Like many of you, I watched President Trump’s Tariff announcements with horror.
Only a few weeks ago, I was in LA at ExpoWest, surrounded by incredible food and drink brands from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK—many already selling in the US, others just starting their journey.
Now, with a 10% tariff on the table, that journey just got a lot more complicated.
So we ran a Stickybeak test overnight to understand how actual US consumers feel about tariffs, price increases, and international products.
👀 You can view the full Stickybeak report results here (best on your desktop) or jump into the highlights below.
Here’s what we learned:
🇺🇸 Americans do notice country of origin
Firstly, the overwhelming majority of US consumers say they do notice the country of origin of products they buy, so this is not an issue that non-US brands can hide from:
Of course, many products go out of their way to emphasise country of origin because it confers tangible or emotional brand benefits or supports the brand promise. This may now have less optimal impact.
💰 They know what tariffs are
A similar proportion, and again a strong majority, say they are clear or very clear about what a “tariff” is:
🌍 Support for tariffs depends on where you're from
However, their support for tariffs varies depending on the country being targeted. That’s bad news for Chinese products because 45% of US consumers support tariffs on Chinese products and when you consider that this tariff represents up to 50% extra, that is potentially an awful lot more to pay on a lot of everyday products. Whatever the rest of us outside the US might think of his policy, Trump’s messaging on the need for tariffs is having an impact.
We asked the same question about products from New Zealand, Australia, the UK (all attracting the same 10% levy) and the good news is there is less support for the tariff (41% oppose it for the UK, 42% for New Zealand and 44% for Australia):
Interestingly, Canada which has been the focus of so much of President Trump’s narrative on Tariffs and which now attracts a whopping 25% levy has broadly similar numbers suggesting considerable (though not majority) sympathy for the northern neighbour:
America, like the rest of the world, has been suffering a cost of living crisis over the last couple of years with higher than normal inflation numbers (though this has decreased of late). Consequently, nearly half expect the tariffs to have a ‘significant’ or ‘very significant’ impact on their household budget.
😬 Over half of Americans say they’ll now look for a US-made alternative
And because of this, the very worrying thing for non-US brands and products is that over half of American consumers say they will now look for an American made substitute. Sometimes this is hard to do on product quality or function, and for food and drink products people will continue to put a premium on things like taste and purity but there will be some swapping for sure. So if there is one data point in this that President Trump would approve of, it is this!
But here is the big worry, when confronted with the notion that goods from New Zealand could be up to 10% more expensive, only 28 per cent said it would make no difference and a staggering 72% said they would be less inclined to buy, including 10% who would not any longer buy at all.
Now it's important to point out that this response is to a general statement and responses will vary hugely by category, price point and of course brand love, but the strong indication is that the US consumers will buy less. This depressing statistic is broadly the same for products from the Uk and from Australia.
Given all of this, our advice is NOT to react quickly but to see how sales and channels respond to the new tariffs.
Here’s what we’d suggest:
✅ Monitor closely how your sales and retail partners respond
✅ Double down on communicating value beyond price—think taste, purity, sustainability (BTW you can test this)
✅ If origin is part of your story, own it as a strength not just a label
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