According to a new study, Made in USA does impact consumer purchasing.

However, some products falsely claim to be American made, possibly harming consumers.

The study to be published in the July issue of the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, “Do “Made in U.S.” Claims Matter?” is authored by Xinyao Kong and Anita Rao, both of the University of Chicago.

Since 2010, the FTC has investigated more than 150 cases of deceptive or misleading claims about products made in the United States. For a brand to make the “Made in U.S.” claim, the FTC requires that the product be “all or virtually all” made in the United States with no or negligible foreign content.

For this study, the researchers focused on four of the cases that were found not to fit the FTC’s criteria for allowing claims of being made in the United States. The researchers were able to examine and compare sales of the products before and after the information was removed from products, packaging, advertising, websites and other marketing channels.

“We focused our attention on four brands that included Gorilla Glue, Loctite Glue, Gorilla Tape and Tramontina cookware,” said Kong. “For three of the four brands, the removal of the information had a negative impact on sales. Tramontina cookware saw a 19.5% decline in weekly store sales; Loctite Glue experienced a 6.1% decline; and Gorilla Glue suffered a 1.9% decline. The fourth brand we studied, Gorilla Tape, experienced a ‘trend decline’ following the FTC decision.”

Have a look at the article in phys.org HERE