ones month salary till the other (Ingrid). From her direct experience with the country, she states that life is harder for mothers with children and seniors who struggle to survive with the low social contribution they get from the government. She also experienced Lithuanians to be nationalists because they are not so friendly to foreigners who come to their own country but they emigrate elsewhere themselves and believe they have to be welcomed (Ingrid). From the results above, as well as the following analysis, it can be said that the way Danish consumers create images of Eastern Europe depends a lot on their travel experience to the countries, also the length and the purpose of the stay. A longer period of stay, could give more experience to the visitors and help to get more familiar with their culture and people (Juric & Worsley, 1998). The level of development It is important to mention that participants of this study have a lot of concerns about the development of Eastern European countries. While discussing different images of politics, economics, technology, the quality of life and then product images, interviewees talk about the development of the countries. Like discussed earlier in the literature review, the development of the country has a lot to do with how people perceives that country’s products. According to Casper, Eastern European countries are less development in terms of everything, he mentions transport as one example. His opinion about the development of the countries is based on his own experience while visiting Lithuania. He saw old houses in the rural parts of the country that had no modern bathrooms or toilets, and thus, the internet connection and wireless signal were weak, which also made him think that Lithuania is less developed. People have different perceptions of how a developed country should look like, and for the participants of the study Denmark is seen as very developed country, and there is no doubt about the development of Denmark in the current literature. So, it is very reasonable that Danes compare those countries with Denmark and such things as ‘outside toilets’ may seem as a return to the “old times”. Lasse shares a very similar view when talking about the development of Eastern European countries, he mentions the life of rural areas in Hungary, where he spent some time with his girlfriend, and he had to use ‘outside toilet’. Both of the interviewees created this image of Eastern Europe and particularly rural areas, based on their experience. Thus their visitation
…you know then what to expect from the product (Lærke) Some Danish female consumers argue that this is the only way to know product’s quality. None of the respondents considers reading the label, checking the composition of the product. Male consumers had various answers, some of them judge the product based on the COO but it depends on the product category. However, Anders (R=7) would rather look at other product attributes when evaluating an unknown product, like packaging and price. It can be seen that female consumers rely more on the country-of-origin as an information cue when evaluating food products than male. Danish female consumers could not find any other way of evaluating food products than simply COO. And male consumers would look at the COO only for particular type of products, while also considering other product attributes. 4.5.5 Eastern European food and ethnocentrism As mentioned in the interview it was decided to include a question which asked the respondents to compare their feelings towards domestic and Eastern European food products, since as discussed in the literature review, ethnocentrism might affect Danish consumers’ willingness to but Eastern European food products. Lasse and Christian would rather buy Danish food products because they think that Danish food is simply better, more qualitative and tastier. Rune, for example, is the only male respondent which stated that he would prefer Danish products: …because in this way I can also support Danish economy (Rune) He can be called an ethnocentric consumer because his decision of buying Danish products is not based on his attributes but rather on the fact that in this way he can support Danish economy. Most of the Danish male consumers stated that the decision to buy local or foreign food products would be based on product attributes, such as price and taste: I wouldn’t care then, probably based on price (Ander, R=3) …I base my decision upon price (Anders, R=7) It depends on price and taste (Caper) Similar evaluation are done between female consumers. Some of the respondents see Danish products as of superior quality, taster, and healthier, because it is made in Denmark, the