Made in Denmark

November, 2018.

My mum needs a hearing aid. It should be a GN Resound Danavox 793U. And it has to be made in Denmark.

She can buy it at the local clinic for a very reasonable price, but she is not willing to, because it is made in China. Her daughter lives in Denmark; therefore she believes she can get a GN hearing aid made in Denmark.

The problem is that all Danavox 793Us are made in China. Like many others, a part of GN’s hearing aid production has been moved out to lower cost destinations e.g. China and Malaysia.  So I wrote to her, explaining about the situation that I couldn’t find any Danavox 793U made in Denmark. I don’t know if she believes me. After all, she grew up in the 50s. The world was a different place back then. 

A trial of honesty

One day I was browsing in a tea shop in Østerbro. A sweet teapot caught my eye and the price was even sweeter. Then I asked:

- Where is it from?

The shop owner answered oddly:

- I don’t know.

At the same time I saw the letter PRC on the box and said out loud:

- The People’s Republic of China

There were other people in the shop at that time, and suddenly, it was a long silence.

I don’t know why she answered that. Was she ashamed of the letter PRC? Maybe she believes that the Chinese origin receives negative perception from the customers. China has developed from a low cost production country to being one of the leading high tech industries in artificial intelligent, wind energy, and space science. I personally don’t think a product made in China should be of worse quality than one made in Denmark. You think so too, if you are reading this article on an IPhone.

Can the origin of the products decide its quality? Not necessary in the 21^st century. Why do we still ask reflectively “Where are they from?” when we examine a product? Because the origin of a product is a part of its brand value. We associate a product’s country of origin with other values we know about the brand, positively or negatively.

Be proud of yourself

You might have a business that you often have to answer this question. Would you be honest or would you sugarcoat the answer? Such as: It is designed in Denmark and produced in China.

Maybe you are afraid that you are not good enough being a Turkish pizza baker, a non- Japanese sushi cook or a Danish salsa teacher. Here for your information:

The fact is: you don’t have to be born in a certain country to be the best.

About my mum and her Danavox hearing aid, she is still waiting…

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2018