Following the 2008 financial crisis, globalized markets in North America and Europe experience a shift in public opinion toward a renunciation of globalization and a reorientation toward traditional (domestic) values. Responding to this paradigm change, multi-national corporations (MNCs) face the decision of whether (a) to continue to pursue global branding strategies or (b) to align their global brands with local consumer cultures. This decision requires an understanding of how the degree of market globalization relates to consumer preferences. The present study draws on signaling theory to empirically investigate (a) the relative impact of a brand’s globalness (i.e., perceived brand globalness) and its cultural market alignment (i.e., perceived cultural symbolism) in eliciting perceptions of brand credibility and brand quality (b) across two countries that differ regarding their degree of market globalization (Germany and South Korea). Findings indicate that the signaling value of global brands, as a function of their market reach, is greater in globalizing markets than in globalized markets, whereas the signaling value associated with cultural market alignment is greater in globalized markets than in globalizing markets. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are considered.

Despite its undoubted academic relevance, country-of-origin (COO) research continuous to be criticized for its lack of practical relevance (Usunier 2006). However, extant research has mainly focused on consumers as potential users of COO information, whereas relatively little is known with respect to whether and when companies actively use COO as part of their marketing mix. This study looks at the usage of COO information in advertising by conducting a content analysis of all print ads published in three major magazines in France over the period of one year. A set of hypotheses is subsequently developed and tested that looks at differences with respect to a) COO usage versus non-usage, b) frequency of COO cues used, and c) product- or brand type differences in the usage of COO information. Results shows that roughly one third of all ads analyzed feature COO information in it. In contrast to some scholars (e.g., Samiee 2010; Usunier 2006), our results provide further evidence on the relevance of COO cues from a supply side perspective. An in-depth analysis of the frequency and usage of COO information in advertising largely confirms extant literature with respect to the importance of the construct for domestic brands, and products with a high ethnicity (Usunier and Cestre 2007), low involvement (Bloemer, Brijs, and Kasper 2009), and hedonic nature. At the same time, we do not find evidence that COO only matters in these situations, as was highlighted by some scholars in the field. Finally, with respect to the debate on which type of country is actually associated with COO, we confirm extant propositions that the majority of products on the market associate themselves with the country-of-brand (Magnusson, Westjohn, and Zdravkovic 2011). Overall, more than 80% of all brands emphasized the country of brand, sometimes in combination with a different country-ofmanufacture.

This paper assesses the moderating role of consumer dispositions for global branding research. We introduce a mediation model studying the effects of perceived brand globalness (PBG) on brand-related responses, followed by several moderated mediation analyses. Our findings yield surprisingly sparse evidence for the moderating role of well-established consumer dispositions.