Business Strategy Series

Young Malaysians' chocolate brand familiarity: the effect of brand's country of origin and consumer consumption level
Teo Poh Chuin, Osman Mohamad,
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Teo Poh Chuin, Osman Mohamad, (2012) "Young Malaysians' chocolate brand familiarity: the effect of brand's country of origin and
consumer consumption level", Business Strategy Series, Vol. 13 Issue: 1, pp.13-20, doi: 10.1108/17515631211194580
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 Young Malaysians’ chocolate brand
familiarity: the effect of brand’s country of
origin and consumer consumption level
Teo Poh Chuin and Osman Mohamad
Teo Poh Chuin is based at
the School of Management,
and Osman Mohamad is
based at the Graduate
School of Business, both at
Downloaded by Open University Malaysia At 19:31 30 May 2017 (PT)
the Universiti Sains
Malaysia, Penang,
Malaysia.
DOI 10.1108/17515631211194580
Introduction
Consumers’ increased sophistication, education about imported premium chocolate brands
and the perceived quality of premium chocolate increases the willingness of affluent
consumers to spend on premium chocolate, which resulted in higher sales of premium
chocolate in 2008, either for consumers’ own consumption or gifting purposes (Euromonitor
International, 2008). The major driving forces for this were an increase in brand choice and
product variety, encouraging chocolate confectionery growth by 4 percent to reach RM 361
million in 2008 in current value terms; this growth is expected to achieve 3 percent in
constant value terms over the next several years in Malaysia (Euromonitor International,
2008). However, multinationals continue to dominate the chocolate confectionery segment in
Malaysia, due to intensive marketing efforts, constantly launching new products and
familiarity among consumers. For instance, Cadbury, a chocolate company from the UK, led
chocolate confectionery with a 24 percent value share in 2007 (Euromonitor International,
2008). Thus, it is crucial to understand the role of a brand’s country of origin in chocolate
confectionery.
The prevalence of globalization, the growth of international trade and the wide use of the
internet have attracted the attention of both market and consumer scholars to conduct
studies based on the concept of country of origin (COO). There are several studies
investigating the effects of COO (Peterson and Jolibert, 1995; Al-Sulaiti and Baker, 1998;
Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). However, the focus of COO studies is mainly based on
Western and industrialized countries. Previous studies have pointed out the lack of
research in non-Western and developing countries, and it is especially crucial to have more
research in South East Asia as its economies have experienced strong growth in terms of
the capacity of both consumption and production (O’Cass and Lim, 2002). Furthermore,
Ahmed et al. (2004) claimed that there have been few studies on the impact of COO on
low-involvement products; thus, it is not clear what role COO plays in shaping consumers’
buying behavior to such goods or whether the effect of COO is the same for
low-involvement products as for high-involvement products. Chocolate confectionery was
selected for this study because of the significant growth of the segment and estimate of
growth by 300 tones in the retail volume from 2006 to 2011 in the Malaysian market
(Euromonitor International, 2008).
To fully understand the effects of COO, previous researchers have encouraged future
studies examining the effect of COO based on segmentation (Sohail, 2005; Kwok et al.,
2006), as different customer segments in different countries respond differently (Bhaskaran
and Sukumaran, 2007). Young consumers’ behavior is crucial to understand as they are the
major target of much commercial activity (O’Cass and Lim, 2002); especially young
consumers in Asia (Wong et al., 2008). This study aims to examine the familiarity level of
young Malaysians towards chocolate brands, and how this relates to the country of origin
and requisite consumption level.
VOL. 13 NO. 1 2012, pp. 13-20, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1751-5637 j BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES j PAGE 13
 Literature review
Country of origin is defined as ‘‘the overall perception consumers form of products from a
particular country, based on their prior perceptions of the country’s production and
marketing strengths and weaknesses’’ (Roth and Romeo, 1992). The assessment of COO
effects on product evaluations becomes complicated due to the global nature of business,
the presence of multinational corporations and the intertwined nature of commercial
transactions (Ahmed and d’Atous, 2008). Most marketing studies focus on how consumers
use and assess such country information cues to infer product quality (Sohail, 2005;
Chryssochoidis et al., 2007; Karunaratna and Quester, 2007; Ahmed and d’Atous, 2008).

It has been accepted by the marketing and consumer behavior research community that
COO is considered mainstream research in the field (Usunier, 2006). Consumers tend to
develop product images through familiarity with particular countries. Ahmed and d’Atous
(2008) concluded in their empirical study that familiarity has a significant influence on the
evaluation of COO. In the absence of information about tangible traits of products,
consumers tend to rely on extrinsic cues as indirect indicators of quality and risk (Han, 1988;
Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1993).
Furthermore, the effects of country-of-origin on consumer behavior tend to vary from country
to country due to differences in economic, socio-cultural, political-legal, historical events,
relationships, traditions, industrialization, the degree of technological advancement,
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representative products and geographical closeness (Bannister and Saunders, 1978;

Cattin et al., 1982; Wang and Lamb, 1983; Ahmed and d’Atous, 2008; Nayir and
Durmusoglu, 2008). According to Balabanis et al. (2002), a greater level of direct contact
with a country or its product leads to more objective consumer product perceptions. Within a
specific country, they also tend to vary by time, because of changes in marketing
sophistication, degree of industrialization, and lifestyle patterns (Papadopoulos and Heslop,
1993).

A favorable (or unfavorable) country image may facilitate (or inhibit) the quick introduction,
recognition, and acceptance of products in overseas markets (Agarwal and Sikri, 1996).
Consumers tend to hold favorable bias towards products from developed countries, but they
hold unfavorable bias to products from developing countries (Kaynak et al., 2000; Ahmed
and d’Atous, 2007, 2008; Nayir and Durmusoglu, 2008; Wong et al., 2008). The nature of the
product seems to play an important moderating role in shaping consumer evaluations,
based on COO information: the greater the degree of involvement in the buying-decision
process for a specific product, the more likely it is for the consumer to use COO information
in his/her evaluation (Johansson, 1993). Nagashima (1970, 1977) suggests that different
countries have acquired distinctive images in consumers’ minds in specific product
categories. Japanese respondents perceive Germany to be particularly good in the
manufacture of luxury automobiles (Nagashima, 1970). Roth and Romeo (1992) found
greater consumer willingness to buy products made in countries with a good reputation in
those product categories than to buy the same products from countries that are not well
known in those product categories.

The characteristics of the consumers’ socio-demographics, such as gender, age, income

and education level, also have an antecedent’s role and moderating impact on COO
(Samiee, 1994; Leonidou et al., 1999; Balabanis et al., 2002; Ahmed and d’Atous, 2007). For
example, females generally show a positive attitude towards imported products (Schooler,
1971). However, other studies found no relationship between COO impact and the subjects’
socio-demographic backgrounds (Hashim and Razak, 2004). Finally, the psychographic
characteristics of consumers were found to influence COO evaluations. For instance, people
who are dogmatic and conservative tend to have a less favorable attitude toward foreign
products (Anderson and Cunningham, 1972). World-minded consumers tend to show lower
prejudice towards foreign products (Rawwas et al., 1996). This study aims to determine
young consumers’ chocolate brand familiarity, and the influences of brand’s country of origin
on consumer consumption level.

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PAGE 14 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES VOL. 13 NO. 1 2012
 Methodology
The data collection method of this study was a survey instrument, as surveys provide
standardization, are easy to administer and easy to analyze. This approach was chosen
because it provides instant feedback for the respondents, adaptability, rapport and quality
control (Burns and Bush, 2006). The sampling method utilized is convenience sampling.
This sampling method is the most popular sampling method in this field of study (Roth and
Diamantopoulos, 2008). The population sample for this study consisted of students aged 17
to 28 years old in Universiti Sains Malaysia, as previous studies categorized young
consumers with respondents in this age group (e.g. O’Cass and Lim, 2002; Goi, 2009). This
study targeted 100 respondents, thus a total of 100 questionnaires were distributed to the
students. All of the questionnaires were completed and usable, because the researcher
provided prompt feedback to the subject and screened the questionnaires after
respondents finished answering and before the questionnaires were collected.
The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part was designed to collect the
demographic and usage level data about the subjects. The questions included age, gender,
marital status, occupation and their chocolate consumption level. There was one question
designed to measure respondents’ chocolate consumption level, where they were asked to
indicate the frequency at which they consumed chocolate. Five-point Likert scales were
chosen as measurement scales to collect data in this part, where 1 ¼ never to 5 ¼ most of
the time, as Likert scales are more reliable and appropriate for studies of this nature (Kaynak
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et al., 2000). The next part was designed to measure consumers’ chocolate brand familiarity.
A preliminary study was conducted to identify chocolate brands in the market. A few
hypermarket and traditional stores were visited and information was collected about
chocolate brands that are available in the market. Thereafter, 20 chocolate brands, which
included local and foreign chocolate brands, were selected from the chocolate brand list. A
five-point Likert scale was used to measure the subject’s familiarity level towards the
selected chocolate brands. Numerical values were assigned from 1 (not familiar at all) to
5 (very familiar).

Analysis and findings

This study included 100 respondents. All of them were students of a public university in the
northern state of Malaysia. Ten (10 percent) respondents were aged 20 years old and below.
and the remaining 90 percent of the subjects were between 21 and 30 years old. Of the total
100 respondents, 37 percent were male and 63 percent were female. The respondents’ level
of use indicated heavy (46 percent), medium (27 percent) and light (27 percent) chocolate
users, respectively.
Consumers’ brand familiarity level is related to the brand’s origin country as shown in Table I.
Respondents were found to be more familiar with some chocolate brands from particular
developed countries, such as Kit Kat, Smarties and Toblerone from Switzerland, Ferrero
Rocher from Italy, M&M’s and Hershey’s from the USa, and Cadbury from UK, where the
mean value are 4.53, 3.93, 3.16, 4.50, 4.35, 3.16 and 4.08, respectively. However, the results
show that the respondents are less familiar with chocolate brands from Holland, Germany,
Japan and New Zealand.
For domestic chocolate brands, respondents indicated a higher level of familiarity towards
Crispy and Beryl’s, moderate familiarity level towards Tango, and they are less familiar with
Extreme and Stella, where the mean values are 3.97, 3.33, 2.88, 2.13 and 2.06, respectively.
Next, an independent t-test was run to determine the differences of brand familiarity level
between males and females towards different chocolate brands. The results are shown in
Table II. However, the findings demonstrate that there are significant differences between
males and females on their familiarity towards Cadbury and Toblerone. Furthermore, the
results show that their brand familiarity levels towards chocolate brands are almost the
same, where both male and female show highest familiarity level towards Kit Kat and the
mean value is 4.54 and 4.52, respectively. This is followed by M&M’s, Ferrero Rocher,
Smarties, Cadbury and Crispy.

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VOL. 13 NO. 1 2012 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES PAGE 15
 Table I Brand familiarity and brand’s country of origin
Brand’s country of origin Chocolate brand Mean value SD

Switzerland Kit Kat 4.53 0.81

Smarties 3.93 1.19
Toblerone 3.16 1.54
Lindt 2.22 1.41
Italy Ferrero Rocher 4.50 0.95
USA M&M’s 4.35 0.97
Hershey’s 3.16 1.59
UK Cadbury 4.08 1.30
Malaysia Crispy 3.97 1.36
Beryl’s 3.33 1.53
Tango 2.88 1.45
Extreme 2.13 1.20
Stella 2.06 1.11
Kandos 1.97 1.16
Holland Van Houten 2.81 1.59
Germany Merci 2.29 1.29
Japan Meiji 2.51 1.48
Dars 2.10 1.22
New Zealand Marxies 1.93 1.22

Note: All items used a five-point scale with 1 ¼ not familiar at all; 2 ¼ least familiar; 3 ¼ moderate;
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4 ¼ familiar; 5 ¼ very familiar

Table II Mean rating of chocolate brand familiarity and comparison based on gender
Mean value
Brand Male Female t-value Significance (two-tailed)

Kit Kat 4.54 4.52 0.099 0.921

M&M’s 4.38 4.33 0.224 0.824
Ferrero Rocher 4.27 4.63 21.837 0.069
Smarties 3.76 4.03 21.116 0.267
Cadbury 3.68 4.32 22.442 0.016*
Crispy 3.51 3.95 21.572 0.119
Beryl’s 3.08 3.48 21.249 0.215
Toblerone 2.76 3.40 22.035 0.045*
Hershey’s 2.81 3.37 21.695 0.093
Van Houten 2.62 2.92 20.909 0.366
Tango 2.59 3.05 21.517 0.133
Meiji 2.54 2.49 0.157 0.875
Merci 2.30 2.29 0.043 0.966
Lindt 2.27 2.19 0.272 0.786
Extreme 2.08 2.16 20.312 0.755
Dars 2.05 2.13 20.288 0.774
Marxies 1.89 1.95 20.239 0.812
Kandos 1.86 2.03 20.694 0.490
Bourbon 1.86 1.94 20.310 0.757
Stella 1.78 2.22 21.936 0.056

Note: All items used a five-point scale with 1 ¼ not familiar at all; 2 ¼ least familiar; 3 ¼ moderate;
4 ¼ familiar; 5 ¼ very familiar

Furthermore, a one-way ANOVA test was used to clarify the differences between consumer
chocolate brand familiarity levels with their chocolate consumption level. The results are
presented in Table III. There was significant difference for Dars, Cadbury, Lindt, Van Houten,
Tango, Kandos, M&M’s, Beryl’s and Hershey’s. The F-value for Dars is 3.48 and based on
Duncan’s range test; there are significant differences between group 1 (1.67) and group 3
(2.41). The F-value for Cadbury is 4.88 and there are significant differences between group 1
(3.44) and group 2 (4.22) and group 3 (4.37). The F-value for Lindt is 4.46 and there are
significant differences between group 1 (1.67) and group 3 (2.63). The F-value for Van

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PAGE 16 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES VOL. 13 NO. 1 2012
 Table III Chocolate brand familiarity and consumption level
Mean value
Group 1: light user Group 2: medium user Group 3: heavy user
Factors (n ¼ 27) (n ¼ 27) (n ¼ 46) F-value Duncan’s range test

Kit Kat 4.44 4.50 4.67 0.56

Ferrero Rocher 4.33 4.41 4.65 1.14
M&M’s 3.81 4.33 4.67 7.60* Groups 1 and 2 versus group 3
Smarties 3.74 3.89 4.19 0.98
Crispy 3.67 3.74 3.89 0.25
Cadbury 3.44 4.22 4.37 4.88* Group 1 versus group 3
Beryl’s 2.78 3.04 3.83 5.05* Groups 1 and 2 versus group 3
Toblebrone 2.78 2.85 3.57 3.08
Hershey’s 2.56 2.74 3.76 6.88* Groups 1 and 2 versus group 3
Tango 2.26 2.59 3.41 6.82* Groups 1 and 2 versus group 3
Meiji 2.26 2.26 2.80 1.71
Van Houten 2.19 2.59 3.30 4.49* Group 1 versus group 3
Extreme 1.96 2.04 2.28 0.72
Merci 1.93 2.22 2.54 1.05
Stella 1.85 2.00 2.22 0.98
Marxies 1.74 1.78 2.13 1.17
Lindt 1.67 2.07 2.63 4.46* Group 1 versus group 3
Dars 1.67 2.00 2.41 3.48* Group 1 versus group 3
Bourbon 1.56 1.89 2.13 2.35
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Kandos 1.48 1.81 2.35 5.56* Group 1 versus group 3

Notes: Mean scores based on a five-point scale ranging from 1 ¼ not familiar at all to 5 ¼ very familiar; F-ratios are the result of a one-way
ANOVA test, where * represents statistical significance at 0.05

Houten is 4.94 and there are significant differences between group 1 (2.19) and group 3
(3.30). The F-value for Tango is 6.81 and there are significant differences between group 1
(2.26) and group 2 (2.59) and group 3 (3.41). The F-value for Kandos is 5.56 and a significant
difference exists between group 1 (1.48) and group 3 (2.35).
The F-value for M&M’s is 7.60 and there are significant differences between group 1 (3.81)
and group 2 (4.33) and group 3 (4.67). The F-value for Beryl’s is 5.05, and significant
differences exist between group 1 (2.8) and group 2 (3.04) and group 3 (3.83). Lastly, the
F-value for Hershey’s is 6.88 and there are significant differences between group 1 (2.56)
and group 2 (2.74) and group 3 (3.76). However, the results shown found that there were no
significant differences between groups for Merci, Smarties, Kit Kat, Stella, Bourbon,
Toblerone, Marxies, Meiji, Crispy, Ferrero Rocher and Extreme based on the results of
Duncan’s range test.
Respondents’ familiarity level towards chocolate brands increases with their consumption
level, where light users show lower familiarity but heavy users show higher familiarity. For
example, the familiarity level for light, medium and heavy users towards Kit Kat is 4.44, 4.50
and 4.67, respectively. Furthermore, light users have low familiarity towards Kandos (1.48),
but the familiarity level for medium users is 1.81 and for heavy users it is 2.35.

Discussion and implications

This study aims to determine young consumers’ familiarity of chocolate brands and how their
familiarity relates to the brand’s country of origin and their consumption level. Generally, the
consumer’s brand familiarity of chocolate is related to brand’s country of origin. Malaysian
young consumers generally pose higher familiarity level towards chocolate brand from
Western and developed countries, such as Smarties and Kit Kat from Switzerland, M&M’s,
Hershey’s and Toblerone from the USA, Cadbury from the UK, Ferrero Rocher from Italy and
Van Houten from Holland.
However, they show a relatively low level of familiarity towards chocolate brands from
non-Western and/or developing countries. For instance, they are less familiar with Extreme,

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VOL. 13 NO. 1 2012 BUSINESS STRATEGY SERIES PAGE 17
 Stella and Kandos from Malaysia, and Dars, Meiji and Bourbon from Japan. This finding is
supported by previous studies, which found that consumers show higher preferences for
products from Western and developed countries.
Consumers’ brand familiarity of chocolate is also influenced by product-COO match, such
as M&M’s and Hershey’s from the USA, Ferrero Rocher from Italy, and Cadbury from the UK.
However, they are less familiar with Merci from Germany and Bourbon, Meiji and Dars from
Japan. This finding is related to country image: Germany is well known for automobiles, while
Japan is famous for producing electronic products and automobiles. Thus young
Malaysians are less familiar with chocolate brands from these countries.
However, some other brands from Western and developed countries are less familiar to the
respondents, such as Marxies from New Zealand, Merci from Germany and Lindt from
Switzerland. For domestic chocolate brands, respondents tend to show higher familiarity
levels towards Crispy, Beryl’s and Tango, but are less familiar with Estreme, Stella and
Kandos. Thus, it can be inferred that consumers’ chocolate brand familiarity is related to the
brand’s marketing strategy and activities, where some chocolate brands are frequently
advertised on mass media, but other brands are not, and to the use of brand name – Beryl’s,
for example, is a foreign-sounding Malaysian brand. Samiee et al. (2004) claimed that ‘‘it is
presumably attributable to the marketer’s proactive and successful branding and
positioning strategies that include association with a desirable source country’’.
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Furthermore, the results show that the consumer’s gender and chocolate consumption levels
relate to their chocolate brand familiarity. Females tend to show significantly higher levels of
familiarity towards Cadbury and Tolebrone, as compared with males. This may result from
the companies’ marketing communication. In addition, consumer chocolate consumption
level is positively related to their chocolate brand familiarity, whereby the more they consume
the chocolate brand, the more familiar they are with the chocolate brand.
This study is useful to local and foreign marketers from this industry who are exploring or
intending to enter the Malaysian market. New chocolate brands from countries that have
favorable images in chocolate products can promote the brand by the country name and
image. However, chocolate brands from a country with a less favorable image need to
increase the attribute information of their brand. Marketers need to be cautious in designing
marketing strategies when targeting different segmentation, as different genders and
consumers with different consumption levels demonstrated significant differences in their
brand familiarity.

Limitations and future recommendations

One limitation of this study comes from its focus. The focus of this study is relatively narrow in
measuring consumers’ chocolate brand familiarity levels, but it is crucial to understand the
effect of a brand’s country of origin on certain chocolate brands that are available in the
market. The sample size is also low, and hence it is difficult to deduce global implications.
Future studies are encouraged to extend this research by investigating the effects of COO
on consumers’ actual purchase decisions, and investigating other low-involvement
products, such as packaged food and healthcare products, in addition to a larger sample
size.

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About the authors

Teo Poh Chuin is a Master’s student, by research mode, and currently attached as a Fellow
with the Institute of Postgraduate Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Teo Poh Chuin is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: pohchuin@gmail.com
Osman Mohamad is Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, Universiti
Sains Malaysia.

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