Swissness Communication and its Impact on Consumer-Brand Relationships

While the topic of country-of-origin has received widespread attention in literature, the focus has been primarily on product quality and purchase intentions. Less research has been conducted on the effects of country-of-origin in the context of consumer relationships. The present paper addresses this research gap. For this purpose, the concept of ‘Swissness Communication’ and its influence on consumer-brand relationships is investigated. The developed model is empirically tested by surveying 976 German consumers. The findings reveal that the Swissness Communication construct consists of three factors: high performance quality, exclusivity, and sympathy. Furthermore, the results disclose that Swissness Communication has the potential to build strong consumer-brand relationships.