Marketing Intelligence & PlanningBrand names and global positioningAshok Ranchhod C#lin Gur#u Ebi Marandi

Article information:To cite this document:Ashok Ranchhod C#lin Gur#u Ebi Marandi, (2011),"Brand names and global positioning", MarketingIntelligence & Planning, Vol. 29 Iss 4 pp. 353 - 365Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02634501111138536

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Brand names and globalpositioningAshok Ranchhod

MICA, Ahmedabad, India

Calin GurauGSCM – Montpellier Business School, Montpellier, France, and

Ebi MarandiUniversity of West of England, Bristol, UK

Abstract

Purpose – There is little in the literature on branding that considers how a brand name may affect abrand and its global positioning. Similarly, there is little research on brand dissonance and theparadoxes that occur in a globalised world. This research aims to examine the impact of country oforigin image on consumer perceptions of a successful tea brand dissonance between the country oforigin and the brand name.

Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach, using qualitative data collection, hasbeen applied in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 experienced tea distributorsand managers of Ahmad Tea in the Confederation of Independent States.

Findings – The findings show that a positive country of origin effect can have a positive impact on aglobal brand image transcending any negative connotations that a brand name may have.

Practical implications – The findings of this study provide useful insights for academics andpractitioners regarding the success factors of branding strategy in international markets.

Originality/value – This paper attempts to respond to a call by Keller for more empirical researchinto the ways in which the images of country of origin change or supplement the image of a brand.In doing so, this paper shows that successful associations with positive country of origin images canovercome problems with a problematic brand name in a global context.

Keywords Brand image, Country of origin, Branding management, Emerging markets

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionMost brands work well within a national context, creating a specific image which thendetermines the attitudes and expectations of customers. Brands that demonstrate moreuniversal appeal and offer a good brand promise tend to transcend national boundariesand eventually go global.

In many instances, brands have been developed within the national context first, suchas Coca Cola and Heinz in the nineteenth century or Jaguar Cars and Heineken in thetwentieth century. In the latter half of the twentieth century,we saw thegrowthof Japanesebrands such asHonda andToyota, and recently there have been a range of brands such asLG, Samsung and Daewoo from South Korea that have achieved a global reach. In manycases, the brands play on the strengths of the national characteristics such as innovation,culture or lifestyle. The brand names are very much a reflection of the names utilisedin each nation state. There are also situations, where companies deliberately try to evokea different country image (COI) for a brand in order to increase its appeal eithernationally or internationally. Examples of this are Klarbunn waters, Giorgio di Dt.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-4503.htm

Brand namesand globalpositioning

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Received December 2010Accepted December 2010

Marketing Intelligence & PlanningVol. 29 No. 4, 2011

pp. 353-365q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0263-4503DOI 10.1108/02634501111138536

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Angelo designer wear and Haagen Dazs ice cream. All these brands are produced in theUSA. However, the strategic dissonance arises from the fact that Kalrbunn is not theclear Alpine water that the brand suggests; it is American water bottled in Wisconsin.Giorgio di Angelo is not the latest Italian fashion wear fromMilan but is produced by theAmerican designerMartin Price. Finally, HaagenDazs is notDanish ice creambut a brandproduced byPilsbury inMinneapolis (Leclerc et al., 1994). The de-territorialisation of thesebrands enhances their value, exploiting the customers’ stereotypes about the suggestedcountry of origin (Ind and Bjerke, 2007).

There is little literature on branding that considers, how a name may affect a brandand its positioning. Similarly, there is little research on brand dissonance and theparadoxes that occur in a globalised world (Hirsch and Shaukat, 2008). For instance,there are few Japanese brands with an English name in Japan, yet you may find manybrands with English names in India. Examples of this are Kingfisher lager and JetAirways. Interestingly, in the UK it is becoming more common to find local brands thattranscend national names, especially in the food industry where brands such as Tildaand Patak have become part of the UK national and international brand image.

Literature reviewKeller (2003, p. 596) defines consumer brand knowledge as: “the personalmeaning abouta brand stored in consumermemory, that is, all descriptive and evaluative brand-relatedinformation”.

Brand image represents amultidimensional concept (Martinez et al., 2008). Accordingto Aaker (1996), brand image should be evaluated using association/differentiationmeasures based on four aspects: value, brand personality, organizational associationsand differentiation. On the other hand, Low and Lamb (2000) consider that brandassociations are characterized by three interrelated concepts: brand image, perceivedquality and brand attitude.

Previous studies have measured brand images for products (Hogg et al., 2000;Faircloth et al., 2001;Hsieh, 2002), outlining thenecessity to consider not only thephysicalattributes of the products but also functional, emotional and self-expressive benefits(Davis andDunn, 2002; Vazquez et al., 2002). Brandmeaning is therefore determined by acomplex range of influences, some of which can be controlled (management determined)more than others (consumer determined), which can be only observed and influenced(Jevons et al., 2005).

In international markets, one of the main elements contributing to brand identify isthe country of origin (Hsieh et al., 2004). Ahmad Tea makes much effort to associate thebrand with England. Therefore, an examination of the concept of country of origineffect (COE) is necessary here.

Morello (1993) points out that “Made in [. . .] ” labels have been used for many years.Country of origin information, often communicated in the form of a “made in [. . .] ” label,activates a rich associative network of stereotypes about the origin nation, its cultureand its people’s perceived traits (Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). Fiske (1998) states thatstereotyping is the representation of an individual’s cognitive associations andexpectations about a national (or social) group. According to some researchers, countryof origin’s effects (images, biases, etc.) are a form of stereotyping (Kahle, 2000).Therefore, it can be said that there is evidence of COE in the sense that consumers usestereotype product classes and brands (Jain, 2003).

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Many empirical studies support the view that consumers have stereotyped opinionsabout specific products from particular countries. For instance, an investigation ofproduct-COIs and ethnocentric behaviours found that Turkish consumers’ perceptions ofproduct attributes were influenced by products coming from countries with differentlevels of socioeconomic and technological development (Onkvist and Shaw, 2004).Similarly,KaynakandCavusgil (1983) studied consumers’ perceptions of different classesof products from 25 countries. They found that respondents held positive attitudestowards productsmade in their own countrybut the same respondents could be swayed tochoose foreign products if quality and price considerations were sufficiently favourable.

Recent research by Zeugner-Roth et al. (2008) adopted the construct of country brandequity (CBE), connecting it with the COI. They found that country-based brand equity isinfluenced by COI perceptions and that country brand equity positively impacts onproduct preferences. They also discerned that product preferences are not directlyinfluenced by COI perceptions. The caveat for this study was that it looked at Spanishbrands in Spain. The difficulty with such an approach is the problem of bias within thehome country. Country brand equity was defined as the value-added brought forth bythe association of a product or brand with a given country name as perceived by theindividual consumer. Following Yoo and Donthu (2001) CBE was based on consumerperceptions rather that actual behaviour. With regards to COI, Jaffe and Nebenzahl(2006, p. 63) point out that: “a highly positive country image as a source of the productswill [. . .] add to the positive image of the brand and as a result to its equity and value”.What is interesting from this discussion is the notion that image contributes to equityand there is no mention of the name of the brand. The image part of the questionnairerelied on perceptions of Spanish people as hard working, ambitious, etc. The equity partof the questionnaire looked at brands – loyalty and characteristics. It could be arguedthat image is a much larger issue and encompasses cultural dimensions as well theimagery of a country. Equity could also be interpreted in different ways. Nonetheless,the idea of separating equity and image is interesting and warrants further study.

Country of origin connotations can affect effort to sell abroad depending on thepositive or negative stereotypes of final customers based on where the product ismade (Pecotich and Ward, 2007). If the stereotype is negative, it can impose formidablebarriers formarketers attempting to position products in an existingmarket (Knight andCalatone, 2000). Faced with negative stereotypes, a successful branding strategy oftenuses local names, or well-known local brands to develop a national identity, so in somecases, marketers may want to deliberately conceal, or not mention, the product’s origin(Onkvist and Shaw, 2004). The masking of a product’s country of origin can be donedirectly, using the region of origin instead of country of origin, for instance, firms mightuse “Made in Europe” to hide the country of origin (Prasad and Ghauri, 2004).Alternatively, numerous firms have used positive stereotypes to good advantage in themarketing of many types of goods such as Germany and beer; Sweden and cars;Japan and micro-electronics (Haubl, 1996).

Haubl (1996) points out that the impact of a product’s country of origin on consumers’purchase decisions has been an issue of increasing significance to marketing andconsumer behaviour researchers, as well as to marketing managers. This is becausecountry of origin has an impact on product evaluations (Papadopoulos, 1993), regardingproducts’ perceived quality and consumers’ propensity to use a product’s “Made in” label(Tse andGorn, 1993). Samiee (1994) states that consumerswill use country of origin to infer

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product quality if they know little else about the product and/or product class. Han (1990)found out that when consumers are not familiar with the products of a country, the COIacts as a “halo” that directly affects consumers’ beliefs about these products and indirectlyaffects the overall evaluation of them through these beliefs. On the other hand, althoughconsumers use country of origin as a product information cue (Schaefer, 1997), mostbuyers have established some opinions and images about the quality of products fromdifferent countries beforehand; for instance, the Marlboro Western cowboy image,McDonald’s as a symbol ofAmerican consumption habits, quality of perfume fromFranceand electronic products from Japan are some of the typical images and opinions heldabout different countries (Mody, 2003). Papadopoulos et al. (1990) propose that country oforigin acts as an indicator of quality and that it does influence the overall evaluationof products.

However, a literature review by Yaprak (1978) concluded that although consumersdevelop stereotypes of countries and/or their products and that these images areoften used as extrinsic cues in the product decision-making process, the degree to whichcountry of origin affects product evaluation is still uncertain. In other words, it isbecoming hard to understand how much effect country of origin has on overallevaluations of the product ( Johansson, 1989). Others argue that the country of origin haslittle impact on product selection while others believe that this additional attributeallows clearer differentiation between products (Warner and Cannon, 2000). A universalagreement is not evident in the literature, but there seems to be a majority view thatoverall evaluations of a product are almost always influenced by country stereotyping(Bilkey and Nes, 1982); the argument is about the extent of the influence. Hence,an important issue facing international brandmanagers is the acceptance or rejection ofa product by consumers due to its COI (Hassan and Kaynak, 1994). Because countrystereotypes may be negative or positive the management of a product’s national imagebecomes an important element in the strategic marketing of international firms(Niss, 1996). Furthermore, the COE also gives rise to dual positioning strategies when aproduct is positioned differently in its home market compared to overseas markets. Forexample, the positioning of Evian and Nestle in France differ from the positioning usedin the rest of the world (Scholz and Zentes, 2006). The globalisation of markets and theexpansion of firms operating internationally have led to a larger number of foreignbrands in the consumer market than ever before. Therefore, marketers are interestedin understanding the factors relating consumers’ perceptions to purchasing decisions inregard to foreign products (Tang et al., 2002).

Caruana (1996) proposes that consumer ethnocentrism has become a importantconstruct in marketing. Others go further by suggesting that COEs can only beunderstood with respect to ethnocentrism (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Consumerethnocentrism focuses on the responsibility and morality of purchasing foreign-madeproducts, and the loyalty of consumers to products manufactured in their home country(Shimp and Sharma, 1987). However, Wall et al. (1991), quoted in Ahmed et al. (2004)state that purchasing foreign-made products may be seen as immoral and unpatrioticbecause it has an adverse impact on the domestic economy; hence, consumers tend topurchase local products even if the quality is lower than that of imports. Itmaybe arguedhere that globalisation is now fast eroding such sentiments. More recent studies, forexample Hamin and Elliot (2006), have found that for consumers from less developedcountries, the COE will typically lead to a preference for foreign made products

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from more developed countries and then to locally made products. Additionally,Bruning (1997) demonstrated that brand name, store image, specific product attributes,or other non-country-specific cues to product quality may persuade less nationalisticconsumers to prefer foreign products as opposed to their locally made substitutes.

Finally,Warner andCannon (2000) foundapositive relationshipbetween ethnocentrismand age, and a negative relationship between ethnocentrism and educational level, income,cultural openness and knowledge of languages. Therefore, it may be suggested thatconsumer ethnocentrism ismoderatelypredictive of consumers’ beliefs, attitudes, purchaseintentions, andultimate purchases (KaynakandKara, 2002). Inorder to disentangle thekeyissues, the research presented in this paper concentrated on one particular market area,the confederation of independent states (CIS) region and looked at the country of originimage (COI) impact on the tea-buying customers, in relation to the effect determined by thebrand name.

Research methodologyAhmad Tea has a long and illustrious history. The company was created in 1950, whenMr Hussain Afshar started to import tea from India into Iran. This eventually led to thepurchase of a tea processing plant near the Caspian Sea. At this stage, no branddevelopment took place.

After 1979, the family emigrated to the UK and a tea business was established inSouthampton. Mr RahimAfshar and his brothers created Kabere Tea in 1986 and beganblending and packaging teas by hand, building on their knowledge of tea business. Thealso opened a small Tea boutique. However, commercial activities were not verysuccessful. The companywas then advised by an experienced tea exporter to use imagesof London on its packaging since London was known as the tea capital of the world andthe British as a nation of tea drinkers. It was decided that the images should be of oldLondon with copies of nostalgic master paintings and drawings of the city to associatethe brand with England, and with the attributes of “old”, “well established”, and“trustworthy”. They soonwon their first contract to supply tea to El Corte Ingles, amajordepartment store in Spain. Since then, they progressively developed their exportingactivities, being nowadays present in 60 countries and having a major stronghold in theCIS territories, as one of the top three tea brands, with a revenue of £4m in this regionalone. This research therefore attempts to analyse the reasons behind this brandingsuccess story in the CIS market. This particular brand was chosen for this researchproject because of its Muslim name Ahmad and its provenance as an English Tea. Thecompany uses the name Tea Ahmad of London but the tea is actually produced inSri Lanka and India, then blended and packed either in England, Ukraine or Sri Lanka.

The information on product image and branding was obtained through interviewing22 key distributors of the company within the CIS market. The interviews took placeon a one-to-one basis, using interpreters when necessary, and lasted between 60 and90minutes. Prior to this, the researchers had spent time at the company and had lengthydiscussions with the top management team in order to gain an insight into thebackground of the brand strategy. Interviews within a B2B environment can captureessential information about the marketplace and the knowledge base that buyers ofAhmad Tea have about the product, and its place within consumer space. The researchstrategy adopted here was mainly exploratory and case study based, attempting toexplain consumers’ perceptions regarding the brand name and image of Ahmad Tea.

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The interviewed distributors have all been importing and distributing Ahmad Teafor more than ten years. They act as exclusive distributors for the company intheir market areas within the CIS. These distributors are responsible for importingthe product, distributing it throughout the country and carrying out advertising andbranding activities. They are therefore very knowledgeable about market trendsand consumers preferences. The questions were deliberately open-ended to capture arich seam of information from respondents. The main research questions were focusingon the country of origin impact on Ahmad Tea’s brand image in this specific market.

Results and discussionsAssociations of Ahmad Tea brandIn the opinion of the majority of respondents, quality is the main association withthe Ahmad Tea brand. England/English tradition is also an important secondaryassociation with the brand. Variety of assortment and consistency of the product rangecame third. These findings indicate that the company has been successful in pursuingquality and an English image in its production and communication strategy.

All the respondents thought that the associations, particularly with quality andtradition had positive impacts on sales. Some thought this reduced risk and helpedconsumers to make a quick purchasing decision. A couple of respondents believed thatEnglish tradition and heritage was appealing to many ex-Soviet citizens who havebeen going through big changes in their lives in the last couple of decades:

The brand image has a positive impact, because they associate England with stability andtrustworthiness.

This shows that the emerging idea of country-based equity makes a lot of sense withinthis context (Zeugner-Roth et al., 2008).

One respondent stated that consumers value the right combination of quality andprice offered by the brand, considering that the balance of quality and price (value formoney) was the main association and a positive one:

The associations are positive because people get a good sense of the brand quality and arewilling to buy it again.

However, another respondent pointed out the confusion experienced by consumersregarding the brand name – Ahmad:

Many people cannot understand why an English tea should be called Ahmad. Thiscontradiction sometimes create a powerful cognitive dissonance in the mind of consumers.

Visual images of Ahmad Tea held by consumersThe respondents predominantly believe that themost important image ofAhmadTea inthe mind of consumers is one that is related to England, traditional English sceneryand traditional English way of life. These are thought to be positive images in the CIS,an economically and socially turbulent area, where according to the respondents,consumers associate tradition as a desirable value and where the majority think of thetraditional way of life in England as relaxed, respectable, family oriented and highquality. A respondent expressed the opinion that products from England, Germany andFrance were regarded as high quality in his market (Belarus), because of their

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association with Western style and quality. These findings point to the importance ofCOE in successful branding (Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 2006).

Six respondents thought that the colour green of the tea package was a positiveassociation because it reminded consumers of countryside, ecology, environment andhealthy living. This finding shows the importance of colours in enhancing the brandimage. Research by Madden et al. (2000) within an international context indicated thatblue was the most highly evaluated colour closely followed by green and white – thecolours used byAhmadTea for its packaging. Inmany countries, ranging fromAustria,Brazil and the USA, green and white are generally considered to be peaceful, gentle andcalming. The global acceptance of these colours’ meaning makes the packaging utilisedby Ahmad Tea quite potent and enhances the idea that tea is a “calming” drink.

Impact of brand images on consumers’ loyaltyTen respondents felt that brand images help repeat purchase because they are connectedto quality, or to England, which is associated in theminds of the consumerswith quality.One respondent also mentioned natural ingredients. Another respondent thought thatthe attractive design and packaging (including the colours) were positive images, whichinfluenced buyers to repeat purchase. A third respondent thought the images (Englandand Victorian era) appealed to educated people. A fourth respondent thought that theimages on the packagingwere as important as the name in helping customers rememberthe brand and repeat their purchase. As it can be seen from the above analysis, thereis disagreement on the impact of brand images on brand loyalty. The majority of therespondents believe that images are not important at all or are only important when theyconjure up quality. Others believe that images are important because they relate toquality. A minority believes the images encourage brand loyalty because consumersrelate to the depicted lifestyle (calm and traditional). Those who thought that the imagesof England helped brand loyalty believed that consumers associate England with goodquality:

Tea is not a new product. It is based on traditions and the English landmarks refer to thosetraditions effectively.

Associations of the name Ahmad and their impact on brand successA majority of respondents felt that the brand name is confusing for consumers sincethey cannot connect the English image with a name having Middle Easternconnotations. As one respondent said:

They [consumers] wonder why the name was given to a tea brand at all. The name Ahmad isassociated with an oriental image and in some ways contradicts the English imagery of thebrand.

On the other hand, nine out of 22 respondents considered the name had no negativeimpact on the brand:

They do not understand the link between England and a Middle Eastern name, but this hasno negative impact now because the brand image has been already established [. . .]

Only three felt that the name had negative connotations:

The name has a negative impact. The name London Tea would be better for an English tea.

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The latter is thought to be mainly due to the association of the name with the MiddleEast or more generally with Muslim people. As one respondent outlined:

Russian people traditionally have had negative encounters with Turkish, Afghan, Arab orIndian people because of the wars in the past.

The distributors that felt the brand name has a positive consumer impact consideredthat the marketing messages sent to the market for many years have managed toassociate the brand with England and high-quality tea in consumers’ mind.

Most important reasons for consumers purchasing Ahmad Tea regularlyand as their main tea brandIn the opinion of respondents (who have also conducted their own consumer research inthe past), based on years of experience in selling the brand, the most important reasonthe brand is purchased by its regular (loyal) consumers is high quality, followed by price(relative to quality) and then wide range. They believe that “Russians” (CIS citizens) arehistorically big tea drinkers and the quality and consistency of taste, for most of them,is an important issue. However, two respondents thought Ahmad tea was regularlybought for special occasions in their market due to the low purchasing power ofcustomers. One respondent also pointed out that Lipton had been faked in Armenia butnot Ahmad Tea and this helped the brand to maintain its consistent quality image.

ConclusionsThis research attempts to answer the question posed by Keller (2001, p. 5): “In whatways do the images of country of origin or country of brand, celebrity spokespeople,retail store, etc. change or supplement the image of a brand?”. In this respect, within aspecific historical context, the UK has created a very strong image for tea drinking andsophistication associated with it. The first dated reference to tea in Britain is from anadvert in a London newspaper, Mercurius Politicus, from September 1658. It announcedthat “China Drink, called by the Chinese, Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee” was onsale at a coffee house in Sweeting’s Rents in the City (UK Tea Council, 2007). It was themarriage of Charles II to Catherine of Braganza that would prove to be a turning point inthe history of tea in Britain. She was a Portuguese Princess, and a tea addict, and it washer love of the drink that established tea as a fashionable beveragefirst at Court, and thenamong the wealthy classes of the English Empire. Capitalising on this, the East IndiaCompany began to import tea into Britain, its first order being placed in 1664 – for100 lbs of China tea to be shipped from Java (UK Tea Council, 2007).

Until 1901, tea remained a drink for the rich in Britain, when, fuelled by cheaperimports from India and Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), tea consumption had rocketedto over 6 lbs per head. Tea had become firmly established as part of the British way oflife (UK Tea Council, 2007). Recently, British companies play a leading role in theworld’s tea trade and British brands dominate the world market being the world’slargest suppliers of tea.

Given this historical context, Ahmad Tea has leveraged the COI potential extremelywell. It is now in the top 3 brands in the CIS in terms of brand preference and consumerpurchase, and it is catching up fast with Brooke Bond, the market leader. Pappu et al.(2004) argue that the effect of macro and micro COIs provide a more comprehensiveunderstanding of COEs.

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For instance, Table I indicates the possible effects of macro and micro COI onconsumers. Countries can move from one quadrant to another as Japan with its carindustry by moving from quadrants 1, 3 or 4 in the 1960s to its preeminent position inquadrant 2. Currently, within the tea industry context, the UK provides an excellentpositioning for brands, however, one would probably place English wine in quadrant 4.

Within the CIS, Ahmad Tea is highly regarded and many consumers prefer to buy it,so the COI has played an important role in branding the product. What is interesting isthat the images have a universal appeal in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries as thecolours green and white create both the English country feel and also comfort Muslimswho value green as a religious colour. The paradox represented here is that the namebecomes “neutral” and the COI creates a “halo” effect. A possible model for companieshaving unfavourable images may be to look at sector specific possibilities for brandingtheir products in a foreign country. Another aspect for food related goods is given by astudy undertaken by Tellstrom et al. (2006), who argue that food and meals form part ofregional identity and have created a LORE concept “Local and Regional food and mealculture”). The selected place-related aspects and cultural symbols represent authenticityand value. A potential model for developing global brands that would be considered tobe “safe” bets by consumers is shown in Figure 1.

Would, for instance, some Chinese and Indian brands become global leaders bybasing their brands in France or the UK? In India, English names are given to somebrands (Kingfisher, Jet Airways), while in China this is less common and companiesmanufacture a wide range of consumer goods for the major Western brands such asCalvin Klein, Christian Dior and Dolce & Gabbana, to name a few. Would it make moresense for brands to look for countries with favourable images within their sector tomarket goods? Most research has concentrated on products and studied their brandacceptance based on their countries of production (Pecotich and Ward, 2007; Koubaa,2007). However, few studies such as the one presented in this paper have looked atbrands with dissonant brand names succeeding because of a favourable country oforigin image. Therefore, this study contributes to solving this branding conundrum andneeds to be followed up bymore substantial studies focusing on consumers’ perceptionsacross a range of different countries.

This study provides important insights for both academics and practitioners. Froman academic perspective, the findings presented illustrate the successful management ofbrand name dissonance, and open a complex discussion regarding the country-of-origineffect in international branding. The existing academic literature is enriched, and futureresearch developments are suggested. Using a case study approach, this topic shouldbe further investigated, in order to identify other best practices in international brand

Macro COI/micro COI Unfavourable Favourable

Favourable 1 2(e.g. rugs from Afganistan) (e.g. games consoles from Japan)(e.g. olive oil from Lebanon) (e.g. tea from England)

Unfavourable 3 4(e.g. wine from Afganistan) (e.g. wine from Japan)(e.g. clothes from Nepal) (e.g. cars from Spain)

Source: Adapted from Pappu et al. (2004)

Table I.Relationships betweenmacro and micro COIs

in a given country

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management for products or services. For example, the brand strategy in the onlineenvironment may use the association with a country of origin differently, depending onthe targeted customers.

The practitioners should use this study to better understand the elements thatcontribute to buildingbrand identity in a specific country orwithin a cultural context.Thebrand meaning is finally constructed by customers using a complex process of analysisand interpretation, which is influenced by a variable mix of attitudes, perceptions,emotions, cultural stereotypes and brand communication. International brand managersshould be aware that customers are not just passive receivers of marketingmessages, but rather co-creators of the brand meaning, depending on their specificcultural background andpersonal experience. This knowledge could provide the basis fordeveloping a new branding model for brands leveraging country-based images andculture, leading to brand strategies that are better adapted to the cultural context ofvarious target markets, at national or international level.

References

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Figure 1.A model for developingstrong brands based incountry of origin image

Country oforigin image

(macro and micro)COI

Countrybrand equity

COE

THE "HALO"EFFECT

enhanced byimagery and choice

of colours

Novice consumersenticed by the "Halo" effect

Established customersreassured by the "Halo" effect

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Further reading

de Chernatony, L., Drury, S. and Segal-Horn, S. (2006), “Communicating services brands’ valuesinternally and externally”, Services Industries Journal, Vol. 28 No. 8, pp. 819-36.

Corresponding authorAshok Ranchhod can be contacted at: ashok.ranchhod@solent.ac.uk

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