Is Nokia Finnish? Is Motorola American? Does it Matter? Probably not

Survey: 42% of college students think Motorola is a Japanese company

Young consumers tend to know little about the brands behind the products they use, including wireless brands, according to a study from market-research firm done in the US by Anderson Analytics.

Cellphones topped the list of products for which students misidentified the manufacturers' country of origin, said the company.

More than half of college students surveyed by the company believed Nokia is a Japanese company, with only 4.4% correctly identifying the company as Finnish. Forty-two percent of students believed Motorola Inc. is Japanese. Motorola is based in Schaumburg, Ill.

"We found for cellphones, country of origin didn't seem to affect students' perception of the brand, since Motorola was ranked equally well whether students thought it was from America or Japan," said Tom H. C. Anderson, managing partner of Anderson Analytics. "This has allowed Korean brands, like LG and Samsung, to compete on a par with companies like Nokia and Motorola."

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