The document discusses testing the impact of country of origin on brand personality perceptions of passenger cars in the Indian market. An empirical study was conducted using a questionnaire to assess how Indian consumers perceive the brand personalities of cars from India, Japan, and South Korea. The questionnaire measured perceptions on dimensions of responsibility, activity, aggressiveness, simplicity and emotionality. The study found that Indian cars are perceived as simple while Japanese cars are seen as more stable, responsible, dynamic, innovative, and bold. Korean cars were perceived as more romantic. The research helps marketers understand how brand personality varies by a car's country of origin in the Indian context.

1. Testing the Impact of Country of Origin Effect on
Brand Personality for Passenger Cars, An empirical
Investigation in Indian market.
Group Members:
Amit Kumar (06), Hussein H. Rassiwalla (20), Manish Kumar (87)
GMP: 2010-2011
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2. Abstract
Purpose: To assess the country of origin (COO) effect on Indian consumer’s brand personality
perception of cars from Japan, South Korea & India. The perceived BRAND PERSONALITY
varies by country of origin of the car. We are trying to consider moderating factor as age group
of respondents. Respondents are grouped into three sub categories based on country of origin.
Design/Methodology/Approach
A questionnaire is developed on brand personality scale, segregated into three portions, each
representing cars from three different countries. Respondents in each panel will be exposed to a
car with similar feature. The only difference being the country of origin: India, South Korea,
Japan. Each panel were randomly assigned to one panel group. The subjects were administered
the Brand personality scale.
Findings
Indian cars are perceived to be simple while Japanese cars are perceived to be more stable,
responsible, dynamic, innovative, aggressive and bold. Korean cars are perceived to be more
romantic.
Research Implications
An online questionnaire was administered to collect all the measures. This creates a limitation to
verify the demographic profile of the respondent. The questionnaire administered depicted
pictures of the popular car in a particular category of compact cars.All features affecting the
brand personality are captured through a brand personality scale , which is abridged version of
original David Akers scale. Sample size for each country is tried to be captured separately.
Practical Implications
The Research finding will help marketers to know brand personality of cars in context of COO.
This will help them to Reposition from existing personality traits to new personality traits found
in the research paper.
Originality/value - This is the first paper in the Indian context which examines the relationship
between the personality of a car based in the context of three major players in the Indian market.
Keywords – Brand Personality, Country of origin effect, responsibility, activity, aggressiveness,
simplicity & emotionality.
Paper type – Research paper
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3. INTRODUCTION
Products with foreign brand names are frequently associated with the country-of-origin (COO) of
the brand. The promotion of such brands means, either emphasizing the COO as has been the
case with Hyundai Korea, Suzuki Japan or alternately, ignoring the COO depending on the
perception of consumers in the foreign country market.
Numerous firms have used positive associations with the COO to good advantage in the
marketing of goods, as for example, the favorable association of Germany with beer, Sweden
with cars, and Japan with microelectronics. However, if the COO stereotype is negative, it can
pose formidable barriers for marketers attempting to position their goods within a foreign
market.
In yet other cases, there are product categories to distinctively associated with COO image as in
the case of the car industry, where it has been more easy to market global brands such as
Mercedes, Audi, Toyota, Jaguar for which brand images have developed quite significantly from
their COO, and which do not use their national COO association in their promotion and
marketing strategies directly, but it is having a significant impact on mind of consumers.
Definitions of the variables used in the project:
Personality: According to Gordon Allport, personality is “the dynamic organization within the
individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his
environment”. For the purpose of our research, we are working with the same definition of
personality.
Country of Origin: Country where goods shipped were produced. Usually the country of origin is
the same as the country of departure. Also called country of provenance.
Responsibility- As enumerated by Geuens, Maggie; Weijters, Bert; De Wulf, Kristof (2008)
responsibility encompasses the attributes of Down to earth, Stable and Responsible.
Activity- Similarly Activity encompasses the attributes of Active, Dynamic, and Innovative
Aggressiveness- Similarly Aggressiveness encompasses the attributes of Aggressive and Bold
Simplicity- Similarly Simplicity encompasses the attributes of Ordinary and Simple
Emotionality- Similarly Emotionality encompasses the attributes of Romantic and Simple
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4. LITERATURE REVIEW:
Concept of brand personality and its related dimensions seem very useful in assessing not only the
overall effect of the country of origin (COO) on the brand perceptions of consumers but provides
additional information about how and where these differences are perceived. The multi-
dimensional scale gives important insight into where exactly the differences reside. Finally, these
results suggest that in terms of brand building what actions can be taken.
The world automobile market has historically been dominated by manufacturers based in
developed countries. Developed country manufacturers first served their home markets, and then
sought exports to, and foreign direct investment in, other developed country markets as well as
developing country markets. Consequently, published research in the area of country of origin
effects regarding automobiles has usually been conducted using automobiles from developed
countries. However, in the last 20 years, automobiles from manufacturers in newly industrialized
countries such as South Korea and more recently from developing countries such as Brazil,
Russia, India and China have increasingly become important players in the world automobile
market.
Learning’s from earlier research paper in US Market
The United States automobile market has long been an attractive target for foreign automobile
manufacturers. European, Japanese, and more recently South Korean manufacturers are now
significant players in the US market. Most recently, for example Indian and Chinese automotive
manufacturers have begun to take aim at developed country automobile markets and they have
made no secret of their intentions to compete in the global automobile market. In the case of
China, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA),
China produced over 8.8 million cars and commercial vehicles in 2007 (OICA, 2008), a 22
percent increase over 2006. China has already overtaken Germany to become the third largest
automobile-manufacturing country in the world behind Japan and the United States. In 2007,
there were over 310,000 Chinese cars exported worldwide (Kimes,2008). Moreover, they have
also undertaken foreign direct investments. For example, in 2005 Chinese Automotive company
Nanjing Automobile Group acquired MG Rover. More recently, in 2009 Sichuan Tengzhong
Heavy Industrial Machinery acquired the Hummer division of General Motors.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are currently producing cars in China in joint ventures with
Chinese manufacturers. It is increasingly likely that developing country automotive
manufacturers and most likely one or more Chinese manufacturers will soon enter the US
automobile market, especially in light of the recent problems that the US automotive industry is
facing. No matter what happens to the three US automotive companies, it is very likely and most
probably only a matter of time before Chinese automotive manufacturers follow in the steps of
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5. the European, Japanese and South Korean car manufacturers before them and aggressively enter
the US market by either exporting or by building or buying their own production sites in the
USA In addition, as pressure on developed country manufacturers increases to reduce costs, they
might look to China as sources of inexpensive manufacturing and might increasingly
manufacture their cars in China and export them to developed countries. In spite of all this, little
is known about how developed country consumers will react to cars originating from or
manufactured in developing countries. The purpose of this research is to explore this issue. A
key question that arises is how consumers perceive the country of origin of a brand (COB) versus
the country of manufacturing (COM) of that same brand, and specifically where the differences
arise. Extensive research has been conducted addressing the country of origin effect (Dichter,
1962; Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Botschen and Hemettsberger, 1998; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999).
Some studies have focused on cars (Akaah and Yaprak, 1993; Karunaratna and Quester, 2007;
Chinen et al., 2000; Johansson et al., 1985; Levin et al., 1993; Roth and Romeo, 1992; Stoltman
et al., 1991;) and very few on the differentiation between country of origin and country of
manufacturing of a car brands (Chinen et al., 2000; Hamzaoui and Merunka, 2006; Srinivasan et
al., 2004). We know of no study that investigates Indian context.
The effects of the country of brand 165 consumers’ brand perceptions of developing and
developed country cars and analyzes the relationship between the country of origin of a brand
and the country of manufacturing of that same brand. Moreover, little is also known about how
consumers’ brand perceptions vary. We investigate this issue by using the multi-dimensional
construct of brand personality (( A New Measure of Brand Personality, Maggie Geuens, Bert
Weijters,Kristof De Wulf) Dec 2008, UNIVERSITEIT, GENT ) as the dependent variable to capture the
differences and similarities in consumers’ brand perceptions
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6. BRAND PERSONALITY
Building a strong brand is the aspiration of both all automotive companies. To help understand
the many facets of a brand, we turn to the concept of brand personality. There are multiple scales
available to evaluate the personality of a brand. Prominent among them are:
1. Aaker's (1996) multi-dimensional, and generalized measurement scale. The five
dimensions of which are: (1) brand sincerity, (2) brand excitement, (3) brand
competence, (4) brand sophistication, and (5) brand ruggedness. These dimensions are
composed of 42 attributes
2. Geuens, Maggie; Weijters, Bert; De Wulf, Kristof (2008) personality scale which has the
following dimension: (1) responsibility, (2) activity, (3) aggressiveness, (4) simplicity,
and (5) emotionality. These dimensions are composed of 12 attributes
After having evaluated both the scale in-depth we choose the Geuens, Maggie; Weijters, Bert;
De Wulf, Kristof (2008) measurement scale for two main reasons. First, conceptualizing
consumers' brand perception using the brand personality dimensions mentioned in this scale
allows us to capture a variety of different facets of an automobile product more accurately.
Secondly, this scale is widely accepted as an appropriate method and tool of measurement in the
field of consumer marketing research.
Figure below outlines the five brand personality dimensions and 12 measurement items. We use
brand personality as a dependent measure to capture the effects and variability of the country of
origin effect on consumers brand perception of automobiles from India, Japan and Korea.
Specifically, it helps us assess the perceived similarities and differences in brand perception of
consumers of automobiles manufactured from India, Japan and Korea.
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7. CONCEPUTAL MODEL AND HYPOTHESES
As mentioned, brand personality is a multi-dimensional construct with five dimensions,
including 12 measurement items. The items are scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale. They are
summed within each dimension. The sums are divided by the number of items within a facet or
dimension to form average scores that can theoretically range from 1 to 5. The dimensions will
be used to assess the similarities and differences in the brand perceptions of U.S. consumers to
automobiles manufactured in India, Japan and Korea. The following figure illustrates the
research framework used.
The following general hypothesis is assessed in this paper:
HI: The perceived brand personality varies by country of origin of the car.
Given that brand personality is conceptualized as a five dimensional construct, HI can be
subdivided into micro-related predictions addressing each of the five dimensions of brand
personality.
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8. The underlying hypotheses of our first hypothesis (HI) studied in this paper can be expressed as
the following:
H2: The brand responsibility varies by country of origin of the car.
H3: The brand activity varies by country of origin of the car.
H4: The brand aggressiveness varies by country of origin of the
H5: The brand simplicity varies by country of origin of the car.
H6: The brand emotionality perception varies by country of origin of the car.
The empirical study designed to examine the proposed hypotheses is described in the next
section. No hypotheses were made in this paper regarding the impact of the country of origin on
brand awareness as it would be difficult to experimentally manipulate consumers ‘perception
with respect to brand awareness.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND DATA COLLECTION
An experiment is developed to test the hypotheses. Automobiles are selected because it is a
product category in which we expect a significant country of origin effect. We have chosen
Indian, Japanese and Korean cars because they are the most popular brand of cars available in
India. We have chosen the compact car category for comparison because it most widely sold car
segment and is easily identified by the target group. In addition, Indian consumers are
accustomed to selecting from among both domestic and foreign manufactured automobiles.
Similar to previous studies (Johansson et al. 1985; Hooly et al. 1988; Stoltman et al. 1991; Roth
and Romeo 1992; Peris et al. 1993; Levin et al. 1993; Allred et al. 1999; Pereira et al. 2005),
target respondents who participate in the study and are randomly assigned to one of three
experimental treatment groups – Indian, Japanese or Korean origin cars.
Subjects in all three groups are told are to rate the personality attributes of a car of either Indian,
Japanese or Korean origin (depending on the panel to which they are assigned) on a 5 point
Likert scale ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
Research Instrument: Self-administered structured web questionnaire.
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9. Research Methodology:
3 experimental panel groups
 Each respondent was randomly assigned to one panel group
 Respondents in each panel will be exposed to a compact car with similar features. The
only difference being the country of origin: India, Korea or Japan. The cars chosen to
provide as examples were Tata Indica & Vista for India; Maruti Suzuki Swift for Japan &
Hyundai Santro for Korea. The selection was based on the sales of the brands i.e. the top
performing cars in terms of annual sales in the compact car category for each of the
country of origin was chosen.
 The subject will be administered the Brand personality scale
Sample size – Total 143
 India Panel – 49 respondents
 Japan Panel – 47 respondents
 Korea Panel – 47 respondents
The total number or respondents contacted were as follows
 India – 200 respondents
 Japan – 200 respondents
 Korea – 250 respondents
Therefore the response rates were as follows
 India – 24.5%
 Japan – 23.5%
 Korea – 18.8%
Respondent Profile:
 Prospective buyer (within next 6 months to 1 year)
 Age group : 25-40 yrs
 SEC A,B
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10. Centre of study: Pan India
Measures
 Demographic factors like Age
 Intent to purchase car within the next 6 months to 1 year
 Likert-type scale
o 12 - item Brand Personality scale of Geuens, Maggie; Weijters, Bert; De Wulf,
Kristof (2008)
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11. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
First we have examined the reliability of the questionnaire by applying Cronbach Alpha Test on the
questions. For our set of 15 questions, the overall Cronbach Alpha value was 0.773, which is fairly good
and it can be concluded that our set of questionnaire was reliable. For all the questions, the individual
Cronbach Alpha value was above 0.74 and this further lends strength to the above conclusion. The SPSS
output table of Cronbach Alpha values is cited below.
Scale Mean Scale Corrected Squared Cronbach's
if Item Variance if Item-Total Multiple Alpha if Item
Deleted Item Deleted Correlation Correlation Deleted
Please select your Age 32.79 43.519 .095 .100 .779
Do you intend to purchase a
car within the next 6 month to 33.66 46.213 -.260 .173 .793
1 year?
How do you perceive the
32.77 37.573 .479 .464 .751
quality of cars of Indian origin?
Down to earth 32.87 42.412 .127 .459 .781
Stable 33.10 39.897 .486 .510 .754
Responsible 32.97 39.992 .431 .459 .757
Active 33.02 37.542 .646 .709 .739
Dynamic 33.04 37.125 .581 .727 .742
Innovative 32.83 37.183 .551 .654 .744
Aggressive 32.53 36.645 .519 .678 .746
Bold 32.41 36.947 .554 .555 .743
Ordinary 32.10 41.827 .124 .570 .786
Simple 32.55 42.883 .076 .508 .786
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12. Romantic 32.24 35.197 .608 .531 .736
Sentimental 32.39 38.634 .467 .453 .753
Cronbach's Alpha
Based on
Standardized
Cronbach's Alpha Items N of Items
.773 .750 15
Next, the effect of country of origin on the brand personality was analyzed by MANOVA.
Brand F P India Japan Korea
Personality Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Down to
2.241 .110 2.14 .866 2.09 .803 2.45 .996
earth
Stable 3.161 .045 2.16 .746 1.81 .770 1.98 .531
Responsible 3.664 .028 2.33 .875 1.91 .717 2.13 .612
Active 8.073 .005 2.43 .935 1.94 .734 1.83 .637
Dynamic 11.141 .005 2.51 1.023 1.94 .965 1.68 .594
Innovative 11.620 .005 2.73 1.076 1.85 .908 2.17 .702
Aggressive 10.523 .005 3.10 1.005 2.23 1.108 2.32 .958
Bold 8.585 .005 3.14 1.000 2.45 .904 2.45 .951
Ordinary 1.815 .167 2.76 1.090 3.15 1.063 3.06 1.051
Simple 6.392 .002 2.16 .773 2.72 .994 2.74 .943
Romantic 3.314 .039 3.18 1.253 2.72 1.057 2.64 1.031
Sentimental .302 .740 2.76 .879 2.62 .922 2.72 .926
Since, we are testing the effect of country of origin on brand personality parameters in the Confidence
Interval of 95%, the rows highlighted in yellow in the above table fall outside the level of significance.
This implies that the respondents don not perceive these personality traits as significantly different in
terms of country of origin.
Also, it can be inferred that –
 Indian cars are perceived to be simple.
 Japanese cars are perceived to be more stable, responsible, dynamic, innovative,
aggressive and bold.
 Korean cars are perceived to be more romantic.
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13. Also, since the WIlk’s Lambda value in the intercept is as low as 0.035, it means that the groups are well
separated and their means are significantly different.
Multivariate Testsc
Effect Value F Hypothesis df Error df Sig.
Intercept Pillai's Trace .965 2.996E2a 12.000 129.000 .000
Wilks' Lambda .035 2.996E2a 12.000 129.000 .000
Hotelling's Trace 27.866 2.996E2a 12.000 129.000 .000
Roy's Largest Root 27.866 2.996E2a 12.000 129.000 .000
Country Pillai's Trace .455 3.192 24.000 260.000 .000
Wilks' Lambda .595 3.183a 24.000 258.000 .000
Hotelling's Trace .595 3.175 24.000 256.000 .000
Roy's Largest Root .360 3.902b 12.000 130.000 .000
a. Exact statistic
b. The statistic is an upper bound on F that yields a lower bound on the significance level.
c. Design: Intercept + Country
Next, we tested our hypotheses by clubbing these individual parameters into 5 separate traits on the
Brand Personality Scale. The results are:
Brand F p India Japan Korea
Personality Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Responsible 3.313 .039 3.313 .039 5.809 .251 6.553 .251
Active 12.201 .000 7.673 .324 5.723 .330 5.681 .330
Aggressive 11.633 .000 6.245 .256 4.681 .261 4.766 .261
Simple 4.451 .013 4.918 .251 5.872 .256 5.809 .256
Emotional 1.739 .179 5.939 .256 5.340 .261 5.362 .261
Since we are testing the data in 95% Confidence Interval, The Emotional factor is not significant to the
respondents. So, we reject our null hypothesis H6. Since, other personality factors are significant, we can
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14. say that our null hypotheses H2, H3, H4, and H5 are supported by the data. The four multivariate test
criteri results for this analysis are reproduced in the table below:
Multivariate Testsc
Effect Value F Hypothesis df Error df Sig.
Intercept Pillai's Trace .964 7.218E2a 5.000 136.000 .000
Wilks' Lambda .036 7.218E2a 5.000 136.000 .000
Hotelling's Trace 26.537 7.218E2a 5.000 136.000 .000
Roy's Largest Root 26.537 7.218E2a 5.000 136.000 .000
Country Pillai's Trace .281 4.474 10.000 274.000 .000
Wilks' Lambda .729 4.659a 10.000 272.000 .000
Hotelling's Trace .359 4.843 10.000 270.000 .000
Roy's Largest Root .317 8.690b 5.000 137.000 .000
a. Exact statistic
b. The statistic is an upper bound on F that yields a lower bound on the significance level.
c. Design: Intercept + Country
Thus, it can be inferred that –
 Indian cars are perceived to be simple.
 Japanese cars are perceived to be more responsible, active and aggressive.
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15. IMPLICATIONS
In some sense, our results can be interpreted as prescriptive, suggesting areas of relative
similarity and difference between Korean, Japanese, and Indian cars. Indian manufacturers of
cars and perhaps of other high involvement products as well, may wish to consider the
dimensions by which their products differ significantly from Korean and Japanese products.
They might consider developing product repositioning strategies that attempt to change Indian
consumers' brand perceptions of their products to be more
Similar to perceptions of Korean and Japanese products. For example, since our results suggest
that the Indian car is perceived as less dynamic, innovative & aggressive. Indian manufacturers
may wish to develop marketing strategies that attempt to address and change these perceptions.
Given the impressive growth and development of world class manufacturing in emerging market
countries like China and India, it is important to begin to understand the likely consumer
perceptions of high involvement products originating from these countries. While this paper
offers an empirical glimpse of potential issues facing emerging market country car manufacturers
from India. Marketers can infer from empirical data how they will compete with other major
Asian car manufacturing companies in south East Asia.
Indian Cars considered in compact segment is perceived as ordinary.
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16. LIMITATIONS
This study was done mostly on people in age bracket of 25-50 mostly IT professionals. This may
give the preferences of a certain segment only and the results may not be appropriate to
generalize the color preference of potential car buyers.
Second , a consumer existing perception and awareness may dictate his responses. Third, in case
the respondent already owns a car or someone in his/her family owns one, and then this also
might influence the choice he/she makes in buying the second car. The present questionnaire
does not address this factor and so it can be taken up for research in the future.
The size of the sample is 143 respondents. This is a small number especially if we consider that
it comprised 3 panes. Thus, the results do not necessarily hold for the entire population and as
such there is further scope to carry out detailed studies with a much higher sample size.
In summary, despite the above stated limitations the research provides new insights into the
effect of county of origin on the brand personality of cars. This finding finds its implications for
the marketers might consider product repositioning strategies that attempt to change or reinforce
consumer brand perception. Advertisers can also use the same to tailor their communication.
FURTURE DIRECTIONS
Future research should make use of a broader respondent base as well as samples from different
demographics to more fully understand consumers' brand perception of cars from different
countries
Therefore, further research should not only take into account a broader base of respondents from,
but also different automotive manufacturers from different geographical regions such as Eastern
Europe and South America to assess the similarities and difference between consumer brand
perception of automobiles. It would also be interesting to compare consumer perceptions of other
emerging market car manufacturing countries such as Malaysia or Brazil.
Future research might also investigate the interaction between pre-knowledge of consumers of
other Chinese or Indian -made brands and products and how this influences the brand perception
and purchasing behavior of consumers.
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17. REFERENCES
1. Aaker, J. 1995. Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of of Marketing Research
34(3): 347-356.
2. Geuens, Maggie; Weijters, Bert; De Wulf, Kristof. International Journal of Research in
Marketing, Jun2009, Vol. 26 Issue 2, p97-107, 11p;
3. Roth, M., and J. Romeo. 1992. Matching product category and country image
perceptions: a framework for managing country-of-origin effects. Journal of International
Business Studies 23(3): 477-49
4. Stoltman, J.J., Y.K. Lim, and F.W. Morgan. 1991. The effect of country of origin,
product familiarity and ethnocentrism on the acceptance of foreign products. Marketing
Theory and Applications, Academy of Marketing Winter Educators Conference, 82-89.
5. Strutton, D., L.E. Pelton, and J.R. Lumpkin. 1994. Internal and external country of origin
stereotypes in the global marketplace: Effects and implications for the domestic
promotion of US automobiles Journal of Global Marketing 7(3): 61-77.
6. Neelam Kinra, The effect of country-of-origin on foreign brand names in the
Indian market Marketing Intelligence & Planning Vol. 24 No. 1, 2006 pp. 15-30
7. Marc Fetscherin & Mark Toncar Country of Origin Effect on U.S. Consumers' Brand
Personality Perception of Automobiles from China and India. Vol 17 Number 2, The
Multinationa business review.
8. A New Measure of Brand Personality, Maggie Geuens, Bert Weijters, Kristof De Wulf
Dec 2008, UNIVERSITEIT, GENT
9. Bilkey, W., and E. Nes. 1982. Country of Origin Effects on Product Evaluations.
Journal of International Business Studies 8: 89-99.
10. Brodowsky, Glen H., Justin Tan, and Ofer Meilich. 2004. Managing country of origin
choices: Competitive advantages and opportunities. International Business Review 13(6):
729-748
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18. QUESTIONNAIRE
This survey is part of our academic project in Market Research. Request 5 minutes of your time
in responding to the survey. Thank you in advance. We are trying to find Country of origin effect
on Brand Personality for Cars. Cars considered are mainly from Japanese / Korean/ Indian
market.
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