Buyer's Attitude & Marketing Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Buyer's Attitude & Marketing Strategies - Essay Example Country of origin (CoO) cues influence the buyer’s purchasing behaviour. This is recognized in the cognitive mediation process. It is based on the argument that beliefs about a product’s features or attributes are directly influenced by the product’s country of origin information. These influenced beliefs mediate changes in attitude toward the product. Strategically speaking, the country of origin cues is used to promote the products of one country in another. Japan literally spent billions of dollars in the United States to overcome the poor image that its products had in the United States after World War II. Although total Japanese success cannot possibly be attributed to successful of country of origin cues, they certainly played an important role. In fact, the cues or their variations are still playing a critical role in Japan’s success in United States Markets. Managing Country of Origin Perception Buyer attitudes toward certain countries can change, and this has important implications for global competitors. Both Japan and South Korea saw their products rise in esteem over a relatively short period of time. Now Japanese products score higher than U.S. or German products in some countries, including China and Saudi Arabia (Onkvisit, 2005). In recent years, a number of countries, including Portugal, Estonia, and Poland, have employed branding experts to help them project a better image. Finland even undertook a campaign to enhance its image as a center of high tech innovation, hoping that a better national image would help its high-tech companies in the U.S market. But countries must realize branding is more than hype, it must be backed by reality. Consequently, major changes in country brand image can take 20 years to achieve (Czinkota, 2007). Firms that suffer from a negative country of origin commonly settle for lower prices to offset perceptions of lower quality. However, there are a number of strategies that can improve buye r perception of the quality of products that suffer from a negative country of origin effect; A negative country of origin bias may be offset by using a channel that distributes already accepted complementary goods. Communication, marketing and persistence can eventually pay off. Production may be moved to a country with a positive country of origin effect. If it’s too difficult, key parts can be sourced from such countries. The country of origin effect does extend further. For example, the stereotyping relates just as much too developed countries (Gilligan,  2004). For example, there are strong associations between countries and the products that they are known for: Italy and pizza and Germany and Machine tools. Overcoming these stereotypes is often the first challenge for international marketers who must prove that their product does not reinforce negative stereotypes. This is particularly important as customers become more knowledgeable (Cateora, 2002). For example, many new car buyers know where their can has been designed and manufactured as well as the country of origin of the brand. Increasing, of course, the MNE’s headquarters, the brands perceived home, the location of product design and places of manufacture may all be in different countries. Many MNE’s such as Nike are marketing, not manufacturing companies and source products from many countries (Muhlbacher,  2006). Their brand becomes the ‘badge of quality’