George Balabanis and Adamantios Diamantopoulos
Executive Summary
Consumers (intentionally or unintentionally and implicitly or explicitly) categorize brands into different countries of origin (COO). The precision of these categorizations influences not only buying decisions but also the evaluation of other important brand attributes (e.g., quality, value for money). Although researchers have conducted many studies evaluating the impact of COO information on consumers’ product evaluations and buying intentions, the underlying assumptions are that consumers either know the actual COO of the evaluated brand or ab ovo learn about it during the buying process from the “made-in” labels. In this study, Balabanis and Diamantopoulos assess the validity of these assumptions and examine the extent to which consumers (precisely or imprecisely) attach or fail to attach a COO to a brand (i.e., the ab ovo COO learning assumption) and how precise the COO categorization of different brands is.
By applying the classification perspective of category learning theory, Balabanis and Diamantopoulos examine the factors that facilitate or hinder correct COO categorization as well as the implications of correct/wrong COO categorization on brand evaluations. They theorize that consumers categorize brands from dominant COOs, domestic brands, and brands with linguistically congruent names to their COOs with greater precision. Similarly, consumer characteristics, such as familiarity with the respective COOs, salience of COO, product involvement, and consumer ethnocentrism, also affect COO categorization precision.
The authors collected data from a random sample of U.K. consumers and examined the categorization of 13 brands of microwave ovens into different COOs. The results show that in most cases, consumers categorize brands into different COOs, but these categorizations tend to be inaccurate for most brands. The study also reveals substantial differences across brands in relation to the level of precision of COO categorizations. Balabanis and Diamantopoulos find that both COO dominance and brand name congruence increase the precision of COO categorization. Regarding the consumer characteristics, they find that only consumer ethnocentrism, country familiarity, and sociodemographics (e.g., age, gender) influence the precision of COO categorization. Finally, although there are differences in brand evaluations depending on whether the correct COO is identified, such differences are not observed for all brands investigated.
A key implication of the study is that further COO studies should reassess the assumption that consumers have accurate knowledge of a stimulus brand’s COO and adjust their research designs appropriately. From a practitioner perspective, attention should be paid to the possibility of misclassification of brands into the wrong COOs, because they could activate unanticipated COO effects. Such misclassifications could prevent brand owners from fully capitalizing on their country’s positive images.
Biography
George Balabanis is Professor of Marketing at Cass Business School, City University of London, UK. His work focuses on international and relationship marketing. He has published in, among others, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Long Range Planning, and British Journal of Management.
Adamantios Diamantopoulos (BA, MSc, PhD, FBAM) is Professor and Chair of International Marketing at the University of Vienna, Austria. His main research interests are in international marketing, marketing research, and research methodology, and he has authored approximately 200 publications in these areas. His work has appeared in, among others, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of International Marketing, and Journal of Business Research.
Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 16, No. 1, March 2008
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