Country of origin (COO) is the country where a product is developed, manufactured or extended.
The place where the brand is made, is a factor which influences the consumer’s perception towards a particular brand and hence their purchase decisions. This is known as the COO effect and on a cognitive level, it influences the expected product’s level of quality and functional attributes such as resilience, safety and performance. As a consequence it determines the price that the customers are willing to pay for it (The Economist Newspaper Limited, 2013).
Factors which contribute to the COO effect include:
• The technological systems that are in place. The higher the technological capability of the country the higher the positive COO effect.
• The
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This means that when the customers go in a Tim Hortons store they would be positively biased and expect good quality products and would be ready to pay an extra price for the products originating from a developed country.
When marketing Tim Hortons at an international level, the foreign customers who are looking for authenticity should be considered. It will be advantageous to market the brand’s Canadian national roots even though there is no correlation between Canada and doughnuts and coffee. Products which are sold in the home market can be repackaged and sold internationally as an authentic product.
Brand information should be regularly given to the consumers via advertisements and online media and in-store information is handed out in the restaurant to the customers to keep them constantly updated on the products.
The French are not overly ethnocentric and willing to try foreign products, but they are more inclined to buy products with known good reputation and brands from specific countries. Moreover they have a more positive attitude towards foreign products which are a necessity as opposed to imported luxury items (Javalgi, et al., 2005) and hence they should not be cold towards the international brand and instead they will most likely give it a