The Role of Consumer Knowledge Dimensions on Country of Origin Effects: An Enquiry of Fast-consuming Product in India

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to extend the arguments of Phau and Suntornnond’s (2006) paper which has used Schaefer’s (1997) paper in investigating the different dimensions of consumer knowledge and its affect on country of origin (COO) cues for low involvement product purchases. The arguments of Melnyk et al. (2012) and Chernev (2004), which state that when a product is utilitarian, consumers attach greater weight to individual product attributes and less weight to COO cues was also tested. Design: The sample consists of consumers (Indian) who are aged 18 and above who may or may not be alcoholic drinkers. The sample size is 300. Findings: The hypothesis (H1) which states that, when only brand name and COO are available as information cues, consumers rely more on COO if the brand name is unfamiliar than if it is familiar (will have low correlation), is partially accepted (only for German brand) with mixed results for other brands. The results were similar to Schaefer’s (1997) and Phau and Suntornnond’s (2006). The explanation is as follows: Sometimes, consumers who are familiar with a brand are more willing to allow COO cues in their evaluation process as per the contention of Johansson (1989); and thus leading to strong correlations which goes against the hypothesis of Baker et al. (2002); Punj and Staelin (1983), leading to a partial acceptance. As per H2, for consumers who have experienced the brand, the COO cues are less important and hence the correlation between COO cue and experience will be lower. This is true only for the brand from Denmark. In a situation that an individual has tried a specific brand (experienced the brand Carlsberg) originating from Denmark and built a relationship with the brand, the consumer tends to reach product judgement quickly without much attempts of external search like the COO cues. In the case of German brand Becks, the experienced consumers are having higher correlation to COO cues, because of the preference towards Made in Germany products and that Made in Germany cue influencing the experienced consumers who would find it a matter of prestige to associate with the brand. For the Indian Brand Kingfisher, the immense popularity of Kingfisher brand arising due to the active promotions of the brand for many years has made the experienced customers rate it very high over COO brand India. Also it is seen that the consumers without experience of the Kingfisher brand rate it very high to brand India due to its better image thereby manipulating the relationship with COO cues. The overall results were similar to Phau and Suntornnond (2006) with mixed outcomes. As per H3 for unfamiliar brands, consumers with high product-country knowledge (high Knowledge) will rely on COO cue thus leading to strong correlations than for low knowledge consumers. The hypothesis is rejected for all the three brands. When brand itself is unfamiliar it is difficult for consumers to internalize the quality of the product. This may confuse the consumers, affecting their ability to judge an unknown brand based on quality, value and acceptability in spite of consumer’s knowledge about the product brand COO. The consumers may not use COO cue (Blackwell et al., 2001). The results were mixed and similar to Phau and Suntornnond (2006), when considering the arguments for familiar brands in the given context. Originality/value: This study helps in understanding the emerging country (Indian) perspective for the relationship between consumer knowledge dimensions and its impact on COO cues, for fast consuming products thereby contributing to external setting validity.