The “King” has a new country. Burger King becoming a Canadian brand has some people up in arms, screeching about lack of patriotism and even calling for a boycott now that it is a foreign brand. (Oddly, the same people complaining about Burger King benefiting from “tax inversion” and questioning its patriotism are totally fine with Google’s elaborate Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich, Cayman Island tax avoidance schemes and the fact that GE parks $108 billion overseas to bring its tax rate to just over 7%.)
History has shown that foreign brands do quite well in the U.S. 47% of the top 100 brands in the U.S. are foreign–many of them dominating their categories. And most American consumers have no idea what “nationality” their brands might be. Few American’s can name the nationality of brands like Shell, Haier, or Adidas. Frankly, for many brands, determining nationality is almost impossible. Volkswagen has a reputation for being a German brand, but many designs come from India, with parts from China, tooling in Pennsylvania and assembly in Mexico.