The ‘Country-Of-Origin Effect’ and Consumer Attitudes to ‘Buy Local’ Campaigns: Australian Evidence

Abstract

Universally, governments promote the purchase of locally made products via a variety of ‘buy local’ campaigns. The common expectation is that the country-of-origin effect will work systematically to bias purchase preference in favour of locally-made products. Promotional activity employing appeals based on country-of-origin, and the practice of labelling products with the country of origin are premised on this expectation.

A survey of 401 Australian consumers about their evaluations of an ‘Australian Made’ campaign showed high levels of campaign awareness and of its specific appeals, together with attitudes highly favourable to both the underlying concept and the operation of the campaign. These attitudes were widely held by respondents. Moreover, awareness and favourable attitudes towards the campaign were found to be associated with purchase predispositions, suggesting potential for behavioural change as an outcome of such campaigns.