Insights into Consumer Preference of Foreign Brand Names: Reality or Myth?

Abstract

This study builds from LeClerc et al.'s (1989LeClerc et al.'s ( , 1994 work on foreign branding effects, but it does so in the context of a developing East European country; as in the case of Turkey. The purpose of this exploratory research is to examine consumers' attitudes towards products with foreign brand names and also to assess the impact of foreign brand names on the purchasing decision making. In the data collection phase of the study an in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 participants in the city of Ankara, Turkey. The results show that products with foreign brand names elicit more positive consumer attitude than products with national brands. Overall, the findings suggest that consumers prefer to purchase products with foreign brand names for a variety of reasons which including quality, reliability, functionality and prestige. The results have important implications for domestic and foreign manufacturers with regards to the consumer-side effects of their decisions on branding strategies and on their competitive foreign branding decisions.

A Comparison Between the Application of Brand Functional Value and Brand Experiential Value Toward Consumer Evaluation on Local - Foreign Branding: An Experimental Study

“…In line with this, the results of study conducted by Ergin et al (2014) proves that products with foreign brand names or products with foreign branding strategy result in a more positive consumer attitude compared to products with local branding strategy. Overall, the finding suggest that consumers prefer to buy products with foreign brand names for various reasons, such as quality, reliability, functionality, and prestige.…”

“…This strategy, undeniably, has its own appeal to consumers in developing countries like Indonesia because it is associated with higher perceptions of quality, reliability, and prestige (Ergin et al, 2014). That way, it can be said that choosing brand naming strategy by using foreign language can be the best alternative for local business actors.…”

“…This finding confirms that functional value more likely evokes consumer cognitive and affective response that have an impact to consumer's perceived quality and purchase intention. On the contrary, foreign branding context that has more positive quality perception, reliability, and prestige (Ergin et al, 2014) comprises experiential values as the best pair to generates more positive consumer evaluation since they make complete offering. However, functional value still generates more word of mouth because of its solutive and objective qualities.…”

“…This condition is in line with Hong and Wyer, Jr.'s (1989) opinion where consumer evaluation of a products is often influenced by its knowledge of the country where the product originated or commonly associated with country of origin (COO). Existing research indicates that consumers in developing countries have a stronger preference for non-local brands, especially brands from developed countries where perceived quality and symbolic images related to social status are considered dimensions (Batra et al, 2000;Ergin et al, 2014). Although thefindings seem only benefit brands from certain countries, local brands also have a way to take advantage from this phenomenon by applying foreign branding strategy by branding products with visible or foreign-sounding name (Li and Murray, 1998) that intend to improve the quality of brand image.…”

When does the developing country brand name alleviate the brand origin effect? Interplay of brand name and brand origin

“…China) brand name. Foreign brand naming literature has focused on European brand names: French sounding brand names (Leclerc et al, 1994) and Turkish sounding brand names (Ergin et al, 2014). Given that many Asian emerging market firms (Zhang, 2015), the dearth of this research stream is surprising.…”