An Analysis of the Differences in Overseas Buyers’ Perception on Korean Consumer Products

Abstract

Background/Objectives: This study is about the difference of perception among overseas buyers who are interested in Korean consumer goods. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether there is a difference in price, quality, differentiation (uniqueness), reliability, and post-consultation intention for buyers to purchase representative consumer products in Korea.

Methods/Statistical analysis: For the research method, we surveyed 420 overseas buyers who participated in the SME Consumer Goods Product Purchasing Meeting held in Seoul in 2019. 660 valid surveys were collected from infant, cosmetic, fashion, food and household buyers in Southeast Asia, China, Japan and other regions (Europe, USA, CIS). With SPSS22.0, we analyzed exploratory factors and reliability of Korean buyers’ characteristics and overseas buyers’ evaluation criteria for Korean companies and products. And, ANOVA was used to examine the difference in buyers’ awareness of consumer goods and product characteristic.

Findings: According to the analysis results, there is a difference in recognition of price and trading intentions for the product group (baby goods, cosmetics, fashion goods, food and household goods, etc.) regardless of the buyer’s region. Therefore, price correlates with buying decisions and it can be seen that price influences trading decisions. However, there is no difference in perception in quality, differentiation and reliability, and we can see that the quality of consumer products in Korea is generally well received and high in reliability. On the other hand, buyers from different regions showed differences in perception in price, quality, and reliability, but there were no perception differences in product differentiation or intention to trade. Therefore, although prices, quality, and reliability are evaluated differently, it can be seen that there is a high willingness to trade in acknowledgment of product differentiation or uniqueness.

Improvements/Applications: In the future, it is hoped that the research will be conducted only for buyers in Southeast Asian countries, and through this, it will be possible to establish marketing strategies by analyzing buyer tendency of each country in Southeast Asian countries. In addition, we hope to analyze more specific marketing points through research linking buyers’ evaluations with the performance of domestic companies.