Empirical testing of correlations between the effects of country-of-origin and consumer perceptions

The economic and social changes occurring in the former socialist and communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe point to the need for more intensive consumer-based market research. In the international research and business use the country-of-origin (COO) labelling has become one of the factors that distinguish products. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of COO information on brand perception and the consumer evaluation of other chicken meat properties. The present article concentrates on the results of the primary quantitative research, which was carried out using a method of individual personal interviews. A sample was consisted of was 500 Slovenian poultry meat consumers aged between 18 and 65 years. Special attention was paid to the COO of chicken meat. In the research the Slovenian consumers evaluated internal and external properties of chicken meat originating from various countries. The survey showed that COO affected the brand perception and evaluation of other properties of chicken meat. A positive assessment of Slovenian chicken meat and the impact of chicken meat origin in the process of its evaluation were evident from the survey. The present study is one of the first to empirically examine and confirm the impact of COO information on brand perception and the consumer evaluation of other meat properties. This research aims to develop a better understanding of the effect of COO on brand evaluation and other product properties evaluation.