Place of origin matters greatly to customers and their perception of products. Products from certain countries are viewed more favorably and can command higher prices. Mongolia is presented as a new source country with exotic fibers and leathers that brands can capitalize on due to positive place of origin effects. The Agricultural Marketing and Branding Development Project connects Mongolian producers with foreign companies and provides branding advice to help companies benefit from Mongolia's provenance.

1. “It’s Mongolian.”
Cuban cigars. Damascus steel. Sea
Island cotton. Italian olive oil.
For as long as human beings have been
trading goods, place of origin has mattered
to customers. Where a product is made, or
where its components parts are from, is
intrinsic to the product’s story and to its
final value in the marketplace.
Example: recent research has shown that
consumers would pay more for a product
from Sweden than for the same product if
it is from Finland, a neighboring country.
Consider the words ‘Made In’ and follow
it with a nation of your choosing – China,
Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Switzerland,
Poland – and you have an innate sense
of how this phenomenon works, rightly
or wrongly.
The so-called “place of origin effect” may
not be fair, but it is real, and it is a secret
accepted and utilized by astute marketers.
And today, when there are fewer and fewer
real differentiators between products, the
marketing potential of place of origin is
greater than ever.
Enter Mongolia.
Modern Mongolia – sometimes appearing
on old maps as “Outer Mongolia” to distin-
guish it from the mainland Chinese province
of Inner Mongolia – is a fabled land if ever
there was one.
With wild steppes populated (if you can
call it that) by nomadic herders – fewer
than two per square kilometre in a country
three times the size of France – Mongolia
is the epitome of the faraway exotic place.
Natural, undyed Mongolian yak down, as used in this soft and lofty semi-worsted “Mongolian Beach Blanket”
from American luxury brand QuitMadStop, is as exquisite and exotic – and functional – as textiles come.

2. The project
In late 2011, the Asian Development Bank-
sponsored Agricultural Marketing and
Branding Development Project was
launched in Ulaanbaatar. We are liaisons
between Mongolian producers of exotic
fibers and leathers and foreign companies
wishing to source these materials from
Mongolia. Through international branding
experts affiliated with the project, we offer
branding and marketing advice to Mongo-
lian companies and also, in many cases,
to their foreign partners who wish to fully
capitalize on the place of origin value of
Mongolian provenance.
Contacts
If you’re intrigued by the potential of
Mongolian cashmere, yak or camel fibre,
Mongolian vegetable- or chromium-tanned
leather, Mongolian felt, or Mongolian
manufactured products, please write to
our deputy project director Mr Batmunkh
at erdenebileg.b@ardp.mn
We are well connected in Mongolia, and
if we can’t help you directly, we may know
someone who can.
The city of Ulaanbaatar is the centre of Mongolian fibre and leather production.
This scarf was made by the Mongol Textile company, established in 1934.
With its alluring landscapes and nomadic culture,
Mongolia is the epitome of the faraway, exotic place.
Cashmere comes naturally in four shades, all of
which are found in Mongolia.
High-tech meets hand-made in this Mongolian
iPad case.
Vegetable-tanned leather is a new avenue for the
Mongolian leather industry.
Certified
Mongolian Noble Fibre