Document de travail du LEM 2013-06

DOES A SUCCESSFUL FASHION BRAND MAKE A COUNTRY FASHIONABLE? THE IMPACT OF BRAND SUCCESS ON THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN EFFECT AND PERCEIVED QUALITY OF FASHION APPAREL

Maria D. De Juan VIGARAY University of Alicante

Monali HOTA IESEG School of Management (LEM-CNRS)

DOES A SUCCESSFUL FASHION BRAND MAKE A COUNTRY FASHIONABLE? THE IMPACT OF BRAND SUCCESS ON THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN EFFECT AND PERCEIVED QUALITY OF FASHION APPAREL

Maria D. De Juan Vigaray University of Alicante

Monali Hota IESEG School of Management, LEM-CNRS (UMR 8179)

DOES A SUCCESSFUL FASHION BRAND MAKE A COUNTRY FASHIONABLE? THE IMPACT OF BRAND SUCCESS ON THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN EFFECT AND PERCEIVED QUALITY OF FASHION APPAREL

Abstract

There is little research on the influence of brand success on country image, although this relationship is increasingly recognized. This paper studies the impact that brand success can have on the country of origin effect and its impact on perceived product quality. An experiment was conducted to test these relationships in the fashion context in France, using two consumer groups, one exposed to a prime about Zara’s international success, and one unexposed. The results highlight the role of Zara’s success in changing French consumers’ country of origin perceptions about Spain, and its impact on the perceived quality of Spanish fashion.

Keywords: country of origin, country personality, brand image, perceived quality,

Track: International and Cross Cultural Marketing

1. Introduction

There is extensive marketing research on the impact of country of origin on product perceptions since the 1960’s (Peterson & Jolibert, 1995), popularly called the country of origin effect (i.e. COO effect). However, there is surprisingly little research on the influence that brand or corporate image may exert on country image, although there is increasing recognition of this relationship. This paper studies the impact that international brand success can have on the COO effect and its further impact on perceived quality of that country’s products. An experiment was conducted to test these relationships in the fashion apparel context in France, using two groups of consumers, one exposed to a prime about Zara’s international success, and the other without such exposure.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1.

Brand success and Country of origin effect

Lopez, Gotsi and Andriopoulos (2011) suggest that corporate image is not only affected by, but may also affect country image, implying that the image of a country is not independent of the image of the companies from that country, i.e. the two image constructs are linked to each other. They attribute this to the fact that according to an open-systems theory perspective firms interact with their environment (Ackoff, 1974; Boulding, 1956; Katz & Kahn, 1966; Miller, 1972; Schein, 1980) and changes in the

environment are likely to affect the organization and vice-versa (Robbins, 1990). This is supported by research in different ways. Anholt (2000), for instance, sees corporations as a significant determinant of country image. The author emphasizes the key role that companies like Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung and LG have played in enhancing the brand image of Korea. Similarly, Van Ham (2001) suggests that firms are among the most visible country-brand ambassadors. Further, Hsieh, Pan and Setiono (2004) have found that brand-purchase behavior is positively affected by consumers’ opinion toward the corporate image and the country image of a brand. Finally, this has reached such an extent that Van Ham (2008) goes as far as to equate corporate brands with countries and Pecotich and Rosenthal (2001) have found that a strong national brand image highlights the importance of the country of origin information such that a country of brand is created. Hence, it is hypothesized that: H1: The success of a brand in national and international markets can create a corporate image that influences and changes the country image or Country of Origin effect (i.e. COO effect.

2.2.

Country of origin and perceived quality

The actual quality of a product is an objective concept. But when consumers evaluate product quality they go by their perceptions of the product’s quality which is a subjective concept. Perceived quality is mainly defined by four signals, branding, pricing, physical quality and retailer reputation or store name (Dawar & Parker, 1994; Rao & Monroe, 1989). But one more cue exists to evaluate the perceived quality in an international context: the COO effect. There is a debate in the literature about the impact of the COO effect on perceived product quality, with one view suggesting that COO could

have an independent impact (see Li & Wyer, 1994), and the other suggesting that COO cannot have an independent impact (see Johansson, Douglas, & Nonaka, 1985). However, extant research continues to demonstrate that the COO effect could influence the perceived quality of a brand’s product (e.g. Darling & Wood, 1990; Howard, 1989; Laroche, Papadopoulos, Heslop, & Mourali, 2005; Peterson & Jolibert, 1995). It has also been proven that brand image play’s a real important role in consumer evaluation of product quality. In fact, research suggests that brand image could be a key indicator of perceived quality that is more important than price (see Jacoby, Syzbillo, & BusatoSchach, 1977; Rao & Monroe, 1989). Similarly, Pecotich and Rosenthal (2001) have found that a strong national brand image highlights the importance of the country of origin information such that perceived quality is enhanced and a country of brand is created. Hence, it is hypothesized that: H2: The changed COO effect due to corporate image has an influence on the perceived quality of a product.

The proposed model of corporate image influence on COO effect and perceived quality is summarized in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Model of Corporate Image Influence on Country of Origin Effect and Perceived Product Quality

Brand Success/ Corporate Image

H1

H2

Country Image/ Country of Origin Effect

Perceived Product Quality

3. Methodology

An experiment was conducted to test the proposed model in the fashion apparel context in France, using two groups of consumers. The country chosen for the study was Spain. The COO effect on French consumers was examined using the country personality scale (d'Astous & Boujbel, 2007; Zeugner Roth & Diamantopoulos, 2008). The country personality scale is a 37-item scale used to position countries on human traits and characteristics, regrouped later in six categories, Agreeableness, Wickedness, Snobbism, Assiduousness, Conformity, and Unobtrusiveness. These items were measured on a five-point scale (ranging from 1=does not describe Spain at all to 5=describes Spain perfectly). The perceived quality of Spanish fashion apparel amongst French consumers was examined using valid perceived quality scales from earlier research (Darling & Arnold, 1988; Darling & Wood, 1990). However, they had to be modified to fit to the needs of this study. Thus, some fashion related concepts found in the literature were introduced in the scale to adequately cover fashion apparel product attributes such as the quality of the fabrics, the creativity, the innovativeness, the color, the design, etc. (both scales are available with the authors on request). The final questionnaire for the study was the French version developed after a comprehensive method of translation and back translation.

The Spanish brand selected from the fashion apparel industry was Zara. The experimental group was exposed to a prime about Zara’s international success. The other group was the control group without such exposure. Finally, 307 complete questionnaires were collected, almost equally distributed amongst the experimental group and the control group (i.e. 147 and 121). The final sample confirmed well to Zara’s target because it mostly consisted of French women of the ages of 18-25, who were students, price sensitive and really conscious of the

latest fashion trends, with a monthly frequency of buying fashion apparel. Zara’s continuing international success made it the right choice as a brand success example to test if brand success and corporate image can impact upon the COO effect to further impact on perceived product quality. This is because not only is Zara successful in France, a country with a welldeveloped national fashion industry, but it is also a brand that has stores all over the world and is a success in each of the countries where it operates.

4. Results

Data from the thirty seven attribute country personality scale was analyzed using principal components analysis in order to identify the underlying dimensions of Spain’s country personality, and factors were named. Finally, nine dimensions were found, which are somewhat congruent with d’Astous and Boujbel’s (2007) results, however with some differences and peculiarities (refer to table 1). Five of their six dimensions were found, namely, Agreeableness, Wickedness, Assiduousness, Conformity and Unobtrusiveness. In this study, Agreeableness consisted of only part of the original dimension, with Bon vivant, Amusing and Reveler breaking away into another dimension, which has been named Entertaining, and Accepting and Romantic not forming a part of either of the two dimensions, or the seven others. On the contrary, Wickedness consisted of all the adjectives in the original dimension except that Fighter loaded non-significantly. Similarly, in this study, Assiduousness consisted of only part of the original dimension, with Flourishing and Important breaking away into another dimension, which has been named Adding Value, and Serious forming an equally significant part of both. On the contrary, Conformity, consisted of

all the adjectives in the original dimension except that Mysterious loaded non-significantly for this dimension. Similarly, Unobtrusiveness, consisted of all the adjectives in the original dimension except Self-Contained. In this study, finally, the sixth d’Astous and Boujbel (2007) dimension of Snobbism bifurcated into two separate dimensions, Haughty consisting of Snobbish, Haughty and Mannered, and Chauvinistic consisting of Chauvinistic and Egocentric. Once every dimension was identified the reliability of those factors was analyzed. A reliability test was run on the nine factors and each dimension of Spain’s country personality was found to be reliable.

Table 1. Country personality dimensions Adjectives

and reliability.

1 Wickedness

Vulgar, Decadent, Offender, Immoral, Fighter Violent

Cronbach’s Alpha 0,8092

2 Assiduousness 3 Conformity 4 Agreeableness 5 Unobtrusiveness 6 Entertaining

Organized, Rigorous, Hard to work, Serious Religious, Spiritual, Traditional, Ceremonious Mysterious Agreeable, Generous, Cooperative, Accommodating, Romantic, Coward, Wimpy, Dependent, Discrete, Neutral Bon vivant, Amusing, Reveler

0,8588 0,7998 0,8030 0,7861 0,7344

7 Adding Value 8 Haughty 9 Chauvinist(*)

Flourishing, Important, Serious Snob, Haughty, Mannered Chauvinist, Egocentric

0,7580 0,7148

Dimensions

(*) Not analyzed, only composed by two attributes.

Since about half the sample consisted of the experimental group that was exposed to a prime about Zara’s international success, whereas the others had not been exposed, a new variable was created in the data set about exposure to the prime and a t-test was run to analyze the effect of brand success on country personality (i.e. the COO effect). The results showed that Zara’s brand success only had a significant impact on one dimension of country personality, the sixth dimension, Entertaining, consisting of Bon Vivant, Amusing, and Reveler. Further, a t-test was run on the three adjectives that comprise the Entertaining dimension to see which sub-dimension was the most influenced by brand success. The results were significant only for the Amusing sub-dimension and indicated that the consumers who

were exposed to a prime about Zara’s international success saw Spain as less Amusing than those that were not exposed. This implies that H1 can be accepted and although it does not happen for all aspects and dimensions, brand success creates a corporate image that has an influence on some aspects of country image or the COO effect.

Next, a regression analysis was conducted on the country personality and on the dependent variable perceived product quality to test hypothesis H2. All the nine country personality dimensions that came out of the principal component analysis were considered as independent variables. The analyses were stepwise. The results were significant, indicating that 14.3% of the variance in perceived product quality could be explained by the COO effect as measured by country personality. The results further indicated that out of the nine country personality dimensions, only five had a significant impact on perceived quality, namely, Wickedness, Conformity, Agreeableness, Entertaining and Added-Value. Out of this Entertaining was the country personality dimension impacted upon by brand success, as seen in the earlier result. This implies that H2 can be accepted and although it does not happen for all aspects and dimensions, country image or the COO effect has an impact upon perceived product quality, and this also applies to the case of the COO effect as impacted upon by brand success.

5. Discussion and Managerial Implications

An important academic contribution of this study is the validation and extension of the country personality scale to identify the country personality of Spain from the French consumer’s point-of-view. This study showed that Spain’s country personality consists of nine dimensions unlike the six general dimensions of country personality uncovered by

d’Astous and Boujbel (2007). This implies that the study is indicating more precisely which dimensions constitute the Spanish COO effect in the young French fashion consumer context. Future research could study this in other country and consumer contexts to compare results. In this study, the key differences with the d’Astous and Boujbel (2007) country personality scale were as follows. Firstly, Agreeableness consisted of only part of the original dimension, with Bon vivant, Amusing and Reveler breaking away into another dimension, which has been named Entertaining, and Accepting and Romantic not forming a part of either of the two dimensions, or the seven others. All this seems justified. The young French consumers (i.e. 74% women and 26% Men) seem to be distinguishing between general qualities of Agreeableness such as Agreeable, Generous, Cooperative, Accommodating and qualities that indicate a stronger personality or facet that is Entertaining, because Spain is a popular holiday destination for them. Further, Accepting’s factor loading for d’Astous and Boujbel’s (2007) Agreeableness dimension was not one that is normally considered statistically significant, while Romantic is something that is popularly associated with just about anything Italian because it is an Italian word that originally meant, 'from or about Rome.' Similarly, in this study, Assiduousness consisted of only part of d’Astous and Boujbel’s (2007) original dimension, with Flourishing and Important breaking away into another dimension, which has been named Adding Value, and Serious forming an equally significant part of both. All this seems justified. The young French consumers seem to be distinguishing between general qualities of Assiduousness about perseverance such as Organized, Rigorous, Hard to Work and qualities that indicate a stronger personality or facet that is Adding Value. Further, Serious is a part of both dimensions because a serious person can be both Assiduous and Add Value. Finally, the sixth d’Astous and Boujbel (2007) dimension of Snobbism also bifurcated into two separate dimensions, Haughty consisting of Snobbish, Haughty and Mannered, and Chauvinistic consisting of Chauvinistic and Egocentric. On the contrary, however, country

personality dimensions such as Wickedness, Conformity and Unobtrusiveness consisted of all the adjectives in d’Astous and Boujbel’s (2007) original dimensions except for Fighter, Mysterious and Self-Contained, respectively.

Most importantly, as hypothesized, this study finds that the success of a brand can have an effect on the COO effect of the country to which the brand belongs. In this study, brand success had an influence on one dimension of the country personality scale, which is Entertaining, but not the others. Thus, it would be interesting to do more research on this relationship, and in different industry contexts. This is also the most important managerial contribution of this research. As discussed earlier, Spain is a popular holiday destination for young French consumers. Hence, the fact that being exposed to a prime about Zara’s international success, is having a significant impact by reducing the mean value of the Amusing sub-dimension part of the Entertaining dimension of Spain’s country personality for these consumers, has significant managerial implications for Spanish company managers. These managers can demonstrate to French consumers that Spain is a country with big brands and successful companies like Zara, and not just an Amusing and Entertaining holiday destination. This also means that when future brands will want to set up abroad in the same domain area as another company from the same country, they will have to take into account the changed COO effect that the first company from the country has created, and will have to adapt their marketing strategy to this new image.

Secondly, thanks to the extended country personality scale, it is clear which dimensions of COO effect can influence French consumers to purchase Spanish fashion apparel products, by influencing the perceived product quality. Finally and interestingly, managers need to be careful while creating and implementing their marketing campaigns, as

Zara’s international success seems to be changing the weight of the Entertaining aspect of Spain’s COO effect, something that impacts upon consumers’ product quality perceptions.

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