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MADE IN: Understanding country-of-origin perceptions & associations in France, Germany, UK (Wave 1-EU3)

A conversational AI moderated project in France, Germany and the UK asking about the perceptions, feelings and views of consumers about products and goods made in each of those three countries.

An insight engineers funded project across 3 days in December 2025, just before Christmas, utilising a trained AI agent and our AI avatar (Chloe) to probe & ladder participants in each country about: –

  • Characteristics of products & goods in that country.
  • An example of a typical product made in that country.
  • Why this product is different & unique to that country.
  • How they feel about goods made in that country (very positive to very negative).
  • Which of 10 main economy countries has the best reputation for popular electronic goods.

Associations by country of origin (FR, DE, GB)

Which one of these phrases reflects how you feel in general about French products and French goods?
Positivity of Country of Origin – France
Which one of these phrases reflects how you feel in general about French products and French goods?
People fromVery PositivePositiveNegativeVery Negative
France643600
Germany534430
Great Britain425333
The most positive perception of French products is amongst French consumers (64%), the lowest amongst British consumers (42%).

What “French-made” means to consumers
Top-of-mind associations skew to a high/premium quality, elegant/stylish design & aesthetics, and distinctive taste/flavour gastronomy.
Typically, French examples are cheese, wine, perfume/fragrance brands, plus luxury fashion/leather goods.

Which one of these phrases reflects how you feel in general about German products and German goods?
Positivity of Country of Origin – Germany
Which one of these phrases reflects how you feel in general about German products and German goods?
People fromVery PositivePositiveNegativeVery Negative
France395633
Germany563960
Great Britain613630
The most positive perception of German products is amongst British consumers (61%), the lowest amongst French consumers (39%).

What “German-made” means to consumers
Made in Germany strongly anchors in engineering-led performance; Top-of-mind associations skew to a high-quality finish/being well-made, robust, durable/long-lasting and reliable.
Typical German examples are overwhelmingly automotive – BMW, VW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are specifically mentioned. Non-automotive mentions are led by sausages/charcuterie and Bosch.

Which one of these phrases reflects how you feel in general about British products and British goods?
Positivity of Country of Origin - Great Britain
Which one of these phrases reflects how you feel in general about British products and British goods?
People fromVery PositivePositiveNegativeVery Negative
France2556118
Germany2861110
Great Britain5633110
The most positive perception of British products lies in British consumers (56%), with a discernibly lower level amongst consumers in France (25%) and Germany (28%).

What “British-made” means to consumers
Made in Britain is more ambivalent than made in France or Germany, having a blend of food & drink cues and a traditional/heritage identity.
Top-of-mind associations skew to higher quality/better workmanship and having a distinctive British style/classic look.
Typically, British examples are more fragmented – the most cited examples: Burberry, tea, Rolls Royce and Jaguar.

Country of Origin – EU3 Combined
Country of Origin - Combined
Made in ….Very PositivePositiveNegativeVery Negative
France534422
Germany524431
Great Britain3650113
Made in Britain is less positive than made in France or made in Germany, a potential competitive disadvantage for export and import.

Country with “best reputation” for popular electronic items (TVs, laptops, audio)

We’d like to understand how you feel about the country of origin of popular electronic items, such as televisions, laptops, audio equipment. Which country do you think has the best reputation for making these types of electronic goods?
Country with Best Reputation for popular electronic items TVs, laptops, audio
EU3 combinedFranceGermanyUK
Japan26%25%14%39%
Germany22%8%44%14%
South Korea16%28%19%0%
China14%11%8%22%
USA7%6%11%7%
France6%19%0%0%
Great Britain6%0%0%17%
Italy1%0%0%3%
Another country2%3%3%0%
Across the three countries Japan emerges as the country with the best reputation for these types of electronic goods, but not in Germany, who believe more in the products made in their own country.

The reasons for selecting a country for best reputation covered 2 main themes:
• Performance: high quality/excellent engineering; durable/long lifespan; strong brands
• Innovation: technologically advanced/cutting-edge; trendsetting.

Research Details
Fieldwork conducted on the Yasna platform from Dec 21st to Dec 23rd, 2025.
N=36 interviews per country, n=108 in total, aged between 25-65, equal male/female primary shoppers.

Let’s talk
Are you intrigued to understand the associations relating to where your product is produced, in comparison to your competitors?
If so, let’s chat.
Please contact me, Jeff Deighton in the first instance with an email to: insights@insight-engineers.com

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Walking the Growth Mindset path: a new partnership for transformation

As part of a recent webinar to ICG members, Lara Meyer shared a story that, until then, she hadn’t been brave enough to tell.  It was about how she moved to Bahrain with her husband and how her overly optimistic “just get a job” plan quickly crumbled in the face of reality. Carrying on in her own words …

… at the time, I was caught between feeling like a failure, and realising that, in fact, this was a turning point for growth.  Rather than panic, I leaned into a growth mindset.

This was something I had been practicing for years, ever since I came across the concept at Microsoft.  At that point, I stopped focusing on my distant end goal and started focusing on daily progress, even if that meant taking small, uncertain steps. The journey of this self-discovery became transformative, and eventually, it led me to find my new path, in coaching and facilitating personal and company transformation.

But the real turning point came when I shared this personal story during the webinar to the ICG … as I shared my story and my insights, I could tell it was striking a chord with those attending from the comments, questions and general engagement with what I was sharing. But the most powerful thing was what happened after the webinar was over.

A fellow ICG member, Jeff Deighton, reached out to me directly. He shared that my story had resonated with him deeply, reminding him of his own journey of transition and growth at various points in his career, and how with the right mindset – achieving amazing things is truly possible, even if you’re away from your homeland and out of your comfort zone.

But what made Jeff’s message stand out was his genuine desire to help me.  He didn’t just say, “Great story!”. He went a step further.

Jeff offered me some observations and thoughts that built on my webinar, identifying some areas where he saw potential for my business to build upon the thinking and foundations I had shared to the audience.

Over the past few weeks, his kind and wise input has been bringing clarity, focus and definitely challenge!

Like any great colleague, Jeff’s style isn’t about telling me what to do; it was about helping me think differently, take smarter risks, and create better strategies to achieve long-term success in easy to manage small steps and positive thinking. The heart of my own talk.

What was once a moment of vulnerability for me, became a door to collaboration and partnership that we both immediately knew we wanted to walk through together.

We see how we can make a real impact on individuals, teams and business in the insights industry from helping leaders enable their organisation to take the right steps to thrive through challenges and industry change

This experience has made L.M.I even more passionate about the importance of mentorship and collaboration. None of us have to figure it all out alone—and with the right mindset, the right people, and the right approach, organisations can equip their teams to thrive.

So, I’m thrilled to announce this new partnership between L.M.I. and insight engineers.

Jeff and I are walking this path together, bringing our combined experience to leaders and teams who want to bring mindset and action together for tangible results seen in business performance, staff well-being, and team collaboration.

  • My role is to equip you and your teams with the tools to establish (and maintain) a growth mindset, through coaching, workshops and training.
  • Jeff ‘s role is to help you track progress and to harness that new mindset to generate ideas that drive real, tangible, business growth

Ready to bring a growth mindset culture to your team? Then let’s connect.

If our story has resonated with you personally, or feels like it could help your organisation let’s have a short chat to identify a couple of concrete progressions

We’ll share our insights, make some recommendations and outline our tailored approach for you to rapidly improve performance, relationships and wellbeing, to help your organisation thrive.

You can email us both – and we’ll get right back to you to set up a time to chat

Lara: lara@lara-meyer.com

Jeff: jeff.deighton@insight-engineers.com

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Problem Definition: never more important to get it right

A leap of faith or a planned jump?

Introduction
Is the man in this opening image going to land safely? Did he prepare properly and make an informed decision to jump in this failing light after checking the hazard out fully, or did he just go ahead in a rush at that time, as it seemed the only choice?
Like the man in the opening image is about to, corporate initiatives can fall short without proper preparation and information; and as a result, incur cost and time to rectify. Which could have been better spent on meeting/realising objectives. One wonders how the man in this image felt when the better option of a nearby footbridge was visible in the morning light.

The last 2-3 years have already seen customer behaviour becoming more fragmented and Covid-19 has added another layer of complexity into business decisions. Whether you are working client or agency-side, commercial success ultimately requires everyone to find mutual ground and to make the best decisions possible. But how can you achieve this?

This short post shares our observations and experiences over the last 2 decades about successful problem-definition and how insight engineers can help you to harmonise your commercial objectives to achieve in-market success.
There is a link to download a full PDF of this paper below.

  1. Why Do Problems Need Definition?

Before starting to work immediately on the apparent solution, most successful organisations have learnt to stand back first and invest time and effort to improve their understanding of their problem and associated objectives. As Einstein once said, “A well-defined problem is 90% solved”. But, do you sometimes find you are on a completely different wavelength to the other people you work with? Agreeing on a clear problem definition with colleagues can be extremely challenging – different people, in different disciplines and positions of responsibility, with different motivations and pain-points, will often focus their thinking on disparate solutions.

Research evidence helps everyone get on the same wavelength, neutrally. Carefully curated insights can create a strong narrative on the feelings and inclinations of your target market in management level discussions, bringing stakeholders together within a common language. And especially when this information & insights are part of a structured problem definition process. This framework helps clients to avoid relying on the past, gut feel & intuition or the strongest opinion, and helps plot the best course of action, especially in times of business pressures.

When the world has just fundamentally changed, it is logical that a fresh attitude and new input is needed to make decisions for solutions in the post Covid-19 situation. The importance of harmonising your objectives and defining your problem with the right questions has never been more important to get right.

  1. What Questions Should You Be Asking on the Client-Side?

A good client-side project manager will constantly look to improve their understanding of a problem and more importantly which decisions need to be made and what information is needed to assist in these decisions. The inputs that start this necessary comprehension stage relate to the familiar 5Ws – Who, What, Where, When and Why. Here are the initial 10 questions, logically ordered, that our clients start asking of themselves: –

You can download these 10 questions and the rest of the full article <here>

Wrap up
Whether you are client-side or working at another agency, the value of a systematic approach to defining your problem and the routes ahead, will help you make the best customer-centric decisions in alignment with the end objectives. Ultimately, success then requires the right core team working towards the shared vision and the identified success factors to drive sales. And to revisit the 5Ws as you progress; changing your plans if conditions change.

insight engineers are used to being part of such initiatives for future pipeline and sales. We work regularly, internationally, on understanding customer behaviour and response to concepts, ideas and propositions. Your tricky B2B and B2C questions are our calls to action. Beyond quality, speed and value, our role is to be a strong partner in the team, helping you to deliver on your objectives. We find a problem definition process, such as the one in this paper, always enhances the chances of success. Working well together, a project team will normally ask the right questions and turn resulting information into profitable wisdom. Wouldn’t it be great to be in such a team in the future saying “Without us, X would not have existed”?

To people who have not worked with us before, let’s talk. Nobody loses from opening a dialogue.

Jeff Deighton
(e) jeff.deighton@insight-engineers.com
(ddi) +44 1753 916 908

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COVID-19 pandemic

To everyone in these unprecedented times, a short message of understanding to you & your loved ones, colleagues and anyone who has sadly lost someone near & dear.
A big shout out to all the front line people working hard in unnerving situations to keep people fed, cared for, and not isolated – may you continue to do this for us all and stay safe yourself.

Remote working has been imposed on everyone, it can he hard to adjust to.  I founded insight engineers as a virtual international network 17 years ago and we are proud to have conducted on-line Quant and both F2F & VOIP Qualitative work in over 40 countries in this time, using what has now become best workforce planning – split team working. We are used to project managing and delivering complex B2B and B2C projects in hard to reach target groups across countries, comfortable in using technology, tight procedures and clear communication to make all happen smoothly.

In the last month we have continued to migrate F2F Qualitative in Europe to on-line interviewing and found some previously hard-to-reach target groups willing to talk at short notice on VOIP channels during the day, evening and even weekends.

Businesses are emerging from the shock of recent weeks and our clients and their referrals are embracing a much stronger “can-do” attitude. We are working hard to help inform short-term tactical response to the effects of Covid-19 and longer-term strategic guidance on future purchasing mentalities. Our clients are switched on people, and those not on furlough, are already striving hard to plan how to emerge from these troubles with a clear view on how to market to target audiences; and especially how to sell in the second half of this year to recover losses this quarter.

We can support you similarly with Quality, Speed and Value. We promise you no loss of productivity and the delivery of grounded ICRs (Insights, Consequences, Recommendations) as we enter our 18th year.  Thank you to our long-standing clients for continuing to believe in the influence & power of our research at this time and for continuing to commission work with insight engineers (and in these turbulent times for actually paying us faster than usual!).

To people who have not worked with us before, let’s talk – nobody loses from opening a dialogue.

Please use the contact form on our website or reach out to me: Jeff Deighton, Managing Director: insights@insight-engineers.com

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash

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