ADVANCING BRAND ORIGIN CONCEPT THROUGH THE REVERSE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN EFFECT: THE CASE OF GENERATION Z

Product origin dispersion around the world in today’s globalized market has aroused interest in depicting brand origin in more detail, the latter being considered a more distinctive cue of product origin. Due to the fact that the impact of product origin location on product evaluation has already been established many times, the purpose of this paper is to offer new insights into the less researched, reverse country of origin effect. More specifically, this paper deals with the impact of product attitude on the evaluation of brand origin, latter being viewed through the brand’s country image and cultural background. Since this research is an exploratory one by nature, the PLS-SEM methodology was utilized, while the data collection was done through a questionnaire, through which 154 students from two Croatian universities belonging to generation Z completed the questionnaire successfully. The results point that brand attitude mediates the impact of product attitude on brand origin, implying that brand managers have to pay even more attention to product development strategies today, since favorable consumers’ product and brand attitudes can have a spillover effect on the image of an entire country. The results of this research point to several practical implications for brand managers. The first is the fact that each product in a brand’s portfolio must be optimal, as respondents showed that product attitudes influences brand attitudes directly. Brand managers need to keep in mind that consumers’ product attitudes can be a whole set of triggers for thinking about the origin of a particular brand and forming attitudes toward the origin of that brand based on their own experiences or product perceptions. Finally, the results suggest not only that product attitude influences the components of brand origin, but also that products that reflect the values of their origin help to build a favourable image of brand origin. This paper gives a broader perspective to the country of origin effect studies, but also contributes to further brand origin conceptualization by observing the brand origin framework through both country and culture of brand origin.