Country of origin, consumer's Perception and Brand Image

In the opinion of the respondent, “Made in China” does harm Haier’s development in mature markets due to the low-quality image associated with Chinese products. Haier established its brand in mature overseas markets by first analysing the demands of local consumers. The company believes in a strategy of localization in overseas markets.

A brand is a portfolio of qualities associated with a name, which in turn invokes certain images to individuals and hold values beyond the benefits of a product (Iacobucci, 2018). Brand association occurs when customers make a cognitive or emotional association with a particular brand. For instance, when a customer sees a certain color, symbol, logo, or name they automatically can make a connection to a particular brand. Brands start with a name that conveys information, suggest their benefits, or can even be named after their founders (Iacobucci, 2018). In the marketing perspective marketers can control the brand which they are marketing by using catching logos, colors, slogans, or even the products shape and appearance. In marketing a marketer can control the message they are trying to convey but cannot really have control over an individual’s association with that particular brand. Once a customer has an association with a particular brand they may favor the brand based on a past experience or even that individual’s sense of style or they may dislike a brand because of an association they

Brand equity is an important asset for any organization. It is also an assets that offers an organization or a brand a road to success. Brand equity is important because its brand's product is closely associated with its premium price in the market. An organization or a brand with positive brand equity typically have higher quality products and services when compared to similar generic unbranded products. Furthermore, brand equity is important because it helps an organization or a brand to strengthen its competitive edge in the market. It is important to an organization or a brand, the reason are that it help lower the marketing costs and allows a brand to enjoy higher brand awareness and brand loyalty. Therefore, the ultimate goal of a brand

A brand is an organisation, product or service which has created an emotional connection with their consumers in order for them to favour their brand over their competitors. It is incredibly important for brands to keep up their image and one little thing could change the global perception of a business. It takes a lot to maintain a brand image that has been built up over a long period of time and even more to regain it if that reputation is lost. Brands are created through various different aspects such as their visuals, tone of voice, advertising, actions and reputation. The combination of these will leave their consumers with long lasting emotions and perceptions of a particular brand and will effect whether they support a business or not and whether they would favour or avoid it. When a brand looses their image it can cost a lot of money and time to rebrand to prevent complete failure of the product or service.

It has been acknowledge (Romaniuk & Sharp 2004) that Brand salience can be defined as the propensity of the brand to be thought of by buyers when they are in a buying situations. A brand awareness strategy depends on how well known the brand is, Brand Salience is forming image to refresh their memory about the brands that can linked to consumer mind as well as the quantity and quality of the cue to brand links (Olson & Peter 2005), it is very important that consumer can connect to their mind as many cues as possible . The level of consumers’ brand awareness necessary to induce purchase varies depending on how and where they make their purchase decision for that product category or form. The brand attitude is focus on evaluating the brand, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) “attitudes are relevant to purchase behavior are formed as a result of direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth information acquired from others, or exposure to mass-media advertising, the internet, and various forms of direct marketing”

Because of the barriers to the free flow of factors of production and the relatively poor transportation and communication facilities, the manufacturing activities were limited within the national border so that a product was generally designed, manufactured and assembled in the home markets then exported to overseas markets. For this reason, the "Made in" label told consumers more than just the manufacturing country half a century ago. It also contained messages about its brand origin, designing country, source of parts and components, etc.

United Kingdom has adopted a cultural marketing philosophy that emphasizes on high service, high image and high quality. Local subsidiaries can be found globally, having come from Shiseido Deutschland, Shiseido Australia and Shiseido France. In every case, Shiseido works to incorporate itself in the local community, contribute to the community’s wellbeing and localize its operations. To guide its fragrance business globally, Beauté Prestige International (BPI) was established in 1990 in Paris. BPI worked with globally-famous designers and soon created highly successful fragrances. In 1991, Shiseido established the first European factory in France, Gien. Fragrances and skin care products were produced. In all its planning, the facility had a desire to sponsor local social and cultural events. There is an emphasis on growing community and adding on god corporate citizenship (Ganesh, Kumar and Kotabe, 1996). Shiseido has been able to sell its products in UK, Sweden, France and Italy. Shiseido is an apt example of how companies intending be global should act. Before marketing their products in foreign countries, there is a need to do comprehensive studies and understand cultural differences that exist. Failure to do this, a company might be criticized and incur sizeable loses. In addition, working with the local community is particularly beneficial in ensuring stability in the foreign country.

As Keller (1993, p. 3) argues, “[…] perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in consumer memory”. Keller (1998) also suggests that there are three categories that constitute the overall brand perception: attributes; benefits and attitudes. A study conducted by Simms and Trott (2006) explores the brand perception of the MINI stakeholders. Based on their findings researchers established a model that gives a “perspective on a product brand by linking specific brand associations to the image that is developed in the mind of the consumer or stakeholder, and finally linking this to how the image appeals to key stakeholders” (Simms and Trott, 2006) . The application of their model to the MINI brand is presented in Appendix 2. .

National brands benefit from brand equity and image through their extensive advertising and brand image. Marketing activities can influence the brand image however through pricing and promotions, jingles, slogans and 14 much more. The lower prices of store brands can either be viewed as a competitive advantage or ultimately be associated with lower quality. Brand Loyalty and Store loyalty have an influence on brand purchase choice. Many consumers have loyalty towards certain brands or products and this can be down to their habits and therefore tend to make habitual purchases i.e. purchasing what they always have. Previous research also states that store image also has a major influence on the purchasing behavior of consumers stating that if a store has a nice image and atmosphere then consumers will purchase more of their store brands. Research has also indicated that packaging can be a major influence in purchasing decisions especially at point of purchase and that many store brands try to mimic the packaging of national

“I tend to use brands as a key information to judge a product’s country. For example, I currently used a mask product. Although I knew it was produced in Korea, I would regard it as a Thai mask product because that brand from Thailand.” M9

University of Cincinnati To date, considerable research effort has been made to determine whether country of origin affects consumers ' product evaluations. Previous studies in industrial (for example White, 1977; White and Cundiff, 1978) and consumer buying (see for example, Andersen and Cunningham, 1972; Lillis and Narayana, 1974; Gaedeke, 1973; Han and Terpstra, 1988) have shown the country of origin to be a salient cue in buyers ' evaluations of

A strong brand image is often seen by management to be one of the company’s most important and valuable assets (Class Notes, 2016). A brand image can be seen as “the impression in a consumer’s mind of a brands total personality” (Business Dictionary Online, 2016). When a brand image is seen, immediately a vivid picture of that company, its products and even its values

Brand awareness is a fundamental attribute of customer brand equity. It tends to be an underestimated component of brand equity (Tong & Hawley, 2009). Brand awareness includes two elements which are brand recall and brand recognition. According to Aaker (1996) there is a positive relationship between trust, value and brand equity. Trust is the faith put into a brand with regard to its quality, consistency, etc. Value is created by providing a solution to consumers’ needs and wants in a way that the cost to the consumer is fair considering the benefits gained (Aaker,

How Country of Origin Affects Consumer Buying Intention? A Case of Turkish Lighting Fixture Retailers.

It has also been found that COO affects include (1) the tendency for consumers to assess their own country's products more favorably than imported products (Kaynak & Cavusgil, 1983), and (2) the tendency for products from emerging economies to be evaluated negatively (Bilkey & Ness, 1982; Cordell, 1992). Other studies also suggest a relationship between COO and the level of economic development (Wang & Lamb, 1993); products from developed countries are supposed as more superior to products from undeveloped and developing countries. The reasons for these perceptions have been largely attributed to the economic, cultural and political systems of the resource countries (Wang & Lamb, 1993). Morality causes consumers to purchase domestic products even though, in some cases, the quality is below that of imports (Wall & Heslop, 1986).