ)

-Ends