Globalization or Localization: Global Brand Perception in Emerging Markets

Abstract

With the globalization of world economy, more brands from emerging markets have entered the international market, which brought changes to the competitive landscape previously dominated by global brands from developed countries. It becomes more critical for marketing managers to understand consumers’ perceptions of the two types of global brands: traditional global brands from developed countries and emerging global brands from developing countries, and to uncover the changes in consumers’ purchase intentions in the new competitive environment. This study attempts to identify factors influencing consumers’ purchase intentions concerning the aforementioned two types of global brands. The results indicated that consumers’ interpretation of global brands is becoming increasingly complicated. In addition to the already established pathway of “perceived brand globalness (PBG)” influencing consumers’ brand attitude (hereinafter referred to as “BA”) and purchase intentions, there emerged a new pathway of “perceived brand localness (PBL)” influencing consumers’ brand perception and purchase intentions. These two pathways have different effects on traditional global brands and emerging global brands. Specifically, for traditional global brands, PBG has greater influence than PBL; for emerging global brands, PBL has more influence than PBG.