This research provides evidence that globally positioned food brands face an inherent trade-off – the advantages of wide global availability and global sourcing can be outweighed by unfavorable perceptions related to freshness. Through five experiments, with participants from developed and emerging markets, the authors demonstrate that global (vs. local) brand positioning cues dampen product purchase intentions; this happens because globally (vs. locally) positioned brands evoke lower freshness perceptions. This effect is particularly pronounced for minimally or moderately (vs. highly) processed product categories, for which freshness considerations are more important. In addition, the negative effects of globally positioned brands can be reduced with secondary freshness cues, such as freshness seals or guarantees, and that such a strategy is particularly effective for individuals high in perceived vulnerability to disease.
This study explores what drives consumers’ judgments and decisions – uniqueness perception of a foreign product with protected geographical origin cue or uniqueness perception of a domestic doppelgänger product. We find that uniqueness perception of domestic brands has greater impact on willingness to buy domestic brands compared with the uniqueness perception of the brand holding geographical origin labels. Next, our data shows that uniqueness perception of domestic doppelgänger brands has influence not only on willingness to buy such brands (positive influence) but also negative influence on willingness to buy true and unique brands denominated by protected origin. Thus, by perceiving the uniqueness of a domestic brand positively, consumers discount the original, unique and legally protected brand and are less willing to buy such a brand. The study offers theoretical implications for ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity research as well as managerial implications for managers and policy makers indicating how to improve marketing efforts and regulatory support to geographical origin labels.
This research demonstrates that global food products suffer from healthiness bias – a tendency to favor local food products and evaluate them as healthier than equivalent global or foreign food products. The paper extends previous research findings and provides empirical evidence that the perception of the product’s healthiness is a driver of this phenomenon. Results of three between-subject experimental research design studies indicate that global (versus local and foreign) food products are associated with lower perception of healthiness. In turn, such evaluations impact consumers’ buying intentions. Moreover, bias is more pronounced for consumers who perceive themselves as vulnerable to diseases and, conversely, disappears for those who are not vulnerable to diseases. The paper discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings and points toward future research directions.
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