ABSTRACT
Country stereotypes are inevitably transferred over to the products that emanate from that particular origin. Take the Czech Republic as an example, and what the collective stereotype held of its flagship automobile brand, Skoda, was like not too long ago. The argument that Skoda began to change its external image in the eyes of its most important stakeholders, its prospective customers, following its merger with Volkswagen is of course factual, and the reason why the Skoda brand image changed so much in such a short time needs to be examined. If country of origin effects exist and they play an important part in shaping consumer perceptions in foreign markets, then inevitably they need to be acknowledged and taken very seriously indeed when formulating export strategies. Branding today as the doctrine of an ideology for the times is the contemporary representation of the hippy philosophy of the 1960s or the yuppie era of the 1980s.
