1、 外文翻译 原文 The Finnish country-of-origin effect: The quest to create a distinctive identity in a crowded and competitive international marketplac Material Source: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD Author: JASON RYAN This paper discusses the efforts made by Finnish producers to emphasise the country of origin of
2、their products in order to convey an image of innovation, quality and prestige. Finlands efforts in this area are relatively recent, dating mainly from the early 1990s. Traditionally, a producer of resource intensive commoditiesespecially wood and wood productsFinland found itself facing growing com
3、petition from producers in other countries, especially emerging nations that enjoyed substantial cost advantages over Finnish producers. In response, Finland drew upon its tradition of excellence in design as well as its long-standing policy of investing heavily in education and research. It began t
4、o produce more value added products and complemented this change in strategy by a conscious effort to make made in Finland synonymous with superior design, quality and innovation .To successfully differentiate their wares, Finnish producers not only made intrinsic improvements to their manufactured
5、goods but also made their Finnish provenance an important and attractive extrinsic feature. Finnish companies have been especially successful at creating brands that have a strong Finnish avour, conveying an image of Nordic life that is progressive, responsible and technologically advanced. In this
6、context, branding is much more than placing a name or a logo on a product. What is important is not only how the customer views the physical product but also the broader notion of how the product was conceived and produced and the values and traditions that it is perceived to embody. This paper cite
7、s a number of examples of how Finnish producers and marketers use the country-of-origin effect to differentiate and market their products. The paper, however, is mainly conceptual rather than empirical. It examines a marketing effort-supported and encouraged by the state but carried out by individua
8、l firms-but does not seek to provide a systematic overview of the extent or impact of such efforts. These are issues for future research. INTRODUCTION The country-of-origin effect predates by many decades, if not centuries, its emergence as a tool in international marketing. Germany, for instance, f
9、irst became an industrial powerhouse famed for the production of both manufactured and mechanical goods at the end of the 19th century. Without question, the reputations of these countries and their bestknown firms were used as a marketing ploy. Nonetheless, while marketing impulses were evidently p
10、resent, such motivations were relatively straightforward and innocent. The public-or the part of the public expected to consume the product-had already made the association between the assumed national qualities and the characteristics of the products in question. History, not marketing, was mainly
11、responsible for such associations. Today, countries and companies can ill afford to wait for history to confer recognition on them for their virtues and vices.They must be actively engaged in forging and disseminating a positive country image. Smaller countries such as Finland-that only relatively r
12、ecently joined the EU and the global economy-face the difficult challenge of making their products accepted and coveted abroad. To achieve that end, they must identify their desirable national traits and then seek to associate them with the products that they are endeavouring to sell abroad. To the
13、extent that they are able to do so, they differentiate their products from those of other countries and bolster their reputation and sales. The Swedish firm Volvo was a pioneer in figuring out how to profit from the country-of-origin effect. Whether the transfer of qualities was from the products fo
14、r sale to the domestic population or the other way around, it was boldly claimed in Volvo advertisements that Swedes were practical and demanding people who insisted upon rugged, durable and safe cars . More recently, ecology has figured prominently in the Volvo sales pitch. This (aspect), too, is a
15、ssociated with the insistence of the Swedish population on preserving a pristine environment. The fact emergence as a tool in international marketing. Germany, for instance, first became an industrial powerhouse famed for the that Volvo is now owned by Ford and Saab by General Motors is not readily
16、apparent in current advertisements that still hark back to the origins of the Swedish automobile industry: Saab being founded by aeronautical engineers and Volvo by hard nosed types that insisted their cars stand up to decades of harsh winters. Past research demonstrates that consumers tend to regar
17、d products that are made in a given country with consistently positive or negative perceptions. The country-of-origin effect is one of several extrinsic attributes that potentially influence consumer attitudes towards a product. These country-of-origin biases influence the perceptions of both end-us
18、ers and industrial buyers. Papadopoulos and Helsop suggest that an important cognitive component of the perception of a product is the potential buyers pre-existent assessment of a countrys industrial development and technological advancement. Prior studies also demonstrate that products from underd
19、eveloped countries are perceived as being riskier and of poorer quality than products made in more developed countries. In the case of Finland, the perception of the country as a technologically advanced society has had a positive effect on the perception of its products. Past research examining the
20、 role of product origin in consumer evaluations suggests that country image is a halo that people use to infer the quality of unfamiliar foreign products. The reasoning is that when consumers have little knowledge about a foreign product s attributes they are likely to use indirect evidence,such as
21、country of origin, to evaluate products and brands and make inferences regarding their likely quality. Han suggests that a country image may serve as a halo from which consumers infer one or many attributes about an unfamiliar product. Further support and qualification for this position are provided
22、 by Johansson et al,who suggest that country image only affects the evaluation of product attributes, but not the overall evaluation of product itself. THE CASE OF FINLAND Finland- the focus of this paper-require a major act of self-discovery to identify its country-of-origin effects. While Finland
23、had always been a nation that traded extensively with Scandinavia and northern Europe, its emergence as a country bent on engaging in commerce with the rest of the world can be dated, more or less, from the 1990s and the collapse of its exports to the Soviet Union. Initially, Finlands prospects seem
24、s gloomy. The country was hit by the most severe economic downturn in any OECD country since the World War II. GDP fell by 10 percent in just three years and unemployment rose from 3 to 17 per cent. The recovery was, however, relatively rapid thanks to industrial restructurings and the growth of new
25、 industries such as telecom munications. Finland also committed itself to renewal and change in more traditional industries, such as wood pulp, paper and engineering. Finland faced a special political problem in adjusting its economy that other counries did not. While a Nordic and western oriented c
26、ountry, Finland bordered the Soviet Union and had consciously adopted its policy to retain peaceful and harmonious relations with its giant neighbour: a heritage deriving from the countrys pligh and suffering during World War II. The end of the Cold War and the ensuing expansion of global trade made
27、 it essential for Finland to re-think its economic position and plan a strategy for the future that would make the most of its competitive advantages. Finland, in brief, was comparatively late in globalising its economy. In fact, in 1993 the country ranked last in terms of internationalisation among
28、 developed countries surveyed in the World Economic Forum World Competitiveness Report .Yet, in a little over a decade, Finland pulled off a transformation, establishing itself as a model of international business effectiveness. It diversified its export mix in both composition and destination and b
29、ecame a major player in the production and export of high-technology products. In 2007, Finland was ranked sixth in the World Economic Forum World Competitiveness Report. The current array of Finnish exports reflects this dramatic transformation. Less than 30 years ago, the wood and paper industry a
30、ccounted for well over half of exports. Today, the paper industry is one of three major export sectors, the other two being electronics and metal and engineering. Electronics has certainly been the most spectacular success story in Finnish exports. Its remarkable growth in the 1990s was mainly based
31、 on mobile phones and other telecommunication equipment. In addition, smaller-scale development has taken place in other fields as well, including those discussed below. In the 1980s and 1990s, a world trade revolution that had been building for decades became a powerful reality. Up to that point, t
32、he major constraint on Finnish and most European producers was supply, not demand. The 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were devoted to recovering from World War II. Countries worked to repair, upgrade and expand damaged infrastruc ture while consumers sought to compen sate for decades of relative deprivation
33、 With the emergence of Japan and subsequently of Korea, China, India and many other developing countries the supply and demand equation was dramatically reversed. Suddenly, creating or identifying demand became the major challenge, not meeting it. This posed particularly serious challenges to a coun
34、try such as Finland that had specialised in supplying resource intensive commodities rather than marketing value-added goods. After Finland adopted the euro, it became increasingly difficult for it to compete as a low cost producer in the world market. It became evident that if Finland were to conti
35、nue to ? ourish it would have to move upmarket by selling ? nished products with a higher national value added rather than focusing, as in the past, on resource intensive commodities. In the wood industry, for example, this implied producing engineered hardwood flooring and other more finished produ
36、cts rather than selling raw lumber. In fact, the Finns have become experts in differentiating dull products through a clever use of innovation research and design. Many of these now successful efforts at innovation began during the relatively hard timesof the early 1990s. By the end of that decade,
37、the structural changes prompted by necessity and embraced by policy makers were already having a positive impact and Finlands macroeconomic performance was among the strongest in Europe. Globalisation has compelled high-cost countries and their national firms to think afresh about their comparative
38、advantages and corresponding disadvantages. Basic questions have had to be asked and thoughtfully answered. What is it that makes Finnish products distinctive? How can the advantages that such distinctiveness conveys be enhanced and exploited? Such efforts by Finland and other countries were not aim
39、ed at deceiving others, so much as at discovering themselves. Finland, for example, was renowned for its tradition of design. Architects and designers such as Alvar Aalto (1898 -C1976), ElielSaarinen (1873-1950) and Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) had given Finland a worldwide reputation for excellence an
40、d innovation in design. Product designers, such as Aino Aalto (1894 -1949), also enjoyed international reputations. Hence, as Finland considered how to present itself to the world market, it had important and highly relevant assets upon which it could draw. Design-in the broad sense not only of appe
41、arance but also of functionalityhad already become a critical factor in distinguishing one product from another. Finland also had other assets, many of them quite tangible. According to the OECD, Sweden, Finland and Japan were the only countries in the world in 2005 that spent more than 3 per cent o
42、f GDP on R & D. It is also the most ICT specialised economy on earth.It has not, thus, been resting on its laurels, but building on its capacities, reputation and experience. In recent years, Finnish production has shifted from low cost manufacturing to an emphasis on design, innovation and technolo
43、gy. The Government is not a passive partner in this transformation. It does not dictate the action of companies, but it offers support in many forms and arranges incentives to push companies to become more original and innovative. BRANDING IN A BROADER SENSE Branding is often thought to consist of p
44、utting a name or a logo on a product and then promoting it. Needless to say, this is an overly simplistic view. Branding can best be described as a multidimensional construct that includes not only product recognition but also product perception: the wider image, experience and broader associations
45、that accompany products. The country-of-origin effect is part of this broader image: what does the consumer perceive about the manner in which the product was conceptualised and manufactured and the social and cultural traits and values that adhere to the product? Finnish marketers have sought to as
46、sociate themselves with the broader and more widely known notion of a Nordic lifestyle: a way of living that is highly modern, egalitarian, progressive and highly responsible. Nordic nations are not only committed to the full development of all their own citizens but also to international developmen
47、t, especially for the most disadvantaged peoples on earth. This is an image that seeks-and succeeds-in conferring both prestige and trust on Nordic products. The products in question may not be cost-leaders, but they are being built with integrity, style and the best interest of the user in mind. Th
48、e Nordic lifestyle-especially the Finnish version thereof-is also presented as a physically active way of life. Winter sports, not surprisingly, are emphasised, but Finns are also passionate sailing and motor sport enthusiasts. Education, especially reading, also figures prominently in the Nordic li
49、festyle. Finland is always among the leading countries-quite often first in the OECDs comparative measures of scholastic achievement. Finland also publishes more titles per capita than any nation in the world, in part because books are published both in Finnish, the language of the majority, and Swedish, the language of a sizeable minority. The challenge for Finnish producers and marketers is to get these desirable country-of-origin associations to stick to their products. The examples cited below show how this is being successful for
