Country of Origin effect on Brand Personality of Cars.

1. Market research project proposalTopic : Country of origin effect on Indian consumer’s brand Personality Perception of cars from Japan, South Korea & India

2. Reason for selection India is growing as a manufacturing hub for low-cost compact car. India 4th largest car market in Asia. Domestic sale of passenger vehicles is growing at CAGR of 12.2% Passenger cars accounting for 78% of total passenger vehicles in Indian market growing at CAGR 15% In light of these development, it seems appropriate to investigate how consumers in India will perceive the brand personality of the cars based on their country of origin.

3. Research objective To assess the country of origin (COO) effect on Indian consumer’s brand personality perception of cars from Japan, South Korea & India

4. Brand personality Scale David Aaker’s multi-dimensional Brand Personality scale. Responses will be captured using 5-point Likert scale

5. Hypothesis 5 Dimension of Brand Personality

6. Research model : pictorial depiction Brand Personality Sincerity H2 Excitement H3 Country of Origin Purchase Intention H4 Competence H5 Sophistication H6 Ruggedness Note: Moderating factor Age (if significant sample size)

8. Respondents in each panel will be exposed to a car with similar feature. The only difference being the country of origin: India, South Korea, Japan

10. Decision makers on purchase of cars

11. Age group : 25-40 yrs

12. SEC A,BCentre of study: Primarily Jamshedpur (Web or Face-to-Face questionnaire)

13. Analytical tools Differences in consumer perception will be analyzed by country of origin of the automobile using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The dependent variables will be the five brand personality dimensions.

14. Implications Marketers : Car companies might consider product repositioning strategies that attempt to change consumer brand perception to be more on personality scale. Ex: Like suppose Indian cars are perceived as less intelligent, successful & upper class than Japanese, Indian companies may wish to develop marketing strategies that attempt to address & change the perceptions. Advertisers Tailor communication to alter perception

15. Limitations Representative sample – The sampling is not strictly random. Due to small sample size, the results there might be a few inconsistencies Geography bias since the respondents are concentrated mainly in Jamshedpur. Respondent profile differences across the 3 panels could influence the findings.

16. Thank You Amit Kumar (06) Hussein H. Rassiwalla (20 ) Manish Kumar (87)