Country-of-origin in brand communication: A multinational company perspective

National branding and Country-of-origin strategy (COO) has not only shown to be convenient for research, but also of considerable importance and interest for companies to enhance competitive advantage. With constantly increasing product range on the markets and continually new technology in the society, the buying behaviour and customer preferences have changed. The customer evaluates not only the product regarding its function or physical capacity, but also regarding the product's intangible value, such as its COO. The purpose with this study was to provide a deeper understanding about how a multinational company's (henceforth MNC) use of COO in their brand communication, can be described. To realize and accomplish the purpose, two research questions were formulated which this study had the intention to answer. The first research question was meant to describe what channels in the communication process a multinational company can use to communicate their brand. The second research question was meant to describe how a multinational company can use COO in the message component of the communication process. The fundamental purpose of the thesis in question was descriptive. The study was performed by observing a multinational case company. The observation of case company was performed partly with an interview and partly with a content analysis. The interview was held with a representative of the case company. The content analysis of case company was performed by reviewing websites in two different countries. As a result, we found that the case company, which represented a multinational company (MNC), among other channels, used paper catalogues and websites as a channel in the communication process. The study also showed that different COO strategies can be used complementary in the message component in the company´s communication process, with the aim to attain competitive advantage among other companies on the market.