Impacts of marketing by multinational firms on country image, corporate image and on consumers’ use of products in transitional economies, Prof. Jung-Wan Lee and Prof. Simon Tai
Prof. JUNG-WAN LEE AND Prof. SIMON W. TAI
BANG COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, KAZAKHSTAN
DOI: 10.47556/B.OUTLOOK2005.3.4
This study analyzes how consumer perceptions are influenced by multinational firms’ marketing appeals and by other relevant factors. It presents findings from the analysis of secondary data of macro economic and cultural records, and further reports the results of a global brand image survey conducted in the automobile show and fashion clothes fair in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The findings suggest that while attitudes of consumers toward corporate images and product images exert a great deal of influence on their brand purchase behavior, the effects of certain country-image appeals on brand purchase behavior are moderated by the broad socio-demographics and national cultural characteristics. The empirical results in general support the proposed hypotheses of (1) product images are positively correlated with country images; (2) product images are also positively correlated with the image of multinational firms; and (3) product images affect consumers’ brand choice favorably. Finally, this study highlights the importance of global brand images and how they can be further improved by global marketing appeals.
Keywords: International Marketing, Multinational Firms, Country Image, Brand Image, Consumer Behavior.
