Impact of Country of Origin on Consumer Perception of In and Out Burger

This article discusses the impact of country of origin on consumer perception of In and Out Burger, an American fast food chain, in foreign markets. It also provides recommendations for the company to change consumer's approach towards foreign nations.

INTERNATIONAL
MARKETING

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Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
Consumer’s perception...............................................................................................................1
Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................................1
References..................................................................................................................................2

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INTRODUCTION
In and Out Burger is one of the emerging brands in the fast food chain industry. It is an
American regional chain of the fast foods with locations in different parts of the Southwest
and the Pacific coast. Country of origin of this restaurant is California United States (IN-N-
OUT BURGER, 2019). This has impact on the culture of culture of the organisation and also
has impact on the way consumers sees the company in the foreign market.
Consumer’s perception
People’s perception about the foreign company changes with the fact that individuals from
different parts of the world have different view about different companies (Asseraf and
Shoham, 2017). For example an Indian company going to China will face a very different
kind of attitude from the Chinese customers. The vice-versa is also true. This is because of
the conflict that people of both the nations have or the consumer animosity against each
other. It is a matter of ideology where people feel that the culture they are from is better than
others (Adina, Gabriela and Roxana-Denisa, 2015). This consumer disposition is a loss to the
companies like In and Out Burger. For example an American company In and Out Burger
going into the Arabic countries will face challenges in terms of the fact that Arabic people
does not accept American culture easily. In the case of non-veg items, both the cultures have
difference in terms of way a non-veg is cut. It is also seen that consumers have an affinity for
the products that are from particular country especially when it is from country where there is
more consumer animosity (Josiassen, 2011). With the conflicts between the countries in
different parts of the world is increasing. All these have effect on the numbers of sales and
the profit generation capacity of the individuals. Country of origin also has impact on the
brand image of the company as people make a prejudice that they will serve the people in a
certain manner or they will have a particular approach to do business. This is also seen in
terms of the fact that American companies are using technology in each of their operations
and hence the countries in which technological use is less, the people also have a very
different kind of view (Fong, Lee and Du, 2014). This is also faced by In and Out Burgers.
Conclusion and Recommendations
It is concluded that consumer’s attitude towards any product changes if the country of origin
is different from home country. It will have impact on the way an organisation is dealing with
the It is recommended that in order to change the consumer‘s approach towards the foreign
nations, it is critical that company invest a lot on the marketing (Cakici and Shukla, 2017).
Ethical marketing and investments in the areas like policy development that can give the local
cultural touch to the business can be very much effective. A company will have to give
cultural touch to the marketing campaign. Company also needs to adopt ethnocentrism in
their different business strategies. It will help them in reducing the consumer animosity.

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Company needs to think that they have a plan for managing the skills where most of the
people need to be hired from the local backgrounds (Fischer and Zeugner-Roth, 2017).
References
Adina, C., Gabriela, C. and Roxana-Denisa, S., 2015. Country-of-origin effects on perceived
brand positioning. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, pp.422-427.
Asseraf, Y. and Shoham, A., 2017. Destination branding: The role of consumer
affinity. Journal of destination marketing & management, 6(4), pp.375-384.
Cakici, N.M. and Shukla, P., 2017. Country-of-origin misclassification awareness and
consumers’ behavioral intentions: Moderating roles of consumer affinity, animosity, and
product knowledge. International Marketing Review, 34(3), pp.354-376.
Fischer, P.M. and Zeugner-Roth, K.P., 2017. Disentangling country-of-origin effects: the
interplay of product ethnicity, national identity, and consumer ethnocentrism. Marketing
Letters, 28(2), pp.189-204.
Fong, C.M., Lee, C.L. and Du, Y., 2014. Consumer animosity, country of origin, and foreign
entry-mode choice: a cross-country investigation. Journal of International Marketing, 22(1),
pp.62-76.
IN-N-OUT BURGER, 2019. History. [Online] Available at:
http://www.in-n-out.com/history.aspx. [Accessed on 10th October 2019]
Josiassen, A., 2011. Consumer disidentification and its effects on domestic product
purchases: An empirical investigation in the Netherlands. Journal of Marketing, 75(2),
pp.124-140.