How American companies can keep global customers

Fast Company

3 days ago

In 2025, American brands are facing a new kind of export problem: their reputations.
International customers are voting against a volatile mix of tariffs and border crackdowns with their passports—and their wallets. Canadian travel to the U.S. has plummeted, with road trips down 32% and air travel off by 13.5% in March alone. European summer bookings are down 25% at hotel groups like Accor. In some border towns, duty-free shops are reporting business drops of over 80%. And we've all seen the pictures of Canadian retailers proudly removing bottles of Kentucky bourbon from their shelves.
This isn't just a tourism issue. It's a brand loyalty issue. And it's a fast-moving crisis for U.S. companies operating abroad.
The hard truth is this: Many global customers are no longer separating American brands from American politics. They're seeing them as one and the same. Which raises a question that is keeping more and more corporate leaders awake at night: What do I do when my business and brand's provenance—yes, I mean country of origin—becomes a liability?
Do you double down on re-asserting your values, even if doing so heightens your visibility and risks making your company a political lightning rod? Do you soften your messaging abroad and hope to quietly ride it out? Do you try to sound 'less American,' whatever that means?
In moments like these, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. But there is one universal starting point: You have to know your customers.
START WITH WHAT'S EXPECTED OF YOU
Some brands have built their global relationships on a deep emotional foundation of trust, care, empowerment, and sustainability. For them, this moment calls for leaning harder into those values, not backing away. Reassure customers that your promise to them transcends politics, and that the principles you operate on are still intact. If you're in financial services, for example, that could mean focusing on financial peace of mind. If you're in travel or hospitality, it could be about reaffirming safety, consistency, and a sense of welcome—values that carry extra weight right now.
The calculus changes if your brand has always had an activist streak. Ben & Jerry's, for example, hasn't blinked at confronting controversy abroad or at home, going so far as to sue its parent company for regulating what the brand can post on social media. It's the kind of action that customers expect from the brand. If anything, this climate gives them more permission to speak out, even if their parent company doesn't agree. But even they have to be thoughtful. Condemn everything and you risk sounding like an outrage machine—or worse, an opportunist.
Then there are companies whose global customer base isn't interested in political commentary at all. In those cases, showing up quietly but consistently—continuing to support local partners, speak in the language and context of your audience, and uphold your brand promise—is the smartest move. That's the path Costco has been walking, and to great effect. No grand gestures. No declarations. Just a steady commitment to delivering value to diverse communities, here and abroad, without apologizing for who they are or where they come from. The results? Thirteen consecutive weeks of increased foot traffic.
STAYING RELEVANT AMID THE CHAOS
What unites all of these approaches is not ideology. It's clarity. Clarity of purpose. Clarity of audience. Clarity of voice. That's what the best global brands are showing us right now, and it's the key to what we at Prophet call Uncommon Growth —our philosophy for helping companies grow by staying relentlessly relevant to the people they serve, especially in times of disruption.
One of those principles is empathy. Not the soft, squishy kind, but the kind that requires real listening. How are your customers feeling? What's changed in how they see you? What signals are they sending that you may have missed?
Another is agility. Too many companies are still treating this moment like a PR crisis that will pass. It might. But if it doesn't, the ones who win will be those that evolve—who rethink their operating model, their messaging, their partnerships and even their channel strategy. Do you need to go more direct in markets where your traditional distribution has dried up? Should you invest in localizing content, not just translating it? Is now the time to double down on brand building in regions where your presence is slipping?
Listen, it's easy to feel like a victim when forces beyond your control start reshaping your business. And for many leaders right now, this does feel unfair. You didn't pick the fight. You didn't write the trade policy. You're just trying to serve customers and keep your promises.
But growth doesn't come from wallowing. It comes from action. From orientation. From remembering that the playing field may have changed, but the needs of the people you serve haven't gone away. If anything, they've gotten more complex. Opportunity lives in solving the real problems caused by chaos.
So, whether you lead a bourbon brand, a global tech firm, or a family-run retail chain with customers in Montreal, the question right now isn't how to avoid the blowback. It's how to respond with clarity, creativity, and empathy, and still stay true to who you are. American companies have so much more to offer their international customers than their provenance. Many values that have shaped the American experience over its history—around innovation, optimism, freedom, reinvention, courage, reliability, excellence—are still there for the taking. There are no borders for brands that truly understand people and serve them with consistency and care.