Profiling Consumer Perception of Country of Origin of Foreign Products

Consumer expectations of foreign products are one of the bases which can be used to examine consumers¿ inner feelings and dynamics and how consumers respond or use the country of origin information cue. Identifying the influences on the country image formations needs examinations of what consumers expect from foreign products. Accordingly, this study has attempted to provide insights on possible consumer profiles based on what consumers expect from foreign products,to understand what causative factors affect the perceptions of the country of origin of foreign products. The understanding of what consumers expect from foreign products enables marketers of foreign products to identify the implications of ¿foreignness¿. This study revealed that consumers buy foreign products in order to meet their expectations: Conviviality, Novelty, Relaxation, Searching and Economic and consumer demographics have a significant impact on the expectations of COO of foreign products. Thus, this study has proposed an approach to categorize consumers based on consumer expectations of COO of foreign products into distinct profiles, which have remarkable theoretical, policy and managerial implications.