The study aimed to explore and describe consumers’ reliance on brands, specifically the Country of Origin (COO) of brands as a heuristic, i.e. the perceived quality of a selected category of interior merchandise and to subsequently explain how COO influences consumers’ quality perceptions and product choices. The study focussed on major household appliances, due to the prominence of brand names and the COO on these products. In other interior merchandise product categories such as furniture and textile products, the brand name and COO is not necessarily that prominent or visible. A survey was conducted in the Tshwane metropolitan, which is a wealthy urban area in South Africa and a key role player in the economic sector. The study was conducted in the context of an emerging economy, where international brands have penetrated the market and made a wider range of products and brands available to the consumer. The data was collected by using convenience sampling methods supplemented by snowball sampling. It involved the self-completion of a structured questionnaire by 450 willing respondents who fit the prerequisite for the study, i.e. males and females, 25 years and older who belong to the middle to upper socio-economic group (earn R5000 or more per month) and who have an education level of grade 12 or higher, regardless of population group. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, as well as exploratory factor analysis, specifically Principal Axis Factoring, using an Oblimin rotation with Kaiser Normalization to determine the underlying factors associated with the quality indicated by brand names and the associations consumers make of brand names and specific product characteristics. Calculations of means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s Alpha, Anova, t-tests and post hoc Sheffe’s tests were calculated where significant differences between demographics were investigated for further interpretation. The study concluded that consumers are relatively brand conscious, men more so than women and that they are brand familiar in terms of various major household appliance brands. Quality as the most important branded product meaning were confirmed, as well as the use of brands as an indicator of performance and functional product attributes, i.e. value for money. Brands are also frequently used, especially by females, as an indicator of the product’s environmental and ethical compliances, but less so to infer its status implications. The study did however confirm younger consumers use brand names to a greater extent to infer social status than older consumers. It also revealed that the Black and other population group use brand names as an indication of status characteristics significantly more than White consumers. Consumers seem to have little knowledge of the COO of brands; they do however have strong stereotypes of Western and Eastern countries as well as South Africa, where Western countries enjoy more positive stereotypes than the others. These stereotypes also seem to strongly influence their overall quality perceptions of major household appliances, especially in terms of durability, performance and prestige. The COO of a brand can therefore have implications for its brand equity and should be addressed in brand management and marketing initiatives. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Consumer Science / MConsumer Science / Unrestricted

The focus of this study is the role and function of country of origin (COO) in the creation and communication of the brand identities of Scottish premium/luxury brands. It applies the identity concept which is well developed in the branding literature to the COO literature where the focus on the consumer perspective of country image has resulted in the area of origin management being underdeveloped. Recognising the paucity of COO literature which examines the mechanisms and processes used by luxury brands to communicate COO, these are also analysed. The study uses an innovative two stage sequential mixed methods research design. In the first stage, the macro perspective is gained from the analysis of a database of companies compiled specifically for the study covering six categories of Scottish premium/luxury brands. Additionally a postal survey and analysis of company web pages gather a mix of qualitative and quantitative data to examine the role of COO. The second stage gains strategic insights from semi structured interviews with business elites achieving in depth understanding of the decision making process regarding the strategic advantages of COO in brand identities. The value of the study lies in the contribution to knowledge from frameworks which identify: the characteristics which differentiate companies within and across luxury sectors and organisational structure models which reflect the dominant ownership structures in the Scottish food and beverage, textiles/cashmere and whisky sectors; the dimensions of Scottish premium/luxury brands across a range of product categories; the motivations and drivers for adopting a COO identity; the criteria which distinguish COO brands; the COO communication process. The importance of COO as a key differentiating device which conveys competitive advantage is developed using the metaphor of COO as the anchor which locates the brand in a place which evokes symbolic, emotional and psychological associations and provides the brand with protection and security.

This study investigated the influence of brand incongruity on females’ perception of the properties of bi-national apparel products. A survey was conducted across Tshwane, a major urban area in South Africa, to provide empirical evidence of female consumers’ reliance on brands in the context of an emerging economy where global brands have become widely available and easily accessible in recent years. Data was collected by means of convenient sampling and through self completion of a structured questionnaire by 322 willing, working females. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, factor analysis, ANOVAs and post hoc tests. This study confirmed the significance of brand names as a cue of the functional performance related properties of female apparel and concluded that the relevance of brands for status related purposes is secondary to females’ use of brands to infer the functional and performance attributes or to deduce the eco friendliness of apparel. This was true for all the age, income, and education levels or population categories. Although extant research confirms the importance of brands to convey status and to boost consumers’ self image, i.e. serving as an extension of an individual’s self, this study revealed that females do not primarily use brands for status purposes. Brands are mostly trusted to provide good fit, durability, comfort and good quality. Consumers do not necessarily seem familiar with the majority of apparel brands that are widely advertised. However, the majority of consumers preferred the country of manufacture (COM) and the country of origin (COO) of brands to match. Overall, they preferred brands originating from Western countries as the COM, and were more approving of locally manufactured goods than apparel manufactured in Eastern countries. As a simplifying strategy, consumers’ ignorance about the COM of global brands is probably addressed by opting for brands associated with Western COM. Brand incongruence may therefore have noticeable consequences for brand equity in a highly competitive global market and this should be addressed through clever marketing initiatives to prevent dismay and brand switching. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted