Case 4: Where was your food grown?
1- Do you believe that it is a positive or negative for multinational companies that many customers might perceive their products to be foreign in certain markets?

Ethnocentric consumers believe that buying foreign products hurts the domestic economy and national employment.
Consumer ethnocentrism implies the normative belief that purchasing domestic products is more beneficial than purchasing foreign goods so it is believed to have a negative effect on customers’ repurchase intent to foreign products, although that may vary within cultures and between different country-of-origin products.
Particularly, consumers who hold strong ethnocentric beliefs are more likely to evaluate foreign products negatively than are those who do not hold such beliefs. Those who believe that it is wrong to buy foreign goods also tend to perceive those goods as lower in quality than domestic goods; ethnocentric consumers prefer domestic goods not only because of economic or moral beliefs, but also because they believe that their own country produces the best products.
Researchers believed that consumers with ethnocentric tendencies have a tendency to evaluate domestic products favorably, often unreasonably so, compared to imported products.

2- Over 60% of the population of Malaysia are Muslin consumers. Most domestic food products have the JAKIM logo printed on the packaging, which certifies that it is safe to be consumed by Muslims. This may be a key reason for the preference for domestic certified food products in Malaysia, but why might it not be the full explanation?
There are many factors that might contribute to higher level of ethnocentrism in a given country. Literature suggested that consumers’ ethnocentric tendencies depend on the degree of the development of a country.
Researches in consumer ethnocentrism field has shown that women, older, less educated people (who are more conservative and patriotic), lower income and more religious tend to be more ethnocentric in terms of their consumer behavior. Since culture is Malaysia differs greatly from that of western countries, cultural similarity is a critical consideration for high ethnocentric Malaysian consumers in their evaluation on foreign products. They tended to show positive attitude towards and willingness to purchase products from cultural similar countries, as compared to the dissimilar one.
The significant population growth and increasing purchasing power of consumers in such developing countries offer market opportunities to foreign companies whose domestic markets have already reach maturity. The marketers need to understand consumers' ethnocentric tendencies in order to develop effective marketing strategies within and outside national boundaries.