Past research has recognised the influence of religion on marketing, particularly the role of religious cues in marketing communications. Drawing on symbolic interactionism theory, this empirical study identifies symbols that possess symbolic value with Muslims, and how these symbols on product packaging may influence the response of Muslim consumers. Furthermore, we examine how this influence may vary between products of low versus high symbolic values, and across consumers of varying level of religiosity. An elicitation survey identified five symbols, five high symbolic-value products, and five low-symbolic value products. Afterwards, a quasi-type experiment examined the influence of a symbol on product purchase intentions. The presence of the symbol significantly increased purchase intentions, but only for low symbolic-value products. Also, the presence of symbol affected those with high religiosity more than those with low religiosity. This study is the first to investigate the role of religious symbols on product packaging. An implication is for marketers to recognise the importance of such symbols for Muslim consumers.

Via two experiments, the authors meld research in travel destination image (TDI) and country-of-origin image (COI) to investigate whether consumers’ perceptions of a country’s products influence their perceptions of the country as a travel destination. In the first experiment, the authors show that reverse COI effects may occur, where participants use product beliefs to imbue destination beliefs. More positive product beliefs lead to more favorable perceptions of and greater intentions to tour the destination. The second experiment follows on to show that destination familiarity may moderate the product beliefs–destination beliefs relationship established in the first study. As familiarity increases, participants rely less on product beliefs to evaluate the destination. A key implication for exporters, tourism policy makers, and tourism businesses is that foreign products not only are competing with each other for domestic customers but also are competing through their products for a share of the outbound tourism market.

Traditional country-of-origin strategy in international marketing uses a country-image halo to cue beliefs about the country's products. With expansive trade globalization, domestic consumers are likely to have experience with foreign products but know little of the products’ origin country. Thus, equally important as traditional theory is the question of whether product beliefs can imbue country image, but little is known of this reverse influence. If product beliefs can generalize into a favorable country image, a chain effect will then enable traditional country-of-origin effects to benefit the country's other products. In this study, the results of three surveys across two countries show that product beliefs can indeed influence country image. However, the influence weakens with increasing country familiarity and exists only when the product and country are congruent. Furthermore, the influence can operate outside of conscious awareness. The authors draw on the associative network theory of memory to explain their findings. This research improves the theoretical understanding of country- and product-image halo and provides the grounds for product and brand managers to work with government and tourist organizations for increasing mutual effectiveness.

Country-of-origin (COO) image may imbue product beliefs, just as beliefs about a travel destination can form from destination image. As COO and destination image both concern belief formations from images, we meld these research streams to investigate the influence of destination image on beliefs of and preference for the destination's local products. We posit that consumers may non-consciously form a COO image from destination image, which in turn influences product preference. Consumers in China ( n = 226) and Chinese tourists in Australia ( n = 235) self-reported their perceptions of Australia as a tour destination and of Australian wine. The results show that destination image positively influences product beliefs with both samples, but the influence is stronger with Chinese consumers who are unfamiliar with Australia. Destination image influences product preference indirectly via product beliefs. A key managerial implication is that exporters and tourism authorities should cooperate to harness a country's destination image for exports.

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