An Qualitative Research on Regional Brand Image and Its Effect on Purchase Intention

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the origin image of selected regional brands and its effect on consumer’s purchase intention. It also seeks to examine the importance of regional brand and finally, define consumer preference for selected agricultural product, offering marketing strategies and practices for promoting regional brands of agricultural product. Design/Methodology/Approach: Taking a semi-structured focus group interview to provide the researcher with the opportunity to gain further understanding of the participants’ experiences in purchasing regional agricultural products. The length of the interviews is approximately 1.5 hours for each of the three groups of five people. The fifteen selected interviewees familiar with regional brands as well as agricultural product. Among them are brand managers, marketing executives, industry experts, retailers and consumers. A content analysis was conducted after interviews completed and transcribed. Findings: The major findings of this research show that the dimension of origin image include region's economic, humanistic, industrial, typical enterprise and product itself. It also has a significant impact on consumers’ purchase intention, especially for the regional brand of agricultural product. Interestingly, if origin is clearly indicated on the label, the sales of the agricultural products would be greater, but it plays the moderate role rather than key factor. Practical/Managerial Implications: This research suggests that regional brand image is important in the eyes of a potential consumer in that it could to some extent induce the consumer to purchase the agricultural product. The results of the research provide insights into regional branding strategies to better manage and design marketing practices and activities to increase consumer preferences. Originality/Value: This paper is of value to academic researcher, agricultural product retailer, brand manager and regional brand associations alike as it synthesis the factors of country-of-origin effect in the consumer purchasing process and the impact of country-of-origin as a agriculture marketing strategy.