The influence of country of origin of fast moving consumer goods on consumer purchase decisions in Kenya

Abstract

The buying behaviour of consumers is one of the most commonly researched subjects in marketing.„Country of origin effect‟ (COO) is one of the key concepts casting light on the purchasing process of consumers. Many studies have shown that COO effect is vital for the buying process, persuasion and product evaluation. Consumer ethnocentrism is another important factor in the domain of COO effect studies. A descriptive study was conducted among selected shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya consisting 30 respondents who were selected using simple random method from the list of 15 shopping mall and supermarkets at Nairobi metropolitan10 shopping malls were selected using simple random method and 3 respondents selected randomly from each shopping mall. Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean scores, standard deviations and coefficients of variations. The findings states that concludes that imported/foreign products were of better quality compared to local; and that they would often choose a foreign FMCG'S depending on the type of the product. Though the foreign products were expensive as compared to local products, the shoppers would often choose a foreign FGCM'S compared to local ones all the time. One of the limitations was the access to data from the respondents. Some of the respondents were unwilling to give information for fear that their information that they were giving and especially the personal information may be used for other purposes or released to other unauthorized persons.