KOREASCHOLAR

Consumers use their five senses to experience and evaluate products, especially visual sense. According to the previous psychological studies, they purpose that there are two opposite effects when consumer encounters a serial trail process. The two order effects are primacy effect and recency effect. When consumers are selecting items and considering which one is more favorable, they are starting to recall what experiences they just gone through. If they clearly recall what they firstly experienced than the following ones, the effect is primacy. Conversely, recency effect, which has the opposite direction, comes out when the data in the memories are decaying over the time. Despite of product presenting order, consumers rely on other cues before evaluating products. This study purposed that country of origin or so-called brand of origin is a critical determinant of making choice. Experiments were developed to test country of origin effect when participants sampled the item in a sequence. Other possible variables which affect choice were controlled in this study. The study examined order effects and the moderating effect of country of origin of sampling a sequence of products with similar visual cue and dissimilar visual cue on preference. The study used crystal glasses and let participants see them sequentially. The study aimed (a) to investigate the primacy effect and recency effect in the (dis)similar visual cue scenario, and (b) to investigate COO effect moderates the route between order effects and consumer preference. The study conducted four experimental studies. The data were collected from Taiwanese aged 22 in average. In the pretest, the study adopted one-way ANOVA to choose the experimental items and country of origin. The study also adopted one-sample T-test to examine participants’ preference orientation in the main test. The result showed that: 1. the appearance of the product did not affect preference, but order effects did have an impact on preference;2. primacy effect would be strengthened or weakened according to different country of origin labeling on the products. Participants mostly preferred the product from a relatively high image country no matter the item is presented firstly or secondly. Findings contribute to marketers to develop positive impression on certain products by the appropriate product display under the influence of country of origin effect.

• Kuang-Wen Wu(Feng Chia University, Taiwan)
• Kuan-Ting Lin(Feng Chia University, Taiwan)