Essay About Local Branding And Product Categories

Local Branding in Foreign Markets
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Local Branding in a Foreign Product
Category in an Emerging Market
ABSTRACT
Giana M. Eckhardt
Submitted March 2005
Accepted July 2005
Journal of International Marketing
© 2005, American Marketing Association
Vol. 13, No. 4, 2005, pp. 57-79
ISSN 1069-031X (print)
1547-7215 (electronic)
It is unclear how local brands competing in product categories
that consumers perceive as foreign should be managed in
emerging markets. An interpretive research approach investigating
consumer perceptions and managerial development of a
local pizza brand in India reveals that consumers experience
these brands as foreign. The author discusses implications for
brand management.
There is a burgeoning literature suggesting that consumers in
emerging markets can have the agency and influence to
change and, in some cases, determine brand meaning for
global brands (e.g., Eckhardt and Mahi 2004; Prahalad and
Lieberthal 1998). In addition, foreign product categories can
be interpreted in many ways by consumers in emerging markets
in response to their particular cultural and economic
circumstances, including representing ideals, such as Westernization
or gender equality, rather than or in addition to
the officially sanctioned meanings (Eckhardt and Houston
2002; Wilk 1990). When local companies take advantage of
the popularity of many foreign product categories with certain
market niches to develop their own brands, they often
struggle with how to incorporate these local cultural interpretations
or, in some cases, how to dispel them. All of this
suggests that the role of consumer interpretation of both the
product category and the specific brand will have a substantial
impact on a local companys ability to imbue its brand (in
a foreign product category) with desired meanings in emerging
markets.
In this article, I investigate the process of how local interpretation
influences and, to a certain extent, dictates how local
marketers can develop a brand image. This study answers
recent calls for in-depth research to understand local brands
in the current globalization context (Schuiling and Kapferer
2004). By collecting data from local consumers as to how
they form their impressions of a foreign product category and
a specific brand and by collecting data from the management
of the local firm that is trying to develop a brand presence in
this foreign product category, I can observe the interactions
between local consumer interpretation and brand development.
I conduct an in-depth examination of the foreign product
category of pizza and the local brand Pizza Point, and I
58 Giana M. Eckhardt
report the results of an interpretive study in rural Andhra
Pradesh, a state in southern India.
The issue of what constitutes a local and a foreign product
category or brand from a consumers perspective is complex.
For example, Saimee (1994) points out that it is becoming
more difficult for the consumer to ascertain the country of
origin of a product because many so-called foreign products
are actually made in the country in which they are being
marketed. It is even questionable whether country of origin
is relevant to the consumer at all anymore. In a recent article,
Samiee, Shimp, and Sharma (2005) point out that consumers
have only a modest knowledge of the country of origin of
brands, suggesting that this variable has less influence on
judgments and behavior than prior literature would suggest.
My definition of local and foreign encompasses consumer
perceptions of what is local and foreign rather than the reality
of the site of production or even the site of corporate
headquarters.
For the purposes of this study, I define “local” as the consumers
perception that the product category or brand originates
from the local area. For the Andhra Pradesh consumers
in the study, the local area is defined as Andhra Pradesh.
These consumers did not think of local products or brands as
Indian products or brands but rather as Andhran products or
brands. This is typical within India because the country is so
diverse culturally and religiously and became a unified
country only