Brand origin in an emerging market: perceptions of Indian consumers

Abstract

Purpose -The study aims to examine the usefulness of the brand origin concept in shaping the perceptions of Indian consumers. Design/methodology/approach -Guided by recent advance in social identity theory and social motivation theory, a dynamic iterative model of brand origin recognition is proposed. Six hypotheses were tested using a sample of 145 consumers from west of India. Using paired t-test, average consumer preference of brand origin was analysed for different product categories. A factor analysis with varimax rotation for determining band images was also carried out. Findings -The results demonstrated that most consumers can recognise the brand origin correctly but the power of recognition decreases when the brand has a long history of ''localization''. Distinguished trajectories of consumer perceptions of foreign brands and domestics brands were projected, and this allowed one to extend existing country of origin (CO) research to brand of origin research. Practical implications -The results implied that brand origin is a useful concept for companies engaging in an emerging market such as India. But the changing nature of the concept requires careful steering and nurturing if companies want to attach a positive value to its brand via brand origin association. Originality/value -Research into CO effect has been extensive. However, few studies examine empirically the effect of ''brand origin'' which is more appropriate in emerging market in today's increasingly competitive global environment. This paper is a first to explore the validity of the concept of brand origin in the Indian market.

The Impacts of Worldmindedness and Nationalism on Students’ Attitude and Purchase Intention Towards Portable Consumer Electronics: A Cross-National Study

“…For marketers of foreign brands, they shall utilize localization effect, in which Jin et al (2006) highlighted consumers tend to associate a brand with the origin country it was developed. But this association will become weaker over time when he brand is produced locally, and hence consumers tend to perceive a foreign brand with a local origin in this situation.…”

The Relationship between Consumer Ethnocentrism, Cosmopolitanism and Product Country Image Among Younger Generation Consumers: The Moderating Role of Country Development Status

“…However, most of this research has been mainly focused on a comparison of one developed country with another from a developing country (e.g., Jin et al, 2006;Shukla, 2011). Very few papers extend the research into multiple country settings (Cleveland et al, 2009;Sharma, 2011) and for younger consumers (Shukla, 2011).…”

“…This lack of conclusive evidence is consistent with other research on the related concept of Country-of-Origin (COO) in developed and developing countries. Some studies show consumers in developing countries have a clear preference for foreign goods (Ettenson, 1993;Wang & Yang, 2008) whereas other studies in developing countries show more complex differences based on such areas as whether the product is purchased for personal or public consumption (Hu, Li, Xie, & Zhou, 2008), perceptions about home country products (Kinra, 2006;Li, Fu, & Murray, 1997) and the degree of global brand localization over time (Jin, Chansarkar, & Kondap, 2006). From the existing evidence, it is not clear in general whether the differences between the PCIs of developed and developing countries are greater than the differences between individual countries.…”

“…Following previous research (Jin et al, 2006;Li et al, 1997;Okechuku & Onyemah, 1999;Pappu et al, 2007), we employed a scale of product-country image developed originally by Roth and Romeo (1992). Both perceptions of home country product/brands and perceptions of foreign country product/brands or productcountry image were measured in 7-point semantic differential scale items.…”

Upravljanje globalnim brendom s osvrtom na efekt zemlje porijekla

“…Druga razlika je u tome što je koncept porijekla brenda više povezan s imidžom brenda nego zemlja porijekla (Jin & Kondap, 2006). Utvrđeno je da porijeklo brenda ima veći utjecaj na kupovno ponašanje potrošača nego informacija gdje je brend proizveden, posebno na tržištima u nastajanju.…”