Study Regarding the Influence of Country of Origin (COO) over the Consumer Decision-Making Process in Buying Food

摘要

The country of origin effect is considered to be the positive or negative influence that the country of origin of one product has over the consumer in the buying decision-making process. The COO could act as a barrier for the consumer or as stimuli for purchasing and is stronger when it comes of food products. The general aim of the research is to determine the Romanian consumera€?s perceptions of local products and to determine how the COO effect influences the consumers. Two focus groups were organized in Cluj-Napoca. Participants were asked to mention for different food products the country of origin they prefer to be the producer from. The interview consisted also in asking the participants to rank attributes such as: price, brand and country of origin, important to them in the buying decision-making process. Results indicate that for some food products such as (cheese, meat and vegetables) the consumers prefer local Romanian products while for others (sweets, wine) they are willing to buy foreign products. Results indicate that price and brand are more important than the country of origin when it comes of some food products like sweets and wine, while for products like dairy, fruits, vegetables, it is important their country of origin. The COO effect is necessary to be studied among the Romanian consumers because of the future implementation of labels of origin for different food products which will be sell on different markets. Therefore, it is important that first of all, the country of origin influence should be studied over the Romanian consumers.