Consumer perception of foreign brands: usage and refusal of foreign brands

Abstract

This report is part of my internship program which I have done as a requirement of BBA program. I have successfully completed my internship program from Mercantile Bank Limited under Accounts, Cash, Clearing and Foreign exchange department. It was twelve weeks long internship program which I started from 12th January and finished in 10th April, 2014. This is a report regarding consumer’s perception of foreign brands, how do consumers build their perceptions, how it is affected and the impact of their perception in their purchasing behavior. The objective of this study is to analyze the consumer’s perception regarding foreign brands that they like and use. To prepare this report both primary and secondary sources of data have been used. A questionnaire has been made and interviewed 10 general customers. The introductory part is actually developed for the proper implementation of the entire report. The remaining part of the paper actually consist the findings and analysis, managerial contribution and conclusion. There are foreign and local brands available in Bangladesh. People hold different perceptions regarding both foreign and local brands. Based on their perception about brands they accept both the brands. At present, some brands of Bangladesh (Walton Motorcycles, Beximco Pharma, Shinepukur Ceramics and Biman Bangladesh) have gained the ‘most promising brands’ name among the two hundred brands at the first ever Asian brand and Leadership Summit held in Dubai in August last year. This seems that Bangladeshi brands are becoming well known in the Asian market, has a good future prospect and perception of consumers will more or less be affected by this news. Regarding the knowledge of the customers or their perception about foreign and local branded products, there are three categories of consumers whose nature have impact on their purchasing behavior. That is, users or foreign brands, patriotic consumers and disloyal customers. Not only are the categories of customers, there also other factors such as price, quality, country of origin, popularity, self image consistency (actual, desired, extended or empty self) and also different sources to acquire information about brands have impacts in the consumers perception and also their purchasing behavior. The level of impact these factors are having on the customers mind also varies depending on some other factors that are discussed in the paper. To conclude it can be said that all these factors are interrelated and are interacting with each other to help the customers to choose the between the brands.