PECULIARITIES OF THE CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF UKRAINIAN AND FOREIGN BRANDS

Abstract

Ensuring sustainable competitive advantages is the main goal of the company in a chaotic and unpredictable change in the business environment. Sustainable and long-term competitive advantages are formed mainly on the basis of the new combinations or new ways of using intangible assets: they give impetus to the company's development and innovation in a rapidly transforming environment. One of such unique assets of the enterprise becomes a brand. The brand is the bearer of the value of the product in the consumer perception, and is often more attractive to the consumer than the actual consumer value of the product. Consumer perception of the brand is determined by a large number of factors, including personal and psychological factors that reflect the patterns of human consumer behavior and order its coexistence habits. The study of these aspects of consumer behavior is an extremely important task of marketing. The subject of the research is theoretical-methodical and practical aspects of peculiarities and factors of consumer perception of Ukrainian and foreign brands. The purpose of the article is to form a theoretical and methodological basis for determining and comparing the characteristics of the perception of domestic and foreign brands by Ukrainian consumers with different socio-demographic characteristics. In line with this goal, the research methodology is based on the use of expert survey methods to determine the characteristics of consumer perception of brands using Google Forms. The sample size is 169 people. Respondents were asked to rate 14 foreign and 11 Ukrainian most popular clothing brands according to selected parameters. To confirm the hypotheses formed in the study, the calculation of the Fisher's angular transformation criterion φ was used. According to the results of the study of features and factors of consumer perception of Ukrainian and foreign brands by Ukrainian consumers, the hypotheses about the greater commitment of Ukrainian consumers to foreign brands was confirmed (consumer perception of the ZARA brand exceeds the perception of the H&M brand, consumer confidence in foreign brands exceeds the trust in Ukrainian brands). Fisher's angular transformation criterion is used to confirm the hypotheses.