Towards a holistic understanding of county of origin effects? Branding of the region, branding from the region

Abstract

Nations and regions have images, or “brands” that stakeholders often attempt to manage or at least influence. In turn, many products have an association with a region or place, sometimes positively, and sometimes negatively so. These associations interact and shape each other. In this paper we thus argue that for a holistic view of country-of-origin effects, an understanding is needed of both branding of the region, and branding from the region, nation or place in question. Country-of-origin (COO) research has tended to focus upon how geographical associations may assist the marketing of certain products (halo effects) and indeed protect brand images from negative place-based associations (shield effects). The role of symbolic value here is discussed with the explicit assertion that its importance is increasing and that COO effects can be seen as an example of thereof; although these are likely to vary with the product or indeed place under consideration. We seek to develop these ideas by investigating the existence of branding spillovers in the opposite direction i.e. from product to regional image. This is done using the case of Wales via an investigation of three companies engaged with the changing meaning of their own country of origin – and also of the recent marketing initiatives of the Welsh Government itself. In this way the paper seeks to contribute a place-based bridging of the destination management literature and the brand management literature.