Points That Affect The Well-doing Of The Product
Country of origin is where the particular product is manufactured or produced from. From the marketing perspective, the COO is a method to differentiate the home product from the competitors. For example, Apple is made in the USA, Sony is from Japan etc.. country of origin effect refers to any influence by the manufacture, assembly or design on the product by the country on the consumer (Rao 2012).
Country of origin effect will affect the consumer either positively or negatively. Factors that contribute to COO effect includes the level of the country’s economy and technology advancement of that country. COO may also influence the reaction of the consumer. Some factors like stereotypes towards the country, capacity of the country to perform well in an industry, like India performing well in their medicine industry, hence more people are going over to India to get treated. Demographic factors will also affect the discrimination against foreign products and influence the buyers’ reaction.
Customers ‘ point of view towards COO will also affect the well-doing of the product. For example, inferring the product quality based on the country image in their mind. It can also be from past experience when they purchase some other product that is made is the same country. Also, the typical thinking of highly developed country does produce the higher quality of products. COO effect marketing channels are promotion, masking and foreign brand marketing. Promotion marketing features the name of the country that has been recognized by the consumer.
For example, Czech Republic; traditionally known for the glass making industry in a very long history over the world and jewellery as well, it is woman favourite from all around the world and both of the product had reach global market (Embassy of the Czech Republic in Jakarta n.d.). Secondly, Mexico; known for the world best tequila, tequila is made from the agave plant which is found in the Mexican state of Jalisco. It has reached high sales in the US market (Carden 2018).
Masking marketing used another country that manufactures the product, but it is based on the country of origin. For example, Western Digital; The company from the US, has the manufacturing facility in Petaling Jaya in Malaysia but it will be ended in the year 2019. Still manufactured in some state like in Johor and Sarawak (Nair 2018). And secondly, RIP CURL; the company from Australia, manufacture in many countries such as China, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, USA, Cambodia, Portugal, Italy, France, Morocco, South Korea, Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Australia. Owned large state of the art wetsuit manufacturing facility called Onsmooth Thai Co.Ltd in Thailand (Rip Curl n.d.).
The foreign brand used foreign language and culture to show the company image to attract the customer, but it is based and manufacture from the country of origin. For example; the company of ASUS is based in Taiwan, it used the name of ASUS which is coming from the Greek language that symbolises wisdom and knowledge. ASUS embodies the strength, purity, and adventurous spirit of this fantastic creature, and soars to new heights with each new product it creates (ASUS 2018). And the second example will be Bathing Apes, the company is based in Japan. It is a Japanese clothing brand specializes in men's, women's and children's lifestyle and streetwear. The reason of the name called Bathing Apes is because of the designer channelled his love for the 1968 film Planet of the Apes in the name, as well as referring to the Japanese idiom ‘A bathing ape in lukewarm water.’ The phrase is used to describe somebody who overindulges, like lying in a bath until the water isn’t even hot anymore (Foley 2018).
The world best respected made in label from all countries, overall best country that customer will likely to buy product is from Germany because consumer tend to buy goods that manufacture from the best country image which shows the reputation or the stereotype of the specific country that has advantage representing the products such as the economic, history and political characteristic (Kvig 2016). Factors affecting all countries and types of product are demographic, country image, ethnocentrism, xenocentrism and customer involvement. Demographic shows the influence on the way the customer evaluates, perceive and form an attitude. Older people were likely to have a more positive attitude toward the country where the product is manufactured, and younger consumers prefer to purchase products of western countries considering high quality and value for money (Kala & Chaubey 2016).
Country image has influenced the consumers on some type of product from a country that has a reputation to attract the buyer, it represents the view of the image on good or bad attitudes of product associated with the country (Kvig 2016) Ethnocentrism explain more toward the feelings of the home county and foreign country product, it is more likely to act as a barrier. Low ethnocentrism customer tends to purchase foreign goods rather than local and high ethnocentrism customer tends to purchase domestic goods rather than foreign (Kvig 2016)
Xenocentrism is the sociological concept which views that a group other than one’s own is the centre of everything and that all others, including one’s own group, are scaled and rated with reference to it. This means that foreign products are superior to all others, including the domestic products. It is observed that consumers of developing economies may regard products from developed markets as an indication of their higher status, class, wealth and lifestyle and, 50 Management Convergence in this sense, the possession of such products allows them to demonstrate that they are more cosmopolitan (Kala & Chaubey 2016).
Consumer involvement focuses on the relevant product to be purchased for the consumer. High involvement in purchasing a product holds an important information and consideration before buying. People will consider the quality and the need for the goods as it tends to be more expensive. And for low involvement in purchasing a product, consumer did not need to do research to seek for the information of the quality of product and COO has a great impact (Kvig 2016) Some types of product that affect country of origin will be telecommunication (28.5%), Appeal (20.2%), Food & beverages (16.3%), electronic & household (15.8%) and furniture appliances (10.9%). COO touches both consumer evaluations of the product as well as the firm's decision to manufacture its goods in certain countries and how to brand. An attempt was directed to know the influence of a COO effect on the consumer in a different category of products (Kala & Chaubey 2016).
