US brand irrelevant?

From the "on the one hand" department comes this from Ad Age Magazine - AMERICAN CONSUMERS LARGELY IGNORE 'MADE IN USA' PITCH:

The good news for beleaguered U.S. manufacturers: Americans believe "Made in the USA" stands for quality and value. The bad news: Consumers -- especially young adults entering their prime buying years and richer households who have money -- aren't inclined to look for products made at home.

So American companies have finally won the quality wars (from the 1980's). But for American consumers, that is sooo 80's.

As I have been saying -- it's not the old competitiveness challenge we faced before (see Competitiveness Revisited). We have move from quality as a selling point to quality as the starting point. The name of the game is design, customization, speed and responsiveness to customer needs. And our public policy needs to get with the game.