Master's thesis title The influence of country of origin on brand image perception and purchase intentions: the case of Korean products in the Russian skin care market. This particular research focuses on investigating the impact of the country of origin effect on brand perception and purchase intentions toward Korean products in the Russian skin care market. How information about Korea as the country of origin of the skin care brand affects the purchase intentions of Russian consumers.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
- Introduction
- Brand and brand image perception
- Country of origin
- Country of origin theory development
- Country of origin effect for cosmetics products
- Country image
- Summary and research questions
15 Of the recent studies dedicated to the country of origin phenomenon, there are several that may be interesting. There are not many studies dedicated to the country of origin effect in the cosmetics industry. Country of origin effect is present in the cosmetics market and it can affect the brand and consumer behavior.
BUSINESS BACKGROUND
- Introduction
- Russian skincare market overview
- Phenomenon of Korean skincare popularity on the Russian market
- Consumer profile of chosen study group on the market
- Summary and hypotheses
Information about how Russian consumers perceive different brands based on their country of origin can be used to create successful communication of the brand attributes. Using the information about Korean cosmetics, the research questions can now be converted into hypotheses. According to expert estimates, they will account for 30% of global retail consumption by 2020.
METHODOLOGY
- Research design
- Survey creation
- Data collection
- Expected findings
However, such survey design places too much stress on the country of origin; in fact, the perception of the product is much more holistic, since the consumer receives all kinds of signals, and relies on all kinds of cues, both extrinsic and intrinsic, about the goods when making a purchase decision. Some researchers therefore claim that empirical studies of the country of origin effect must manipulate a product on a number of cues and assess the impact of country of origin together with the other cues in the overall evaluation of the product (Pharr 2005). The answers for each of the countries must be combined to; this allows the use of different descriptions with varying cues and later measuring the country of origin effect without spoiling the statistics with the fact that some of the descriptions may simply appeal more to respondents and therefore get more favorable estimates and higher purchase intentions .
In order to understand the brand image perceptions of the brands described above, several statements about functional, experiential and symbolic benefits are listed (Park 1986). Then the first question («Are you a consumer of skin care products?») is used to quickly eliminate all those respondents who do not belong to the target group of the research. Other questions that are necessary to eliminate all that do not fit, such as those about age, gender, income, education and country, are included at the end of the questionnaire in the.
Online surveys will be used as a primary data collection method, as they are an easy way to provide quantitative material, which can be easily processed statistically, for research. Several methods of survey promotion should be used; promotion will be done through e-mail, social networks and other sites. Moreover, offline promotion should be done with the help of QR codes on printed advertisement sheets.
Apart from managerial implications, attention must be drawn to the academic significance of the work.
FINDINGS
- Sample description
- Preliminary tests
- Analysis of factors influencing purchase decision
- Analysis of brand image perception
- Analysis of purchase intentions
- Country image analysis
To ensure the quality and reliability of the components of the brand image and the image of the country of origin, Cronbach's alpha is used. None of the questions should be deleted because the Cronbach's alpha value would then be lower. All of the above shows that the scale is good and can be used for the research.
Therefore, we can conclude that all the questions of the survey work aimed at the image of the country correctly measure the concept. All of the above proves that the scales are reliable and can be used for exploratory research. The importance of each of them is marked on a Likert scale from "not important at all".
One-sample t-tests are performed to compare factor means with scale numbers representing different levels of significance. As can be seen from the statistical result, Korean skin care is definitely perceived better than domestic products, as all characteristics have statistically significant better result. If all this really results in higher purchase intentions, it can be used in developing marketing recommendations.
The component of the country image that has the greatest influence is product country.
DISCUSSION
Results summary
52 Korean skin care is perceived better than domestic products, as all characteristics have statistically significant better results. In general, it seems that Korean products seem to have some of the benefits of a foreign product, such as efficiency, fashion, and a pleasant user experience, while being perceived as not so expensive, which is good for somewhat expensive Russian consumers. price sensitive. It also seems that educated millennial Russian women tend to prefer foreign cosmetic products over domestic ones.
This overall fits with the results of previous studies that state that younger and more educated people tend to have lower scores for ethnocentrism. This naturally results in consumers demonstrating much higher purchase intentions for the Korean brand compared to Russian, but slightly lower compared to French, which is perceived to have more advantages overall. This leads to the thought that the chosen target group is quite logical when making a purchase decision.
It can also be proven by the fact that the affective component of country image (one related to emotions and feelings) does not contribute at all to the country of origin effect. The variables that have the most influence on the effect are that the country has advanced technology, producing goods with good design, quality and efficiency. Therefore, it can be concluded that the component of country image that has the most influence is the product-country.
Those parts of the cognitive image that can add to the image of Korea as a producer of high-quality goods also have a positive influence on the effect.
Managerial implications
As already mentioned in the second chapter, most of the sales of cosmetics take place through dryers, hypermarkets and supermarkets (Тренды российского beauty-рынка: продажи, рост e-commerce и персон ализация [Trends in the Russian beauty market: sales, e- commerce growth and personalization] 2018). These formats may use separate shelves for Korean cosmetics and some distinctive decorative/promotional features, such as bright stickers or eye-catching "Korean cosmetics" labels on the stands. Korean cosmetics are applied to the packaging of goods exported to Russia.
An interesting effect of the popularity of cosmetics in this country is that there are fake Korean products or even whole brands in Russia. It might be helpful if Korean manufacturers created a distinctive quality mark to put on the packaging to prove that the skin care was originally made in Korea and is not fake. In terms of brand and country image, people have certain preconceived notions about a country and this can be used to promote products.
Korea is mostly seen as the country of advanced technologies and as a producer of efficient and well-designed goods. 54 On the other hand, it probably does not make much sense to try to appeal to the emotions of the target group, which makes the advertisements less informative and more sensual and underlies the country's cultural distinctiveness, since the affective part of the image does not influence brand perception or purchase intentions as a whole taken. What's more, as already mentioned, this specific target group seems to be more rational when making a decision to buy skin care, so clear communication of benefits should appeal to them more.
As advanced healthy lifestyle and attention to one's needs is a trend among the target group, Korean skin care brands can also use their perceived advantages of being effective and pleasant to use as parts of marketing communication that will appeal to Russian millennials.
Limitations and future research directions
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