Brand types applied by emerging markets’ firms: Country of brand origin and brand use motives

Abstract

The objective of the article is to explore the types of brands in terms of the country of brand origin (COBO) applied by emerging markets' firms and motives for applying them. Research Design & Methods: A qualitative approach was used, i.e. multi-case study of five emerging markets' firms and data triangulation. Findings: Studied firms apply in the international market various types of brands in terms of the COBO by 1) referring to the foreign COBO, 2) referring to the origin from the home market, and 3) neutralising the COBO effect. Moreover, the firms differ in terms of their international brand portfolio: from consisting of a single brand to covering several or dozen international -even global -regional, or local brands. Implications & Recommendations:The dominant international branding strategy of emerging markets` firms in terms of the COBO is acquiring/ licensing well-known international or even global brand/ brands and creating 'occidental-style' brand. It is driven both by strategic and market motives. The conclusions can be applied by emerging markets' companies in their foreign expansion. Contribution & Value Added: This study develops a deeper understanding of the brand types applied by emerging markets' companies in terms of the COBO and brand use motives. Article type:research article

The Effect of Brand Internationalization Strategy on Domestic Consumers’ Purchase Intention: Configuration Analysis Based on Brand Authenticity Perspective

“…The country of origin information has been gradually weakened in the domestic market. The brand commercialization brought by entering the international market will also reduce consumers’ evaluation of the authenticity of the brand ( Witek-Hajduk and Grudecka, 2021 ). In the postmodern market with excessive business and rampant falsehood, authenticity has become the major demand of consumers.…”

Country of brand origin positioning and financial performance: effects on internationalized companies from an emerging market

“…Going into a more aggregated stream of the internationalization process of companies (Conconi et al , 2016; Talay et al , 2015), the studies of the country of brand origin reflect the other side of the same coin. In other words, the studies reflect whether companies should have adopted the country of brand origin as a communication strategy for their brands (Aichner, 2014; Rashid et al , 2016; Witek-Hajduk and Grudecka, 2021). This includes questions about adoption and the degree of adoption that companies use this strategy (Beverland and Lindgreen, 2002; Johansson and Thorelli, 1985), whether it is used for their entire product portfolio for international sales or not (Suter et al , 2018; Witek-Hajduk and Grudecka, 2021), the typologies of communication strategies that companies use containing the COBOP (Chailan and Ille, 2015; Herstein et al , 2014), whether their customers are business consumers (Chen et al , 2011) and to what degree the adoption of COBOP generates a financial return for them (Blankson and Crawford, 2012; Blankson et al , 2008).…”

“…But at the firm level, before making products or services available for sales abroad, company managers from emerging countries need to develop the value proposition in their initial communication strategies for these brands (Brodie and Benson-Rea, 2016). Whether for regulatory reasons or not, country of brand origin is one of the main communication strategies investigated and used by companies from emerging countries in their attempts to internationalize (Aichner, 2014; Magnusson and Westjohn, 2011; Rashid et al , 2016; Witek-Hajduk and Grudecka, 2021).…”

Ways to neutralize the country-of-origin effect in the emerging market firms international branding1

“…The phenomenon of the country-of-origin (COO) and its various dimensions (e.g. country-of-brand-origin -COBO) has been one of the key issues in international marketing and branding research for a few decades [Witek-Hajduk and Grudecka, 2021], because of the so-called COO effect (COE), that is, its impact on consumer's evaluation of products and brands [Xu et al, 2020]. The results of COE studies are not unequivocal [Sharma, 2019].…”