Can country of origin branding be a competitive advantage for agri-products from emerging countries?

Abstract

Country of origin research continues to generated interest and remain relevant in spite of the wide body of existing literature realised from studies generate around the world over many decades. The chapter presents a proposed conceptual framework of consumer decision pathways respective to agriculture based products, particularly those produced in emerging, underdeveloped economies. The proposed model illustrates the possible mediating effects of country of origin cues via low versus high involvement/motivations associated with low tech versus highly technical product endowment. The model further suggests that higher levels of technical product endowment will require more cognitively based assessments by consumers as compared to products based on lower levels of technology (like Agri-products) that will be assessed with a more affective approach. The chapter expands these concepts to present a possible matrix showing some suggested strategic approaches in the use of COO cue in country branding to leverage expected consumer responses and processing modes.