Global vs Local

LITERATURE REVIEW

Consumer preferences about global brands vs. local brands

By Sophie Curtis

Published on 30 Nov 2013, 7:01AM GMT

In the literature review, there has been extensive investigation of the reasons for consumer preference of global brands over the local ones. These studies were mainly concerned with promotional schemes, price differentials and so on. In addition researchers have investigated consumers’ perceptions of national, private and generic brands to better understand the differences and similarities between them. Using this type of information, some authors have suggested marketing strategies for these types of brands. However, relatively little work has been done on what drives consumers’ preferences and choices toward such brands; in particular the issue of how product attributes affect consumers’ preferences and choice remains less explored.

The issue of brands’ preferences is relevant in the case of a changing marketing environment in emerging markets where the market experiences an increase in the heterogeneity of the brand category offerings. This includes an increase in the variety of the brands’ offering (that is, new international brands), and an increase in purchasing power coupled with an increase in media exposure (that is, more TV channels, international broadcasting, and so on.), that increases exposure of consumers to international brands. It is evident that in markets, like the new ‘emerging’ ones, such as in Eastern Europe and Asia, the activity of international brands has. The findings of this literature highlight the importance of successful introductions of global brands.

The introduction of new international brands in such an environment needs to be sensitive to cultural differences among consumers in a foreign emerging market. For example, consumers might have different attitudes with respect to the brands’ country of origin. In our research we pay special attention to this issue.

In our study, we model consumers’...