the evaluation of turkish consumers' attitudes towards foreign products

THE EVALUATION OF TURKISH CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES
TOWARDS FOREIGN PRODUCTS
Products are produced in “places” or any place ranging from a city to a state; in a
country, in an area, in a continent or in the world as “global” products. This information
about the place where the product is produced is called as country origin. Actually, a
product or brand cannot be thought apart from the place where it was produced, in other
words the country origin.
The social changes and developments and economic changes in world history have also
changed country origin effect and description. For example, the appearance of local
cultures, the increase in the facilities of transportation, and the most importantly the
increase in the easiness of obtaining the desired information have also increased the effect
of knowing about the country origin on consumption and communication studies.
Consumers know about what products are better produced in which areas no more, and
this case affects many factors ranging from brand preference to the money to be paid for
a certain product.
Products are not necessarily made in “countries”. They are made in “places”, or
geographic origins, which can be anything from a city to a state or province, a country, a
region, a continent-or the world, in the case of “global” products. Further, unless viewed
in strictly legal terms, “made-in” can mean manufactured-in but also assembled-,
designed-, or invented-in, made by a producer whose domicile is-in, and often, wanting
to lool like it was made-in . Lastly, “buyers and sellers” can be anything from industrial
and consumer users of products to national governments courting each other in the hope
of establishing closer trade relations. Since the “origin” images of “products” can have so
many facets, it is no surprise that they have been the object of study in disciplines ranging
from political science to cultural anthropology and urban geography (Papadopoulos,
Heslop, 1993).
When we look from advertisers’ and advertising communicators’ point of view, it
becomes an important datum to know about under which conditions the effect of country
origin turns out to be an important factor. For instance, when a new communication
strategy towards products or services is developed, the effect of country origin must be
taken into consideration.
The basic factors affecting the country origin
When the literature in the field of country origin is carefully studied, it is seen that there
are six basic factors affecting the country origin effect. The studies carried out in the field
can be classified depending on this; as country image and its characteristics, attitudes
towards trademarks, product knowledge/product properties, culture, consumer
characteristics and consumer ethnocentrism.
When country image and characteristics are mentioned, the first thing that we recall is
that each country has been identified with different icons including each country’s
historical culture and has created a country image being labeled as a trademark. Many
studies having been carried out so far, have revealed that country image is an important
factor affecting consumers’ choices in purchasing in today’s global market. Image is
defined as “mental picture being formed as a result of a process of being informed”. With
a clearer expression, it means evaluating the obtained knowledge and data, ranging from
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