INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications

Introduction

The country-of-origin (COO), conveyed through marketing communications messages, can act as an important informational cue in consumers' buying decision-making process when evaluating products and brands (Verlegh et al., 2005). Research suggests that the image consumers have of the country the product or brand originates from influences their purchase intentions (Yasin et al., 2007). In particular, there is evidence that familiarity with and attitude towards the country impacts on how consumers evaluate products and brands from that particular country (Kinra, 2006). Therefore, this phenomenon - termed the COO-effect - is a crucial factor organisations need to consider when planning marketing activities (Al-Sulaiti and Baker, 1998; Josiassen and Harzing, 2008), such as integrated marketing communications campaigns. Depending on the image consumers have of the COO in the target market, stressing the COO in marketing communications messages can either enhance or deteriorate attitudes towards the marketed product or brand (Johansson, 1993). It is, therefore, important for marketers to first understand how the COO is perceived in the target market.

There are many examples of organisations and entire industries that have used consumers' favourable associations with the COO and a specific product or service category in order to create effective marketing communications campaigns: Emirates Airlines is positioned as providing excellent in-flight service quality, in line with the luxury hospitality image of the Emirates; campaigns for French fragrances, such as Chanel and Dior, often feature images of Paris to reinforce the association between the products' COO and romance and beauty; IKEA have used Sweden's reputation for being a social, family oriented nation to position their business across continents; Japanese electronics producers, such as Sony and Panasonic, take advantage of their country's reputation for being leading in high-tech consumer gadgets; and marketing communications campaigns for German cars, like Volkswagen and Audi, often include German features (Vorsprung durch Technik) to exploit consumers' association of high quality, reliable manufacturing with Germany.

Related to the COO-effect is the phenomenon of consumer ethnocentrism, which is the overall tendency to evaluate domestic products as better than imported ones (Baker and Michie, 1995; Cleveland et al., 2009). A large body of research supports the notion that this tendency has a strong impact on consumers' choice of products (Shimp and Sharma, 1987; Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1990; Evanschitzky et al., 2008). For example, research suggests that the COO is a strong factor impacting on consumers' decision making when buying a car (Ahmed and d'Astous, 1996) - particularly in the five European key markets of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK ( Netzeitung, 2006). Industry data show that most of the top ten best-selling cars in Germany - the biggest car market in the EU - are produced by Volkswagen, BMW or DaimlerChrysler, while the French and Italians prefer cars that originate in their home markets (Loeffler, 2002). This ethnocentric loyalty is the result of clever marketing communications campaigns which have created country-specific, favourable brand images that appeal to the manufacturers' target groups in the domestic ...