Buyers Attitude & Marketing Strategies - Essay Example

?Buyers’ Attitude & Marketing Strategies Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts 21st April, Introduction Relationships between product and nationality, in buyers’ evaluations, were first studied with respect to the “made in” label. Country of origin is one of the significant factors that mark the consumer purchasing decision making process and industry buying. The country of origin with other marketing features has a huge effect on the perception of the goods offered in the market. This is due to its superiority or inferiority. 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 buyer 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’ that overlays the country of origin effect. Product image- it is one of the most powerful points of differentiation for consumers. The aspirational and achiever groups of buyers wish to belong to particular worldwide customer segments and are keen to purchase products associates with that group. Company image- is becoming increasingly important in creating a central theme running through diverse product ranges. It reinforces the vision and the values of the company, which can be recognized by employees and customers alike (Paul, 2008). For this reason many companies have spent considerable effort and resources on controlling and enhancing the corporate identity through consistent style and communications. The image of a company also plays a vital role in business to business marketing for example, when quoting for international capital projects. Decisions are likely to be made on the grounds of the perceived reputation of the company as, without a strong international presence, it can be quite difficult to break into a small elite circle of international companies, even if very low prices are quoted (Armstrong, 2009). Ways a buyer’s attitude on country of origin affects the marketing strategy Some countries are allied with high quality products while there are others which are allied with low quality products. The attitude of the buyer about a good or service based on the country-of-origin greatly influences the marketing strategy of the product since the marketing strategy always concentrates on generating (Groucutt, 2004). A positive attitude on the goods and services offered to the market, where buyers have a negative attitude towards them. In relation with other marketing influences, country-of-origin has a less significant influence on the process of consumer decision making but it somehow influences the overall acceptance of the products subject on the level of impact in the market (Moore, 2010). Buyers from developed countries have a general preference for domestic products, but foreign international goods and services which enjoy a good brand image globally or which are sold through high-status retailers may be able to alter consumers’ inclinations in indulgence of the imported product (Becherer, 2003, p.34). Also, improved after sales services and guarantees have to be extensively used a marketing strategy to minimize the biasness of country of origin (Terblanche, 2005, p.26). Buyers do not entirely use the country of origin as a remote evaluation criterion, but evaluate the merchandise and its extrinsic and intrinsic attributes within the complete purchasing context (product category, brand, positioning in the market). Furthermore, country of origin is used as an assessment condition in union with actual produce attributes (packaging, price, after-sales service). Such marketing could be very deceiving for consumers and could eventually have the effect of lowering the credibility of the manufacturing company significantly (Cui, 2003, p.58). Another effective marketing strategy is the export marketing- this will reduce country of origin stereotypes on product that are negative and hence use the national image as a positioning tool in the host country. Stereotypes tend to be stronger when the buyer is unfamiliar with the product or the company in question (Hills, 2008, p.83). In such circumstances the country of origin helps as a variable that expedites evaluation in the lack of other information available. The symbolic attributes that are linked to brands and national images often form consistent patterns in which one attribute validates another (Ashill, 2002, p.23). Hence, when a manufacturer introduces a new product on a foreign market, starting from scratch without an established brand image, there is a potential for intentional diffusion of favorable images based on the country of origin (Fullerton, 2008, p.15). Provided the country of origin enjoys an image which contains relevant image features, suitable for the specific type of product and the targeted national segments. Conclusion In many business sectors product and service strategies are being affected by the increased globalization of consumer tastes, communication, technological, advances and the concentration of business activity. There is also an increasing expectation amongst customers that their individual needs will be met. The product or services strategy is usually at the centre of international marketing operations. Branding is a key part of product and service management, particularly in international markets, but it is difficult to establish truly distinctive and have images that appeal to cross cultural segments despite having products of quality. Success on markets and especially success on international markets depends on many various factors. One of these factors is also consumer ethnocentrism or consumers? attitude toward imports and domestic products. Country of origin information, especially now when consumers must make product choices in often confusing marketplace, has strong effect on overall product evaluation. Country of origin as extrinsic manufactured goods attribute can play an important role in single buyer’s decision making; especially by buyers without knowledge of product basic attributes i.e. product image and product country image can have strong impact on buyers’ decision-making. Country of origin data constitutes a product trait that is external to the product itself. It serves as a substitute for product quality, performance, reliability, stature and other product features that cannot be easily evaluated. References Armstrong, G. Harker M. and Kotler, P., 2009. Marketing: An Introduction. London: Macmillan Publishers. Ashill, N. and Jobber, D., 2002. Defining Marketing Information Needs: An Exploratory Study of Senior Marketing Executives. Journal of Business and Management, 8(1), p.21-25. Becherer, R. Halstead, D. and Haynes, P., 2003. Marketing Orientation in Organizations: Effects of the Marketing Environment. New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, 6(1), p. 32-25. 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