the evaluation of turkish consumers' attitudes towards foreign products

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 376
various channels to advertisement, from advertisements to natural contacts, from the culture in which we live to the prejudices that we have (Özenç, 2002). The image in human mind about any product, trademark or country can be stated to be effective and determining in the attitudes and the behaviors of the consumers. In such cases in which no experience is available about product, consumers mostly determine some characteristics as their principals like the quality of the product, price, brand image, producer image, sales outlet image or country origin (Schiffman, Kanuk, 2004). Some countries have impressive reputation in some kinds of products; such as Japan in the field of automotive and electronic objects, USA in the field of advanced technological products, beverages, toys, cigarette and jeans, France in the field of wine, perfume, luxurious consumption products, are the countries having already deserved reputation. The fact that country image is mostly preferred and more impressive means that country origin has a more eye catching role in the introduction of a trademark and in labeling (Kotler, Jatusripitak & Maesince, 2002) Research (Schooler, 1965; Schooler & Wildt, 1968; Nagashima,1970; Darling, 1985; Johansson, Douglas, Nonaka, 1985; Hong & Wyer, 1990; Smith, 1993; Parameswaran & Pisharodi, 1994; Ahmed & dʹAstous, 1995) indicates that being perceived of a certain country by people affects the attitudes of people towards the products of that certain country. The characteristics of that country, the development level of that country in the field of technology, democratic structure of it, the characteristics of the people of that country affect the perceptions towards that country. Research shows that positive impressions attributed to a certain country are mostly reflected to the products produced in that certain country; similarly negative impressions attributed to that country also affect the evaluation of the products of that country and attitudes of the people towards the products of that country. From this point of view, the attitudes of the consumers towards the country in which the products are made and the knowledge of the consumers about that country become an important datum for marketing experts and advertisers. The studies dealing with attitudes towards a trademark under the frame of country origin demonstrate that the effect of country origin has affected attitudes towards trademark directly or indirectly (Han, 1990; Schaefer, 1995; Ahmed & at. Al, 2002). When deciding on a certain trademark is in question for a consumer, the knowledge about the country origin affects the attitudes towards that trademark. At this point, the development level of the countries appears as an important factor in shaping people’s attitudes towards trademarks. It is seen that the development level or reliability of a country help the products of that country to be perceived as developed and reliable trademarks. On the other hand, in the cases in which little knowledge is available about a certain trademark, the country origin effect appears as a factor in the formation of attitudes towards that trademark. The studies carried out in the field of country origin indicate that consumers give importance to country origin when they want to obtain knowledge about a product. In some product categories, the knowledge about the country origin seems to have priority over some properties like the price, warranty of the product in the evaluation of that trademark in people’s eyes. Culture appears to be an important factor in explaining consumer behaviors and in marketing activities. The effect of culture in people’s behaviors and its effect on consumer 377
Page 1: THE EVALUATION OF TURKISH CONSUMERS
Page 5 and 6: 8. Is there any relation between th
Page 7 and 8: The products made in …… are for
Page 9 and 10: (65,3441), their attitudes towards
Page 11 and 12: positive and neutral seem to be ver
Page 13 and 14: Güdüm, G. ve Kavas, A. (1993). T

the evaluation of turkish consumers' attitudes towards foreign products

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?