MAKALAH UNTUK SEBUMI INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR Topik : Politik, Sosial, Ekonomi dan Pertahanan Sub Topik : Kewirausahaan dan Daya Saing Global Nama : Guido Benny, S.Sos, ME Institusi : Departemen Ilmu Administrasi, Universitas Indonesia Kontak : Phone No: 085692369807; 02193061891. Email : guido.benny09@ui.edu Address :Jl.Margonda Gg.Kober No.57A Pondok Cina, Depok 16424 Indonesia The Attitude of Indonesian Consumers towards Domestic and Foreign Products: A Comparative Study to a Malaysian Study ABSTRACT The implementation of economic integration under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is decided to be accelerated to 2015. Many observers argue that Indonesian brands were not ready to compete with others’ ASEAN business. However, the battle of brands goes in the mind of consumers (Ries and Ries, 2002; Kotler, 2006). Then, a study was conducted to examine how Indonesian consumers perceived the competitiveness of domestic shoes products, a leading Indonesian export products, against the similar products originating in some ASEAN and other developed and newly industrialized countries. Inspired by the study conducted by Mohamad et al (2000) in Malaysia, the study employed 6 dimensions of Country Image for shoes products (that is: innovativeness, design, prestige, workmanship and comfort). Beside used in revealing consumers’ perception in the “made in” labels, the measure also used in revealing the consumers’ perception of brands. Data were collected, in October 2007, using survey questionnaires to 288 respondents in 9 areas in greater Jakarta. To increase the validity of the study, the respondents were carefully selected with judgemental quota sampling, using gender, area and cohort variables. The research revealed some interesting results. Firstly, the shoes with Indonesia brands were perceived lower in quality than those from Europe, USA, Japan and Singapore. However, they were perceived in the same quality as Hong Kong’s brands; and higher in quality than Chinese and Malaysia’s brands. Secondly, the shoes products made in Indonesia is perceived lower in quality than those made in Europe, USA and Japan; in the same quality as shoes made in Singapore and Hong Kong; and in higher quality than shoes made in China and Malaysia. Thirdly, compared to the similar study in Malaysia, this study revealed the different position of other ASEAN countries in the perspective of domestic consumers. This may occur because of the nationalism of the consumers in each country. Keyword: Country of Origin (COO), Brands, Made In, Globalization, Consumer’s Perceived Quality. 1