engleski

Effect of Perceived Country Of Origin On Younger Croatian Consumers' Views Of Low-Involvement Products

Country of origin (COO) is often used as a cue for evaluating products, and it has been suggested that favourable perceptions about the country result in favourable attributions about brands from that country. Consumer brand knowledge determines how a consumer thinks about the brand, and how the consumer responds to different stimuli regarding a brand. Although concept of COO has several definitions in the international marketing literature, there seems to be general consensus among international marketing researchers that country image and brand image are inextricably linked, but exact nature, including the direction of this relationship, is not unequivocal. The following hypotheses were proposed: H1: Brand is of greater influence than COO in purchasing and consumption of chocolate for young Croatian consumers ; H2: Price is of greater influence than COO in purchasing and consumption of chocolate for young Croatian consumers ; H3: Young Croatian consumers attach different perceptions to chocolate brands of different origin ; H3a: Chocolate brands from Western European countries are perceived as the best ; H3b: Chocolate brands from the Central and Eastern European countries are perceived as the worst ; H4: Young Croatian consumers are not willing to buy Croatian chocolate brands which are more expensive than the foreign ones, even when the quality of national brands equals the quality of the brands imported from the Western European countries. Results show that young Croatian consumers hold functional quality (taste) as dominant factor in the purchase and consumption of chocolate. Price overrates COO and brand cues, too. It is important to stress that many young Croatian consumers could not relate correctly brand of chocolate they consume most with the respective COO. Chocolate brands from the Western European countries were perceived as the best compared with chocolate form the rest of Europe. However, results show that national Croatian brands hold better image than brands from other Central and Eastern European countries. Also, it is very important to notice that, if national Croatian chocolate brand was of equal quality as brands form Western European countries almost half of respondents would buy more expensive Croatian chocolate.

Country Of Origin (COO); brand; young consumers; low-involvement products; chocolate

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