CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Conclusion
This study focuses on the effect of coo image on the development of brand
equity of laptop, car, and television on three particular brands namely Apple, Honda
and Samsung.
This research found that country-of-origin image influences the formation
of brand equity positively and significantly for the three brands. Country-of-origin
image has important role in consumer purchase decisions. This study also indicates
that the Indonesian consumers use country-of-origin image as an important factor
especially in purchasing high-involvement and durable products such as laptop, car
and TV. This shows that Indonesian consumers have more confidence in buying
foreign brand rather than local ones because of their perceptions that foreign brand
are more durable, more sophisticated, more high-tech and having a much better
quality. It is quite evident that the Indonesian consumers are relatively “made-in”
oriented. In this case, the Indonesian consumers would prefer buying electronic or
car product that is originated from US, Japan and Korea. Consumers develop their
interest and preference for one particular brand on the basis of their perception of the
country-of-origin. As such, country of origin image would have an impact on the
formation of brand equity.
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Country of origin image also has significant impact on the brand equity
dimensions while brand equity dimensions namely brand distinctiveness, brand
loyalty (except for Apple), brand awareness (except for Samsung) and perceived
quality (for Apple only) have significant influence on the formation of brand equity
of the three brands.
5.2 Business Implications
Based on demographic data, most of Indonesian consumers prefer discussing
with their close people such as friends, partner (husband/ wife) parents and children.
Therefore, marketers should develop appropriate marketing strategy by taking this
condition into account. For instance, Apple should not only promote the product in
the specific media for young people although Apple would target young people. It
should also promote and advertise in general media which would also be read or
viewed by parents, husband or wife since they are also the decision makers. The
other marketing strategy that could be applied is placing strategy of the product in
the place that could easily be viewed by other family members (parents, husband/
wife or other relatives) such as malls, exhibition or other promotion events.
Promoting the brand in various events such as car or computer exhibition would
attract not only the target market but also the people who would influence them in
making the decision because they usually attend these events with friends or other
family members.
The image of a country is one of the factors that consumer
consider in their decision making process, especially for durable products such as
laptop, car and television. There is less possibility the consumers search for further
detailed information of a specific product (laptop, car, television) if they already
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know that the brand originates from one particular country. They would likely relate
the quality of the brand with the country-of-origin. The outcomes of this study
showed that country-of-origin image has a significant impact on brand equity and
brand equity dimensions. In this connection, the brand owner should put more
emphasis in building good image of country-of-origin to improve the perception of
the brand in the consumer’s mind. For instance, by using public figure (celebrity)
from the country of origin as the product ambassador/endorser to enable the
consumers to link the product more to the country-of-origin.
In general, the brand equity dimensions (brand distinctiveness, brand loyalty,
brand awareness, and perceived quality) have significant influence on the formation
of brand equity. For Apple and Honda brand loyalty is the variable which has the
highest contribution to the brand equity formation. This means that Apple and Honda
should put greater emphasis in creating and building brand loyalty if they want to
build strong brand equity. By offering a good - quality product and high - class
service including delivery, and after sales service, the marketers and brand owners
will create long-term relationship with the consumers and at the end will create a
strong brand loyalty.
In addition, targeting more on the young age (18-25)
consumers should also be a proper strategy for a brand like Apple since this
particular group is more country-of-origin minded.
In this case, Apple could
capitalize on this segment as their consumer base to build brand loyalty in the future.
In the case of Samsung brand distinctiveness plays more important role in the
formation of brand equity. Therefore, Samsung should put more effort in and
capitalize on developing its technology, innovation, new product development and
substantially promoting it as their main differentiation.
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With regards to relationship between COO and brand equity dimensions as
hypothesized in H2, the research found that for the three brands distinctiveness is the
dimension that is being mostly influenced by country-of-origin. In this connection,
the brand owner should put more emphasis in building good image of country-oforigin to improve the perception of these three brands in the consumer’s mind with
regards to brand distinctiveness aspects such as product sophistication, technology
and innovation. The brand owners could promote the good image of their brand’s
original country by linking the country of origin with the product distinctiveness
through tag lines (e.g. “Apple: America’s state-of the art of innovation”), advertising
theme and other promotion strategy. Since there is no mediating variable effect that
would affect the relationship between country-of-origin and brand equity for brand
Apple, therefore, Apple should put more emphasis on the country-of-origin variable.
The consumers will not specifically seek further information such as specification of
Apple, because they already had a perception in their mind that Apple originates
from a country that produces high-technology products.
Therefore, Apple
management should put more emphasis in promoting and featuring the country of
origin of its brand through various promotion strategies. As for Honda and Samsung
which are partially mediated by brand awareness dimension, the management could
capitalize on its brand awareness aspects such as logo, and product tag line in
building its brand equity.
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5.3 Research Limitation
While conducting this research there were several limitations that the author
encountered. They were time limitation, the number of respondents participated in
filling in the questionnaire and also delayed response from the respondents in
retuning the questionnaires. The author also considered it important to have more
respondents not only from Jakarta but also from other cities in Indonesia. This is to
ensure a more reliable research output that truly represents the Indonesian
consumers’ behavior.
5.4 Recommendation for Future Research
Since the study observed relationship between country-of-origin image and
brand equity only for durable product categories, future research should try to
examine different product categories or industries such as non-durable products and
services. This would provide more thorough outcome of whether country-of-origin
gives influence to brand equity formation for other product categories.