Prevalence of country of origin associations on the supermarket shelf

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence and types of country associations on product labels and packages across a range of grocery product categories.

An audit of New Zealand and Australian country associations as they appeared on products in 26 categories was conducted in a major New Zealand supermarket outlet.

The results of the content analysis of 788 brands revealed that the majority featured at least one country of origin (COO) association and indicated that they were either “made in” New Zealand or Australia.

Even though the findings are potentially restricted to the New Zealand context, this paper provides evidence of the prevalence of common and distinctive country associations across a diverse range of product categories. This suggests that these associations are still relevant to grocery manufacturers and supermarket retailers as a way of positioning their branded products.

The findings offer supermarket retailer buyers and regulatory agencies insight into the use of COO associations from the perspective of FMCG manufacturers. In addition, the findings provide FMCG manufacturers with an indication of the prevalence of different country associations in the categories that they compete.

In spite of debate about the costs and benefits of COO labelling and place references on grocery product packaging, little is known about how these associations are actually used by FMCG manufacturers. This paper addresses this question by auditing brands on the supermarket shelf.