11 - Country-of-origin effects on Chinese consumption of branded foreign products

Abstract

Despite the global recession, international prestige brands continue to build on their success in the Chinese market. In order to sustain long-term achievement in this market, it is critical to have a profound understanding of local customers’ attitudes towards branded foreign products. Consciously or subconsciously, consumers tend to use country-of-origin (COO) products as one of the selection criteria they keep in mind when purchasing. Our present research intends to disocver how and to what extent the COO effect influences Chinese consumer perception, preference and selection of branded foreign products. In order to have a better understanding of consumers’ innermost opinions of COO effects, qualitative research was deemed the order of the day. Semi-directive interviews were carried out in the mainland of China. In order to make the research results more representative, the interviewees selected were of different sex, age, educational background, income and occupation. Research results on COO effects on Chinese consumers may help companies better understand how to communicate with and serve Chinese consumers in a more effective way.