Lick ’Er Country-of-Origin Stereotypes

When your customer enters your store, she carries with her certain stereotypes about country-of-origin: Scotch whiskey is better than whiskey from India. Chocolates from Switzerland are superior to chocolates from China. Those are the sorts of findings from researchers at Babson College.
     How about putting the two of those together? What’s the perceived quality of chocolates from the country famed for Scotch malt whiskey? A recent article in The Economist says the perceived quality will be positive, and that it’s because of the luxury reputation of the liquor. Highland Chocolatier, a family-run artisan business in the village of Grandtully, Scotland, is experiencing massive production growth with retail sales of the products at upmarket department stores, restaurants, and hotels.
     This notion of quality by association also comes into play when we want to lick a consumer’s less positive country-of-origin stereotypes. Harvard University researchers give a couple of alcohol and sweets examples:

• Don Melchor cabernet from winemaker Concha y Toro in Chile has received ratings equal to French Bordeaux wines from Wine Spectator, but is broadly perceived as not being world class. 
• Chocolates El Rey in Venezuela sells cacao to candy makers in Switzerland and Belgium, but has difficulty selling its own chocolates to connoisseurs internationally. 

     Here are a few research-based tips on selling such products at retail:

• Keep prices high enough. Research at Israel's INSEAD and at Stanford University confirms that when people buy products or services at what they consider to be deeply discounted prices, they tend to end up feeling that the benefits are less than if they'd paid full price. They love having gotten a discount, but they don't have as much love for the product or service. Consumer psychologists call this the price-quality link.
• Flaunt the country of origin. Alongside the underappreciated product, have items carrying a sterling reputation which come from the same country. We can introduce the impression of quality to the shopper's brain indirectly or subconsciously. Ideas introduced this way have a special power. Because the perceptions arrive subconsciously, the person is less likely to mobilize reasons not to buy.
• Downplay the country of origin. Harvard University researchers analyzed how Corona beer successfully accomplished this. Early on, Corona was nicknamed “Mexican lemonade,” and rumors circulated that workers urinated into the beer during the manufacturing process. Corona chose to position itself not so much as a Mexican beer as a beer of the beach. 

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Delay Negative Stereotypes to Post-Experience 
Feature Underappreciated National Origin Products
Prime Customer Interest with Adjacencies