Foreign Product Perception and its Evaluation in Albanian Market - An Analysis of Country of Origin Image and Ethnocentrism

The Country-Of-Origin (COO) effect is a reality of international marketing and multifaceted structure of COO makes it important in this field. Albania is a particular instance to examine this topic in order to observe current situation after the communism term. This case study investigates the effects of consumer ethnocentrism and country-of-origin perceptions on product evaluations by consumers in the Albanian market. The main objective is to observe their product preferences, reactions, and willingness toward domestic and foreign products. Furthermore this research is intended to provide an idea regarding the countries whose products are more preferable. We adapted and used CETSCALE (Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies Scale) to measure consumer attitudes. Findings reveal that ethnocentric tendency of Albanian consumers is not very strong and the products of European countries are more preferred than domestic products.