Consumer Responses to City-of-Origin vs. Country-of-Origin Cues: Purchase Probability and Willingness to Pay

Despite its practical relevance, research on city-of-origin (CiOO) cues in a product marketing context has been limited. We address this gap by investigating whether consumers’ purchase probability and willingness to pay (WTP) differ between brands linked to a city vs. country cue and if such differences can be attributed to differences in perceived product-origin typicality (POT). Two experiments with different products (clothing/cosmetics) and origins (Italy-Milan/France-Paris) were conducted in Germany. Results show that if POT is perceived to be higher for the city than for the country, it leads to an increase in purchase probability in favor of the brand with the CiOO cue; however, WTP remained unaffected by the type of origin cue. Our findings indicate that CiOO cues can impact consumer behavior and even outperform country-of-origin (COO) cues under certain conditions. They should, therefore, be considered in research endeavors focusing on the effects of product origin.