Brand America Must Do Better

In prior posts I’ve commented on the growing competitiveness for foreign direct investment.

How Competitive is Brand America For FDI?

The data clearly indicate Brand America is losing share of FDI inflow dollars. Both Brand Asia and Brand EU are outperforming Brand America.

Today I read an article entitled “The Next Economic Powers: The Paradigm Shift” authored by Guy de Fontgalland. Guy reports that the economists at Price Waterhouse Coopers have been studying the results of a complex statistical model and have concluded that unless something unexpected happens, the G7 nations (US, japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada) will be replaced by the E7 nations (China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey). China will ascend to be the dominant economic power (see my earlier post on this), and the rules of the global game are likely to change dramatically. If the PwC future scenario plays out, my expectation is the rules won’t change in a way that advantages Brand America.

The important thing to remember about scenario planning is that a forecasted future state is only one of many possible outcomes. The key is to understand the drivers and take action to minimize the probability of future state scenarios that are not appealing and increase the probability of scenarios that are.

One way to help address Brand America’s declining share of FDI is for our communities, regions and states to become more competitive through the successful reapplication of product and corporate branding principles. This includes making more effective product development choices (remember, in economic development that means business focused decisions on asset creation, infrastructure investment and public policy reform).

The primary purpose of the Strengthening Brand America Program is to catalyze the transfer of knowledge from the private to the public sector. You can help increase the probability of a more favorable future scenario for Brand America than the PwC model predicts by doing three things:

1. Apply the principles discussed in this website and challenge your community, region and/or state branding program to ensure it is as competitive as possible (from both a product and promotion perspective).
2. Share the Strengthening Brand America website with your colleagues and encourage them to read and use the information.
3. Share your expertise and experience by leaving a comment on the blog posts. The more information we share with each other, the better everybody will perform and the stronger Brand America will become.

The PwC model scenario does not have to become reality if we work to “change our stars”. But, it very well might be if we do nothing different.

I am optimistic that we can create a better future for Brand America. After I read the Paradigm Shift article, I read a second article titled “Despite Political Blunders, US Still the ‘Go-To’ Nation” . It reinforced that the future of Brand America is in our hands.

“The genius of our system is in recovery,” said Kenneth G. Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings. “It’s not in avoiding mistakes. It’s recovering from those mistakes.”

What Are Your Thoughts

Do you believe we can “change our stars”? What do you see as the strengths of Brand America that we can leverage to get more globally competitive?

Pay It Forward

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Category FDI

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