Swissness Bill

De Mooij and Hofstede (2002) define culture by eight dimensions. Asian cultures are associated with higher levels of uncertainty avoidance (UA) (see Appendix 1) compared to individualistic cultures, therefore these Asian cultures are more attracted to products with a lower risk (Moss & Vinten, 2001; Samli, 1995; Shannon, 2005). Furthermore, there is a strong belief that Asian consumers have a strong preference for NBs over PLs (Ahuvia & Wong, 1998; Brady et al., 2003; De Mooij & Hofstede, 2002). According to Batra and Sinha (2000) consumers who relate higher prices with higher quality are less attracted by PLs. According to De Mooij and Hofstede (2002) PLs are more frequent in individualistic cultures such as the Netherlands, than collectivist cultures such as in China. They presented two specific reasons for collectivist (Asian) nations to choose NBs over PLs, namely that NBs lead to more status, and the preference for long-term relationships and so for well-known NBs. Therefore, collectivistic cultures are more risk averse and tend to value brand names. They also value the perceived link between price and quality, which negatively affects the image of PLs in such countries. On the other hand, individualistic cultures are supposed

Research on brand origin and perceived value. D 'Antone and Merunka (2015) found that brand origin (BO) inferences influence brand meanings and consumers rely on impoverished forms of origin-related brand exemplars when BO is unclear. They argued that including

The transnational model was developed to support the needs of large, multinational companies. This model consists of multinational corporations-experienced in international markets with facilities in several foreign countries that simultaneously utilize technological advances, innovation, global learning and efficiency to be successful. These multinational organizations adopt organic structures, similar to the learning organization, that are flexible, unified and coordinated through corporate culture and shared visions and values of its employees (Daft,

CompuCo is attempting to move from a domestic producer to that of an international producer. In order to achieve this feat, the company must have an international focus in regards to its overall business operations. It is quite apparent from the case, that CompuCo does not have the will or desire to be proactive with its international subsidiaries. In order to achieve greater international success, Dr. Durand must first alter the company culture. First, all international subsidiaries should be treated as a primary business irrespective of their individual performance. It seems, through reading the case, that much more emphasis is placed on French product development and applications that is given to its international counterparts. This is a detriment to business as many of CompuCo's international customers have differing tastes and sentiments in regards to product offerings. The case cites numerous examples of this between both French and American consumers. French consumers, for example, like to read product manuals and prefer complexity over simplicity. Their American counterparts however prefer ease of use, and a simple design. The company was slow to discern these changes in consumer demands and elected instead to emphasize its French product design. This created consumer ill-will and

Growth of TNCs is down to geographical flexibility and being able to shift resources and production between locations on a global scale in order to maximise profit margins. For example, Coca Cola Hellenic is leaving Greece; this is so that they don’t lose any more money than they already have done. Athens stock exchange is a lot smaller than it used to be, which has meant the general economic “sickness” in the country depresses prices of all companies there. So, the company is to move its domicile from Greece to Switzerland and the stock listing from Athens to London. This example perfectly summarises how and why TNCs pack up in certain countries and go on to the next - to make profit, which is what all-multinational companies are out to do, “make a buck.” The growth in TNCs is also the idea of shifting to a more flexible production system, like “JIT” production, which stands for Just-In-Time. This type of production is exactly what it says on the tin, an order is placed with the company and only then do they start making the product, this saves time, space and money, as products are not left in warehouses until an order is placed. This allows for products to be made quickly and efficiently.

In some aspects, Luxury goods definition might be different among countries. For example, a Calvin Klein man’s T-shirt just sells about $40 in US, but it will be sold about $90 or even more in China; a Tommy Hilfiger women dress only sells $120 in US, but it will be sold about $260 or even more in China. Therefore, Chinese customer regards Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger as light luxury goods, which is still being expensive but compared with Prada and Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, is less expensive. However, American customer does not treat Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger to light luxury goods, which is just as normal brand like Abercrombie & Fitch. So we can clearly notice that same brand has different price positioning in different countries. The same situation also happens to skin care product. An Estee Lauder advanced night repair serum just sells $62, about 390 RMB; but it can be sold in 1050RMB, which means this product price in China is three times in US. Price. For this reason, more and more Chinese customer likes buying luxury goods overseas, especially in Hong Kong and Macau or other travel

According to Hsieh et al. (2004), it is suggested that “consumers tend to use halo images of a country to judge quality and to generate inferential brand beliefs.” Thus it can be suggested that consumers’ positive attitudes and impressions towards a country will induce positive attitude towards the brand, and ultimately increasing their willingness to buy the products.

Branding is a tool to make the goods of one producer different from another producer (Keller, 2003). Carroll (2008) asserts that branding is a sign of quality, and it is helpful to increase

In nowadays, buying luxury brands is not only showing a sign of wealth, but also a kind of rewards for people’s hard working. Luxury products sell high market prices because of their designs, brand names, and the qualities. People want to buy luxury products because their quality is better than target brands. For example, the brand like Bottega Veneta is known for its traditional design of leather goods; their handbags are handmade in Italy. Comparing to Bottega Veneta to target brands, Bottega Veneta’s design will not easily out of style, but target brands will easily out of styles because their designs are relatively ordinary. However, in the recent year, some luxury brands’ reputation has gone done because those brands were shifting their factories to other countries and then shipping back to Italy just for the label. Technically, the phrase “Made in Italy” is not really manufacture in Italy anymore, sometimes this product 's qualities are not as good as before. There is a rising concern of whether these luxury goods really match with the expensive price tags.

Building global brands in different countries means compliance with their rules and regulations. Costs more $$$.

In their insatiable hunt for increased profits, large corporations have developed an increasingly global presence. This presence exists to facilitate both the import and export of goods and reflects the fact that for many companies, potential customers are no longer restricted to the domestic market. Advancements in communications and logistics have rendered geographical distance between markets a relatively straightforward problem to overcome. This is demonstrated all over the world by the automobile industry. It is these advancements that have enabled big businesses, particularly those who manufacture tangible goods such as

Perceived value is depended on extrinsic and intrinsic characteristic directly as two journals that studied on the effects of extrinsic perceived cues consumer perception of quality, sacrifice and value (R. Kenneth Teas, and Sanjeev Agarwal 2000). Cross- National applicability of a perceived quality model (Sanjeev Agarwal and R. Kenneth Teas 2002) explained extrinsic attribute as Brand Name and store Name. The two characteristic are positively direct to perceived value. The redemption effort is likely to have a negative influence on perceptions of the value (Jeanne Lauren Munger; Dhruv Grewal 2001), perceived quality, value perception, price acceptability are positively associate purchase intentions. (Sanjeev Agarwal and R. Kenneth Teas 2004) investigation the generalizability of a model that predicts consumers’ perception of value based upon extrinsic cues – such as brand name, price, retailer reputation, location and country of origin – and their perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and

In Japan, the costs of LVMH handbags cost approximately 40% more than in France. This started a growing market to distribute bags from France to Japan for resale at a cheaper price. Arnault believes that the producers of LVMH’s goods need to be unrestrained by financial matters in order to produce extremely high quality products. To keep the brand management of highly priced and high quality goods, LVMH needs to expand to the younger new money of the Asian market. The high quality is also a result of the mentality that “Made in France” is perceived as high western quality. LVMH does not want to lower the labor costs because there would be a similar direction of the quality.

(1993) propose capital, empathy, cost, and accountability as possible mediators in the process between consumer ethnocentrism and readiness to purchase imported products. The explanation of these variables lies in the logic that ethnocentric consumers will perceive international competition as something that is not fair to the domestic industry. This will then force consumers to buy domestic products, which increases empathy for members of the internal group, and increases readiness for further purchase of domestic products. Ethnocentric consumers will also ignore personal costs by purchasing domestic products. Another important variable is certainly the effect of the "country of origin". Han (1988) includes the country of origin as a variable that dictates the relationship between consumer patriotism and the intent of buying. Namely, consumers of expressed patriotism will moreover buy domestic products, and avoid buying products of foreign

On the other hand, the large market potential has drawn a host of luxury-goods companies to enter the China market, which makes the competition fiercer and fiercer. And it is troublesome for LV that there are plenty of fake goods imitating LV’s style prevailing in China, which are actually not likely to reduce LV’s high-end consumers, but would exert negative influences on consumers’ impression and awareness of LV.