Role and Impact of Product-Country Image on Rice Marketing: A Developing Country Perspective

This paper investigates the role and impact of product-country image on rice marketing in Ghana-a developing country. A survey of 300 consumers is conducted to analyse consumer preferences for foreign versus domestic brands of rice. In addition, consumer attitudes towards other key marketing factors such as quality, value for money, retailer/distributor reputation, packaging design and sizes, product availability, brand popularity and advertising image are investigated. Analysis of variance, correlations and multiple regression results indicate product-country image influences consumer purchase preference and impacts on rice marketing in Ghana. Consumers prefer foreign sources of rice to domestic brands; and this finding cut across gender, age group, level of education, marital status, family size, religious affiliation, ethnic group and income level.