Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors by Tsan-Ming Choi

Author:Tsan-Ming Choi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

2.2 Country of Origin

According to Morello (as cited in Javalgi et al. 2001), the term country of origin has been widely used for more than a 100 years. Country of origin , country of manufacture, or country of brand origin have been considered as extrinsic cues of a product, and there has been a large amount of evidence supporting their significant effects on consumers’ product evaluation (e.g. Chan and Tung 2011; Magnusson et al. 2011; Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran 2000; Ulgado and Lee 1998). Koschate-Fischer et al. (2012), Chinen and Sun (2011), and Jin et al. (2010) have also proved that these cues have a significantly direct effect on attitudes and beliefs toward a product. The goal of these researchers was to investigate consumer images of countries and brands, and to measure the relative importance of certain attributes when consumers buy these products.

However, these terms are becoming increasingly misleading or confusing in the current market, where hybrid products typically comprise more than one country’s contribution toward the completed product (Jung and Yoon 2012; Henderson and Hoque 2010; Phau and Cheong 2009; Häubl 1996; O’Cass and Lim 2001, 2002). As a result, “Country of brand origin may be the reason consumers still attach certain cultural characteristics to a brand when specific information about the foreign country is not available” (O’Cass and Lim 2002, p. 763).

Therefore, it is assumed that country of brand origin (Ahmed et al. 2012; O’Cass and Lim 2002) would be a more appropriate term to use in the examination of consumers’ perceptions on brand origins.

Many studies have focused on consumers’ perceptions of domestic versus foreign-made products or brands in relation to ethnocentrism (Tabassi et al. 2012; Lwin et al. 2010; Kaynak and Kara 2002; O’Cass and Lim 2002; Supphellen and Rittenburg 2001; Ulgado and Lee 1998). As previously discussed, although most studies on the fashion industry in Australia found that the consumers have strong propensities to buy Australian-made apparel, more foreign-made rather than domestic-made apparel is still being purchased. Consumer ethnocentrism is displayed in this instance, where consumers believe that the purchase of foreign-made products is unpatriotic and harmful to the local economy, and imports can result in the loss of local jobs (e.g. Bi et al. 2012; Lwin et al. 2010). Researchers also found that younger Australians are more likely to purchase foreign-made apparel, which means that they have lower consumer ethnocentrism (Phau and Cheong 2009; Phau and Leng 2008; Fischer and Byron 1997; Patterson and Tai 1991).

Furthermore, ethnocentrism is also a cultural dimension besides country of brand origin. Hence, a product or brand from a highly ethnocentric country with a strong culture can be a more successful global brand than from a less ethnocentric country. For instance, apparel from Australia, New Zealand, and the UK are preferred by Australians than apparel from China and Southeast Asia on every product attribute except for price (Phau and Leng 2008; Mohamad et al. 2000; Patterson and Tai 1991). This observation is supported by Kaynak and Kara (2002) and O’Cass and

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