COUNTRY IMAGE: NATIONAL PRIDE OR PREJUDICE?

This investigation is aimed at understanding the relationship between the Country Image (CI) and its influence on leveraging the domestic products/ brands in the global market, considering the moderator effects of familiarity and ethnocentrism. A conceptual model was developed establishing that there is a direct relationship between the CI and the domestic products/ brands. A study was carried out on a sample of 177 students, from U.S.A. and Portugal, in order to identify country-product associations and purchase intentions. Findings indicated that consumers' familiarity with a particular country influences the recognition and the associations that consumers establish with the products and brands of that country, and that it is essential to provide a more differentiated view of national country image, so it could be recognized as product/brand image driver.