As marketing has recently gained new horizons in the eyes of ordinary buyers, the country of origin plays an important role. We are inspired by myths that everything Chinese breaks down, American is expensive, German is of high quality, etc. Therefore, the more exotic the inscription on the label, the more we drive ourselves into a dead end. Kind of like "made in Romania" - interesting, and at the same time - how prestigious is that?
The role that the manufacturing country plays in our decision-making is largely explained by the dynamics of globalization and the expansion of our consumer consciousness. We are aware of working conditions and factors of production in China and the UK, we know what wages, costs and tariffs are within the states themselves - and this determines the owner's attitude to production. If Asian tycoons are not afraid to infringe copyright and counterfeit sports brands, what can you expect from the quality of these products? And vice versa - overpaying for a thing, we reassure ourselves with a guarantee of quality.
But today the producing country is somewhat different from the same concept ten years ago. Several factors influence this. First, the redistribution of power in the world market: over the past 20 years alone, Asia's share in total world exports has increased by 30%. And it is unlikely that in such a rapid focus absolutely no attention is paid to competition, improving the quality of goods and services.
Next, there is such a term as the transfer of subsidiaries. Large manufacturers like Apple are headquartered in Silicon Valley or Wall Street, but have assembly factories in China and Taiwan. Because it is more profitable in many aspects - from the cost of labor, ending with tax fees and benefits.
Let's look at an example
The effect that the country of origin has on the purchase is most clearly demonstrated by a specific brand. Let's take the age-old confrontation between the two giants in the production of smartphones - if we already mentioned Apple, NTS remains.
High Tech Computer (HTC) is a young but promising Asian mobile phone company. For HTC, the manufacturing country is not controversial - and that's Taiwan. The corporate headquarters is located in the developing metropolis of Taoyuan. By the way, compared to Apple, the Thai company was founded in 1997, and introduced the first smartphones 4 years ago. And here it turned out that the devices in terms of their functionality are not only not inferior - in some way they even surpass the advertised "iPhones". And here the question of price arises, in which NTS easily surpasses even the Asian industry leader - Samsung.
Please note: HTC's manufacturing country is the generally recognized "tiger" Taiwan, and in this case it is original and prestigious. Owners would be very surprised to read "made in USA" on the back cover. Why, then, in the manufacture of other things, Asian markings make us suspicious? Maybe it's time to reconsider your views on the postulates of marketing and put post-Soviet prejudices aside? After all, the world does not stand still, and it is driven only by perfect competition.
