As US tariff saga plays out, brands may use creative to seek competitive advantage

At the time of publishing, goods from China have been hit with a 125% tariff and the UK 10% as US President Trump plays a game of brinkmanship, which is still in its early stages.

Stock markets have shown the fall out of this with an estimated £7.39tn having initially evaporated since Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’. Yesterday, markets were resurgent as Trump offered a 90 day reprieve to all countries that had not enacted reciprocal tariffs. Those that hadn’t still face a standard charge of 10%. China is the main exception to this rule.

We are yet to see what the real effect of all of this will be on brands operating within and outside of the US, but we can extrapolate from the situation that, depending on the region and the types of goods we’re talking about, prices might be the first thing businesses in affected countries look to adjust. In step with this, there could be a range of challenging creative briefs incoming if brands need to seek competitive advantages by communicating value or premium credentials.

Advertising will need to seek more radical solutions

Ad agency Uncommon’s chief creative officer Sam Shepherd works out of the agency’s New York studio and believes that, in the light of such change, radical thinking could be the answer.

“This is a really unique inflection point in time where people are looking at the world differently and at whole categories differently,” says Shepherd, who believes that, through their communications, brands will need to make themselves essential.

“Volatility can be met with precaution, or it can be seen as an opportunity. Consumers reassessing their relationship with the things they buy and the choices they make just means added scrutiny on brands to actually matter and make a difference and warrant a place in people’s lives,” he adds.

If tariffs dominate the prevailing conversation for an extended period of time, this will call for “subversive” thinking to rise above traditional comms, which will be “drowned out,” argues Shepherd, who says “avante-garde tactics” will be needed to stand out.

Specifically he’s talking about ‘narrative objects’ (like this) as well as stunts and hijacks. Things that “don’t feel like advertising at all.”

As tariffs take hold, the approach by brands operating within the US could be very different from those operating outside of it. Ford appears to be one of the first to communicate to customers that its cars are ‘From America, for America’ and that customers will pay the same price for its cars that staff do.

It probably won’t be the last to take this route. “If American heritage is part of your brand’s DNA, what a superpower. It’s an incredible opportunity and should be taken advantage of in a natural way,” says Shepherd.

The picture soon becomes complicated when you start to speculate on how goods moving in different directions might be affected, such as those entering the US and where the creative challenges and opportunities might be there.

To ‘premiumize’ or optimize: design as a differentiator

Design could be one way that brands insulate themselves from tariff headwinds and global brands may have a range of responses. For example, ramping up efforts to stand out in other – non-US – markets and/or taking a very different approach if they are non-native US brands still trying to make an impact in the US. We are painting a broad picture here though and it depends on what categories brands are operating in and at which end of the market.

Design agency Design Bridge’s chief strategy officer Matt Boffey highlights two obvious plays – “premiumize and optimize” – that could be utilized.

To “premiumize” would be to refresh a brand to justify a higher price and identify consumer groups with the means (and willingness) to pay more, according to Boffey, who says: “Storytelling through design can support this strategy.”

While brands whose goods will have taxes levied against them may be thinking about this, Boffey counterintuitively argues that some brands may instead opt for “provenance, not retreat from it.” A Scotch whisky subject to a 10% import tariff may be such a brand. One approach would be “to make more of Scotland and its intangibles: values, heritage, expertise and ingredients,” he says.

In this context, Boffey says packaging could become a “countermeasure” against the tariff – and presumably the cost passed on to US consumers. “Design needs to carry the premium through elevated materials, narrative richness and cultural cues. If you’re going to charge more, you have to look like you’re worth more,” he adds.

For Boffey, ultimately, the “more emotionally or culturally valuable a product appears” the less it will be judged by its price.

Other brands might think about optimization to add value. Rather than compromising on quality or ruining a brand’s reputation by indulging in so-called shrinkflation, Boffey argues that “smart brands” will introduce sub-brands or entry-level range extensions. “Again, if you’re a Scotch, maybe it’s time to have a new entry point into the brand below what’s currently on offer,” he adds.

In this situation, “design will be key to reassuring customers that lower-cost options still carry the brand’s values, not just its name. When it comes to premiumize or optimize, design can shout value or whisper quality. Brands competing on price will simplify and amplify. Those premiumizing will quieten down, using minimalism as a mark of confidence.”

With globalization restricted, brands could become more parochial

One area to keep an eye on will be if global brands communicate differently across markets. If the US tariffs feel too prohibitive for some, they may focus more on other markets. To this end, the look and feel of brands and the way they communicate may appear more parochial and localized.

“There’s already talk about brands needing to ‘de-Americanify.’ That doesn’t mean ditching a global identity, but adapting it – so more regionally resonant color palettes, dual-language labels and locally relevant storytelling,” says Boffey, who adds that this could mean “tonal shifts that signal alignment with regional values.”

Wherever the tariff story ends, Boffey recognizes that US nationalism expressed as foreign policy and the uncertainty that brings may push other countries to be less dependent on the US, which in itself could change the way brands behave.

“Ultimately, the more distinctive your assets the more you can withstand shocks. It’s what allows you to command margin even when costs rise and to show up with confidence, not just compliance,” he says.

The marketer’s view: think long term

Marketing strategy consultant Rob Sellers suggests that the best approach for brands at the moment is a calm head. This is, after all, a position that has been adopted by many global leaders and has stopped them from getting dragged into reciprocal trade wars.

“I don’t think we’re going to see that much difference for many brands,” says Sellers, who, like all our interviewees, was speaking just before Trump rowed back to 10% tariffs for most countries.

Even with US brands, given their global capacity, many will operate local production spaces in different territories, he points out.

And Sellers is not sure that you can call many US brands “truly global” anyway. “Not in the way they communicate,” he adds. This is again a reminder that brands can respond with regional and cultural nuance.

At the same time, he thinks it unlikely that they’ll be a wholesale rejection of US brands around the world. “There’s plenty of oxygen to be an American brand in the rest of the world and it not be tarnished with the broader liberal rejection of current Republican philosophy.”

It stands to reason that in countries where consumers aren’t being hammered with price hikes they’ll carry on buying US products as usual. “I think the danger that we’ve got in the world of advertising creative is that we are – correctly – very culturally sensitive and we tend to be a liberal community. But the average consumer isn’t as aligned to our cultural thinking as we would like to believe.”

Despite the 10% US import tariff standard now being rolled out, UK and European cars are still subject to higher 25% tariffs and this may well cause other manufacturers to follow Jaguar Land Rover by not selling in the US.

It could push them to new markets. “Certain brands, particularly luxury brands, have found lots of support in places like the Middle East and the burgeoning wealth in the Indian subcontinent and in the Far East for at least a decade now,” observes Sellers. “There could be a doubling down of investment in those markets”.

Despite all this, given Trump’s form for being so flippant and unpredictable, Sellers believes most brand strategies will remain unchanged for now and, therefore, he doesn’t foresee many brands trying to protect themselves by seeking answers through investing in creative.

Much of this has to do with the perspective brought by various catastrophes that consumers have had to live through in recent memory – namely, goods becoming more expensive as the cost of living increased and a long period of inflation. “The markets just swallowed it up and, ultimately, consumers had to find the money to pay for goods,” he says.

Sellers is keen to place the tariff fiasco in context. “If you compare this to Covid five years ago, we didn’t know if we’d open offices again or go back to the shops,” he reflects.

We spoke to Sellers just before Trump’s U-turn led to a new baseline of 10% tariffs. Rather presciently, he said: “Trump might change his mind tomorrow. My sense is that it’s a temporary thing that will be sorted out probably within two to three years. If not well before.”

With the midterms indicating the mood of the US nation in 2026, Sellers says: “The sentiment remains that the nice thing about the American political system is that it turns around pretty quickly.”

While in his current meetings in the last week, “tariffs were a topic of conversation with clients,” the feeling is that it will work itself out. “Strategic thinking is long term and tactical short term,” meaning that for now, most brands will sit tight.