Brand origin in an emerging market: perceptions of Indian consumers

Purpose – The study aims to examine the usefulness of the brand origin concept in shaping the perceptions of Indian consumers. Design/methodology/approach – Guided by recent advance in social identity theory and social motivation theory, a dynamic iterative model of brand origin recognition is proposed. Six hypotheses were tested using a sample of 145 consumers from west of India. Using paired t ‐test, average consumer preference of brand origin was analysed for different product categories. A factor analysis with varimax rotation for determining band images was also carried out. Findings – The results demonstrated that most consumers can recognise the brand origin correctly but the power of recognition decreases when the brand has a long history of “localization”. Distinguished trajectories of consumer perceptions of foreign brands and domestics brands were projected, and this allowed one to extend existing country of origin (CO) research to brand of origin research. Practical implications – The results implied that brand origin is a useful concept for companies engaging in an emerging market such as India. But the changing nature of the concept requires careful steering and nurturing if companies want to attach a positive value to its brand via brand origin association. Originality/value – Research into CO effect has been extensive. However, few studies examine empirically the effect of “brand origin” which is more appropriate in emerging market in today's increasingly competitive global environment. This paper is a first to explore the validity of the concept of brand origin in the Indian market.