The influence of Brazil s image on foreign consumers attitudes towards Brazilian products: a study with undergraduate Dutch students / A influência da imagem do Brasil na atitude de consumidores estrangeiros com relação a produtos brasileiros: um estudo com estudantes universitários holandeses

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2005

RESUMO

At the same time that the globalization of markets has progressed, there has been a growing expansion of researches on the country-of-origin effect, both in the international trade and in the marketing literature. In general, it is admitted that the country of origin influences consumer’s products evaluations and his/her purchase decisions. The country-of-origin effects on the products evaluations can be moderated by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic information about the product and also by environmental and cultural factors. For the majority of the studies about multiple cues of the product, it is seen that the consumer perceptions are important because they will, ultimately, influence the consumer’s choices for one product or brand. Since organizations deal with limited resources, they need to try to develop strategies that are appropriated for their resource base. In this sense, the country of origin can be used as part of a differentiation strategy for Brazilian products in international markets. Nevertheless, in Brazil, the studies about the effects related to the country of origin information are still on their first steps, indicating the relevance of the present study’s contribution. The general problem of investigation is defined as: does the image foreign consumers have about Brazil influence their attitude towards Brazilian products? Therefore, this research’s general objective is to investigate, based on literature, the influence that country of origin image has on attitudes consumers have towards foreign products and verify such relations by means of a research whose focus is Brazil as a country of origin of high and low involvement products. The Brazilian products analyzed are cow meat, fresh fruits, shoes and furniture. In order to measure this relationship, the five dimensions of country of origin image identified by Ayrosa (2002) were used to evaluate the image foreign consumers have about Brazil. The scales indicated by Assael (1995) and McDaniel and Gates (1996) were used to measure the three components of attitude that foreign consumers have towards Brazilian products. The research’s target population was defined as the Dutch undergraduate students from the School of Economics Haarlem (in the Netherlands), totalizing 1901 students. It was seen that, both in the literature review and in the empirical research, a country’s image is not a single construct. There are some dimensions that define a country’s image; some are positive and others are negative. In this regard, when a country’s image is analyzed, all dimensions have to be considered, so that the causes of a positive or negative image can be understood. The results of the empirical research denote the existence of the country of origin effect, both to each product investigated in the research and also to these products in a general way, with the exception of cow meat. As foreseen, the majority of results showed that Brazil’s image negatively affects the attitudes towards Brazilian products. In relation to the country of origin moderating factors investigated, namely product familiarity and involvement, the hypotheses that the effect would be stronger for consumers less familiarized and less involved with the products were not confirmed. This research results can provide more elements for the discussion about the use of Brazil’s image when promoting Brazilian products in foreign markets. This could help Brazilian companies that need to deal with issues related to country of origin in their international marketing activities.

ASSUNTO(S)

efeito país de origem comportamento do consumidor country of origin effect brazil s image attitudes exportação atitudes exportation consumer behavior imagem brasil

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