Assessing Brand Origin Recognition Accuracy and its Antecedents in a Developing Country

The aim of the present study was to examine two main questions regarding Indonesian consumers. First, what are the brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) scores for both foreign brands and local brands among Indonesian consumers? Second, are socio-economic characteristics (education and income/spending), international experience (international travel and foreign language expertise), and demographic factors (age and gender) related to consumers’ brand origin recognition accuracy? The present research follows BORA procedures in the selection of 88 brands (44 foreign and 44 local brands). Questionnaires were distributed both offline and online, with 138 respondents participating offline and 163 people responding online. The BORA scores for both foreign and local brands among Indonesian consumers were relatively low (28.79% and 53.85%, respectively). BORA was also related to socio-economic characteristics, international experience, and age. In addition, men demonstrated higher BORA levels for foreign brands than women did. Most consumers were unable to differentiate brand origins because of the use of foreign languages for the brand names. Therefore, the foreign branding strategy of using languages of other countries (e.g., English, Chinese, Japanese, and so forth) that have positive images for particular product categories could be effectively employed in Indonesia.