Brand Effect on Country of Origin (BECO)

Country of origin effect (COO) is a marketing term, and its definition is: how national reputation affects perception of products. COO has been well documented and analysed, and it is taken as a fact in todays field of marketing.  White's (2012) research article studies the inverse country of origin effect, and it is the basis for the theory of inverse COO as they call it. But this articles proposes another term and attempts to build a model for the theory.

The new term would be best described as Brand Effect on Country of Origin (BECO). The research (White, 2012) behind, shows that brands from a country have impact on the national image. In other words, commercial brands can enhance the nation brand. The research studied three firms and their countries of origin. First was IKEA and Sweden, second was Red Bull and Austria and last was Skype and Estonia. The impact of these findings is significant, especially for smaller countries. Their country image would be enhanced by the associations to well known brands originating from their country.

Following simplified model shows the Brand Effect on Country of Origin (BECO).

Reference: White, Candace L, 2012, Brands and national image: An exploration of inverse country-of-origin effect, Journal of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd