The Impact Of Country Of Origin Image On Consumers’ Brand Knowledge

With the development of globalization and integration of economy, the worldproducts are facing competition across the world. Most of the products are in thestate of oversupply and differences between them are gradually narrowing alongwith information synchronization and the trend of product homogeneity is more andmore obvious. If an enterprise want the consumer to choose his product rather thanthe others in many similar products, only depending on the performance of productis far enough. Brand competition has got important status and predomination in the21st century. Brand knowledge is a key factor to create a strong brand and it is thecore element of brand equity. The content and structure of a consumer’s brandknowledge affect his response to the brand marketing plan of an enterprise, soconsumer’s brand knowledge is receiving more and more attention and becomes ahot issue in the brand researches. To build a strong brand and effectively carries outhis marketing solutions, an enterprise must firmly grasp the establishment of theconsumer’s brand knowledge. The brand image of origin, a new concept of themarketing and a factor influencing brand knowledge, is causing the attention ofexperts and scholars.In the study of Country of Origin Image(COOI), the researchers discovers thatthe COOI affects the product evaluation, perceived quality and brand image, andthese are indispensable parts of brand knowledge. As COOI introduced has not been for long, there is very limited research related to COOI for Chinese consumers’ brandknowledge so far, especially quantitative research. In addition, different regions anddifferent cultural situations can also affect consumer’ brand view. So, in the Chineseculture background, the image of origin would whether affect consumers’ brandknowledge or not is the problem solved in this study. Besides, the COOI is oftenadjusted by the demographic variables when coming into play, such as consumergender, age, education and so on. Whether the COOI is adjusted by these variableswhen affecting consumers’ brand knowledge or not, is another problem addressed inthis essay.To solve these problems, this article selects the high-tech consumablebrands—computer as the object of study. According to the purpose and researchneed, this paper first reviews the related literature and then establishes the theoreticalmodel. In the research model, the independent variable is COOI and the dependentvariable is brand knowledge and the gender and cultural level of consumers asregulation variables.According to the previous literature and the theoretical modelestablished this paper, we puts forward some research hypotheses. We validate themodel and the assumptions by the empirical research. First, the questionnaire is usedto collect the first-hand data and test it to ensure the questionnaire and data are ofscientific validity. Then we analyze the data through the statistical softwareSPSS17.0and Excel to test the model and the hypotheses are correct. Finally,according to the results of the statistical analysis and discussion, we put forwardimplications from both theory and practice and also put forward the study limitationsand future research directions.After the data research and analysis, we can draw the following conclusions:(1) The COOI can produce positive influence on consumers’ brand knowledgeand brand awareness and brand image; (2) Gender has the adjustment function in the process where COOI influencesconsumers’ brand knowledge and brand awareness and brand image. In other words,compared with females, the males have positive influence better in the process whereCOOI influences consumers’ brand knowledge and brand awareness and brandimage;(3) Culture has the adjustment function in the process where COOI influencesconsumers’ brand knowledge and brand awareness and brand image. In other words,the higher level of education, the positive influence is stronger that the COOIproduces on consumers’ brand knowledge and brand image; the lower level ofeducation, the positive influence is stronger that the COOI produces on brandawareness.Significance of research lies in exploring the relationship between COOI andconsumers’ brand knowledge and its two dimensions. Besides, we also verify theadjustment function of gender and educational level in the process where COOIinfluences consumers’ brand knowledge and brand awareness and brand image.These studies greatly enrich the research scope of COOI, but also provide someenlightenment to increase consumers’ brand knowledge for enterprises.