Product Category, Product Features and Consumer Ethnocentrism

The aim of the paper is to identify consumers’ ethnocentrism symptoms based on declared importance of product’s country of origin as a buying factor of food market and perception of selected product’s features in relation to its country of origin. Paper was prepared on a basis of the primary materials from a face to face questionnaire survey, in total 423 interviews were qualified to the analysis. The respondents were the individuals responsible for supplying households with food products. The interviews were carried out in selected locations in north-western Poland. The country of origin may be an important buying factor of food products for Polish consumers. The importance of this factor is linked to the product category. Consumers pay more attention to the product’s country of origin in terms of fresh and low-processed food products, while this factor is less important toward highly processed food products. There are differences related to the country of origin in terms of food products’ image. Local products are perceived as e.g. more healthy, traditional, tasty. These characteristics are related to the product itself and may result from the production process or the ingredients used. The advantages of foreign products are associated to the marketing activity of enterprises, e.g. factors “easy to recognize”, “innovative and attractive packaging”.