Country-of-origin and brand positioning for health care services

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between country-of-origin (COO) and brand positioning in the context of the high-involvement service of health care. This paper compares and analyzes different positioning strategies used in Europe, North America and the Middle East. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses content analysis of promotional materials for a sample of 168 health-care organizations located in 14 countries to identify brand positioning strategies used, such as foreign, local and global consumer culture positioning. A chi-square analysis and post hoc testing is used to examine how positioning strategies differ among regions. Findings The findings indicate that European and Middle Eastern health-care organizations most frequently use foreign consumer culture positioning, while North American institutions tend to use global consumer culture positioning. The findings indicate that health-care organizations in countries with a better reputation for care use different positioning strategies than in countries with a lesser reputation for quality care. Practical implications The findings are of value to international advertising and marketing professionals and hospitals seeking to attract patients globally in a competitive marketplace. Hospitals must consider their positioning relative to both domestic and international competitors and the COO of their target audience. Originality/value COO is important in high-involvement service industries because consumers lack the information needed to evaluate service quality. Consumers may rely on COO and brand positioning signals more heavily relative to goods or low-involvement services. However, little prior research exists examining COO effects and brand positioning for high involvement services and for health care specifically. This paper makes a unique contribution by filling this gap.

Country-Brand Fit: The Effect of COO Stereotypes and Brand Positioning Consistency on Consumer Behavior: Evidence From EEG Theta-Band Oscillation

“…A consistent conclusion across the COO studies is that consumers organize their associations with countries into mental schemas, which influence brand evaluations (Kotler and Gertner, 2002 ; Magnusson et al, 2018 ). Consequently, researchers have shown growing interest in the products' COO effect on consumer attitudes (Fischer and Zeugner-Roth, 2017 ; Barbarossa et al, 2018 ; Magnusson et al, 2018 ; Meese et al, 2019 ). Noteworthily, the COO stereotype is difficult to change because of consumers' long-term and stable brand image (Clifton, 2017 ), which has brought considerable resistance for brands that attempt to enter the markets of other countries.…”

“…For instance, Magnusson et al ( 2018 ) found that brands are evaluated more favorably when positioned in a manner congruent with their home country personality stereotypes than when their brand positioning is incongruent with such stereotypes (Magnusson et al, 2018 ). Besides, Meese et al ( 2019 ) explored the relationship between country-of-origin and brand positioning in the context of the high-involvement service of health care. Their findings showed that matching the brand positioning of international healthcare organizations with their country images is a crucial way to attract international patients.…”

Bibliometrix analysis of medical tourism

“…This is why it is amazing to find out that there are not many studies on “Medical tourism” in Europe. 28 , 102 , 103 More in the detail a sole article can be found that indicates the reasons related to the choices of destination based on the possible medical treatments in Europe. 104 No comparative analysis between different European health system output and outcome, nor case studies describing European excellence have been published up to now.…”

Brand positioning and business performance of alcoholic beverage firms in an emerging market context: the mediation effect of brand equity

“…Alden et al (1999) hold that positioning strategies that reflect international perspectives invariably create global icons, those that reflect native culture become local and those that reflect specific non-native identifiable groups tend to appear foreign. A combination of these positioning strategies is deployed based on environmental and cultural factors, product categories and consumer attributes (Meese et al, 2019).…”