ABSTRACT

The motivation behind researching the country of origin and how does it affect the consumer behavior. Research has proven that country of origin represents an important factor considered by consumers in their purchasing decision process. Such impact is based on the image of the country in customer’s black-box which influence his/her brand perception, attitude, usage and loyalty. Accordingly, Country of origin has become an extrinsic product trait considered as a surrogate for product quality, performance, reliability, prestige and other product characteristics that cannot be directly evaluated.
The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of country-of-origin of a brand on the consumers’ perception and overall brand equity. Particularly, the aim is to explore the relation between the consumers’ perception of the country of origin image and their perception and attitude toward the supplied brand image and attitude. In this respect , the  study will focus on the influence of Country-of-Origin factor on the mothers selection of baby diapers brands .

Due to the nature of study, a positivist approach is adopted and followed a quantitative research strategy. The data is collected using survey technique based on questionnaires. The study sample population is Lebanese consumers from all levels (highly educated, normal people and different economic levels).  Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis will be used to analyze the data.

As key terms will consider: Country of Origin Image; Consumer Behavior and Brand Perception; and Loyalty.

Contents

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Part One:

Literature Review

Chapter One :  Theoretical Foundation

Section1: Theoretical Fundamentals:  Key Terms definition

1.0 Country of origin

2.1 Brand Image

Brand Image vs. Brand Identity

Brand Perception

2.3 The Halo Effect and Country of Origin

2.4 Country of Origin and Ethnocentricity

Consumer Ethnocentrism

Brand perception

Definition of Brand Image

Brand Image vs. Brand Identity

Brand image components

Purchase Intention Background

COO Effect on Purchase Intention

Product Knowledge Concept

Influence of Product Familiarity on Product Evaluation and Country of Origin Image

Research Methods

Data collection

Research data

T- test

ANOVA analysis

Analyzing Factors

Reliability and Validity

Hypothesis

Results and Analysis

Introduction

In 1960’s, the attraction of researches has headed towards the world of branding highlighting its most relevant part, the Brand Equity(BE)(Zeugner-Roth et al.,2008;Swaminathan et al., 2009;Keller,2010; Hamzaoui-Essoussi et al.,2011 ). Branding expert, David Aaker defined brand equity back in 1991 as:“A set of assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that adds to or subtracts from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers.”

According to Keller (2013), brand equity represents the value that consumers associate with a brand. Furthermore, branding plays an important role in building and maintaining long term customers’ relation and engender competition on the market place (Moradi & Zarei, 2012; Ishaq et al., 2014).

Regardless of the role of brand equity, the researchers’ main concentration wasn’t on developing the brand equity capacities but on the factors affecting it. Globalization and the open markets strategy made the products from one country available for any customer in any other country.

The “made in” label of a product affects consumer’s perceptions while manipulating their preferences for a desired and preferable brand that pushes them even to pay more.

In the Middle East and the Arab world it is remarkable how much people invest on brands in order to satisfy their needs and preferences while spotlighting on the brand preference image.

Coming to the case of Lebanon, despite the bad economy situation, the Lebanese people are becoming more and more addicted to buy “made in” label of a product. With an interaction between the consumer and the brand itself, customers become more aware about the product features and benefits which influence positively the Brand awareness and Brand perceived Image.

Country -of- Origin of a brand (COB) and Country of Manufacture (COM) has a lot of influence and effects on consumer’s behavior and the consumer based brand equity (CBBE) and tis clarify the relationship between COB and COM and overall brand equity (OBE).

Many researches have been done revealing the impact of Country of Origin of a brand on consumer’s behavior and overall brand equity. Our study will focus on the influence of COO of “Pampers Baby Diapers” on the buying habits of its consumers compared to previous studies and points of view in this regard. To what extent people are concerned and influenced by the country of origin of a brand?  What appeals to consumers in Pampers origin? What level of influence does country image has on brand perceived image? How country image influence positively brand loyalty?

By justifying these questions, we will determine the main utensils affecting the relationship between Country of Origin and Overall Brand Equity.

We will present in the first part of our thesis a literature review about the dependent variable which is Brand Equity and its theoretical foundation, in order to expose the research context of our study and its hypothesis development. In the second part, we will design the research methodology strategy that helps to collect, discuss and interpret data of our study of the relation between Country of Origin and Brand Equity.

Part One:

Literature Review

Chapter One :  Theoretical Foundation

Section1: Theoretical Fundamentals:  Key Terms definition

1.0       Country of origin

Different Researches have defined the Country of origin (COO) as the source of manufacture  (Thakor and Katsanis 1997; Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2003; Zolfagharian et al, 2014). With Globalozation , the term country of origin reflecting the source of manufacturing has become  a potential conflict for consumers  (Phau and Prendergast, 2000). With the reduction of  international Commerce barriers  , consumers are exposed to the spread of  an amalgam of multi country Brands  as most of the manufacturing and assembly of a product components can takes place in different countries (Chao, 1993 et al.). Such country mix as source of origin could have a negative impact on brand perception  as the consumers beliefs in regards of some of these countries might be negative (Thakor and Katsanis, 1997). Different studies highlighted that international Brands with high notoriety has lost credibility when changing the country of manufacturing developed countries to developing ones (Johansson and Nebenzahl 1986; Han and Terpstra (1988). This is explained by the change in the consumers’ quality perception and buying intention reflected by the change in the country of manufacturing  (Lee and Schaninger 1996; Pappu et al., 2006). In fact different research papers outlined, that manufacturing place represents a major motive in consumers brand selection process (Ulgado and Lee (1993; Iyer and Kalita (1997).

Many country of origin studies get criticism by using single-cue approach without indicating the difference between country of manufacturing (COM) and country of origin of the brand (COB) (Johansson et al., 1985; Ozsomer and Cavusgil, 1991). The single-cue COO measurements have been pointed as a restriction in the studies with the increase of the multinational manufacture (Chao, 1993; Ettenson, 1993) which features the real need to dived COO into at least two separate parts: the country of origin of a brand (COB) and country of manufacturing (COM) (Ozsomer and Cavusgil, 1991;Chao, 1993).

Thakor and Lavack (2003) identify antecedents to brand origin such as place of ownership, of top management, position of manufacture, location of assembly, origin, and other antecedents specific for the consumer such as travel and press releases as well as marketing communications of the company. Although many of these elements are the same as in Nebenzahl‘s (1997) taxonomy, Thokar and Lavack (2003) put them together to form the concept – perceived brand origin. According to them, consumers draw brand origin cues from and with the help of these cues consumers set out perceived brand origins, which they use to devise general perceptions, attitudes, hopes and targets about the product and the brand.