COO-based Strategies - a Proposition of a Contextual Analysis
(A2019-9014)

AUTHORS

Katarzyna Gawlik, Kozminski University

KEYWORDS

country of origin (COO); brand positioning; advertising

ABSTRACT

The perceived country of origin (COO) of the product influences consumers’ attitude to it (Peterson, Jolibert 1995; Verlegh, Steenkamp 1999; Pharr 2005). In a globalising market, origin is rather a quality of a brand, not of a product, and as such can be based on the grounds of communication (Pharr 2005; Magnusson, Westjohn, Zdravkovic 2011). The research covered herein aims to explore the ways in which country of origin is implanted in brand positioning using means available in advertising. An analysis of a representative sample of TV commercials broadcast in Poland in the period 1998-2017 has made it possible to quantify the utilisation of different strategies and measures used to communicate COO and other affiliations serving a potentially similar purpose. It has also pointed to a duality of the construct of country of origin in advertising. This construct is composed on the one hand of a message, and on the other – of elements of a communication code that carries the message.