Country of origin effect

in ABSTRACT THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN EFFECT Atılım ONAY Division of Advertising and Public Relations Anadolu University Institute of Social Sciences, June 2004 Advisor: Asis. Prof. Dr. R. Ayhan YILMAZ In contemporary marketing communication, the consumer's desires and preferences has became an important information resource. Understanding the target audience, effects the communication and marketing efforts and marketing of the products in national and international markets. In this study, the consumers attitudes and perceptions are categorised in three dimensions which are : country products, marketing efforts of this products and country of origin concept. Germany, Italy and France is handled just because these are the countries which is making most importation to Turkish markets. When we look at the results generally, in every category, the perceptions and attitudes about Germany was more positive when compared to Italy and France. For Italy and France the participants was unsure about their evaluations. For all the three countries consumers attitudes was not found negative but it is found that most of the consumers were found not being proud of having the products which is from this countries. Besides this a meaningful connection couldn't found amongst the participants, gender and income and their attitudes. The country of origin effect is a rarely handled subjectin Turkey. The information taken from researchers' focus on this subject will help the companies for determining the marketing and communication strategies.