INTRODUCTION

With the deepening of economic globalization, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Brands have gradually entered all aspects of life, brands, and products’ origin, affecting consumer demand. Such brands can also be called regional brands. The products’ origin and image often play a role in the diversity of consumers’ perception of the products. China has a vast territory, and the politics, economy, culture, and living habits of each region are not the same. Consumers also have different perceptions of products and brands from different origins. Especially in food, which is closely related to people’s lives, consumers associate the quality and safety of products with the product brands and the image of origins. For a long time, the Yanbian yellow cattle, as a healthy and high-grade beef regional brand, have been favored by many consumers. With the implementation and promotion of Yanbian yellow cattle industry strategy and “Chang-Ji-Tu”1) national development strategy, starting with the construction of cat-tle production base and the deep processing of beef and Yanbian area strive to build an industrialized model of Yanbian yellow cattle. To meet consumers’ demands for green, healthy, and even more personalized food of agricultural products, Yanbian yellow cattle has entered a new stage, gradually developing towards branding, large-scale, and clustering.

At present, the beef market in China presents the competition between local beef and imported beef. The competition is becoming increasingly fierce at the same time. As one of the five best cattle breeds in China, Yanbian yellow brand is the best intangible asset. If the regional brand can gain the recognition of consumers, it can improve market share. Making full use of the regional brand’s brand effect will become an outstanding advantage for Yanbian yellow cattle to participate in the competition. Yanbian yellow cattle still have not formed a strong brand advantage, and Yanbian yellow cattle enterprises have not made good use of regional brands’ advantages in operation. Therefore, to cultivate a competitive regional brand, change consumers’ recognition of Yanbian yellow cattle, and promote their purchase intention is an important issue facing Yanbian yellow industry at present.

In terms of regional cattle brands, the current domestic research only focuses on brand building. Wang Xvyou (2012) uses the SWOT analysis method and draws lessons from the beef brands building of Australia, Japan, and South Korea, and puts forward countermeasures to promote the regional brand building of Yanbian yellow cattle. Liu Fenghua (2013) considered the industrialization development of Nanyang cattle as an entry point to discuss the industrialization development of Nanyang cattle in Henan province and promotes the development of Nanyang cattle from three aspects. Liu Pingyun (2016) discusses the necessity of developing yellow cattle regional brands in southern China from four aspects, introduces the status quo of cattle brand construction in Hunan, Sichuan, and Guangdong provinces, and points out the main problems in development. The research on brand recognition and purchase intention has been relatively mature. Fishbein, Ajzen (1980) found that consumers’ attitudes to a product are affected by consumers’ perception of the product, consumers’ feelings towards the brand, and brand recognition. Hoch & Banerji (1993) pointed out that brand recognition is directly proportional to consumers’ purchase intention. And aiming at Chinese research, Huang Anting (2017), Chen Yanqing (2017), and Liu Jiaying (2018) analyzed the relationship between brand recognition of different products and consumers’ purchase intentions, such as clothing brand, mobile phone brand, cosmetic brand and so on. And analyzed the survey data to show that brand recognition has a significant effect on consumers’ purchase intention. Through the research, there are few research pieces on yellow cattle brand recognition and purchase, and this paper conducts research on Yanbian yellow cattle regional brand.

Based on the research status at home and abroad, this paper studies the influence of regional brand recognition on purchase intention. Furthermore, it puts forward regional brand construction suggestions for relevant enterprises and local governments, optimizes the regional brand image of Yanbian yellow cattle, increases the sales volumes, and improves the brand competitiveness. At the same time, it is of great significance to establish a theoretical reference for the research on the influence of regional brand recognition and purchase intention.

THEORETICAL CONCEPT

Brand equity theory from consumers’ perspective, the research on brand equity is an important part of the brand management field. From consumers’ perspective, the degree of brand-consumer relationship is advocated so that consumers are regarded as the focus of brand equity formation and evaluation. So the core of the theory is establishing and developing the relationship between consumers and a certain brand. Keller (1993) first proposed the concept of customer-based brand equity. Through research, Keller pointed out that measuring brand equity can reflect its position in the market. Consumers’ Brand response is the foundation of brand recognition. Aaker (1996) believed that the core of brand equity management is to construct a series of brand identification characteristics from consumers’ perspective. Lu Taihong (2002) summarized the basic classification, characteristics, representative methods of brand equity assessment methods based on the three elements about finance, market, and a consumer based on several different understandings of the connotation of brand equity. Brand Equity valuator believes that consumers will evaluate the quality after purchasing a specific product or brand. These evaluations use the consumers’ recognition process as a clue to establish loyalty to the brand from the perspective of satisfying consumer needs. After more than 30 years of developing brand equity theory, it now has profound significance for consumers’ purchasing behavior, corporate marketing strategy, and equity management.

The theory of reasoned action was proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). The main purpose of this theory is to predict and understand the causes of behavior. As the earliest theory to explain and predict the behavior of purchase intention, the premise of this theory is to take the buyer as a rational man and carefully consider the corresponding behavior. Starting from the consumers’ own intention, and including the consumer’s attitude towards the product, the consumer’s attitude towards the product can reflect the consumers’ perception and make a purchasing decision. The theory of rational behavior is widely used in consumers’ purchase intention. Liu Jiaying (2018) explored brand personality’s influence on brand recognition and consumption and purchase intention based on rational behavior theory.

DATA COLLECTION AND MODEL CONSTRUCTION

Data Collection

This paper investigated Yanbian cattle consumers in eight regions, including Hunchun, Tumen, Helong, Yanji, Longjing, Dunhua, Antu, and Wangqing, which are the most important eight major cities in Yanbian and also the main cities where Yanbian cattle is consumed. The survey in eight regions can fully reflect the consumption characteristics of Yanbian cattle and the characteristics that affect Yanbian cattle’s purchase. By 2017, there were 8,399 large-scale farmers in Yanbian, including 289 large-scale cattle farms and 13 specialized cooperatives. The number of yellow cattle in Yanbian reached 423,068, and beef production reached 27,056 tons, the per capita purchase of beef has increased gradually in Yanbian. In 2015, the per capita purchase of beef was 5.4 kg, and the per capita purchase reached 6.1 kg. And according to the different beef parts, Yanbian yellow beef is sold at 130 yuan to 240 yuan per kg. The study’s data were obtained from field surveys of counties and cities in Yanbian from August to December 2018. The main survey locations included farmer's markets, supermarkets, and Yanbian yellow beef specialty stores in the Yanbian area. The field survey was conducted by 15 students majoring in agricultural and forestry economics and management at Yanbian University, collecting data through personal interviews and completing questionnaires. A total of 350 questionnaires were sent out in this study. A total of 337 questionnaires were recovered with a recovery rate of 96%. Among these questionnaires, 315 were valid questionnaires (93%), while the numbers of invalid questionnaires were 22. The survey sample's distribution structure is basically consistent with the demographic structure in the Yanbian Statistical Yearbook in 2017. The specific survey situation is shown on <Table 1>.

According to the statistics of the collected valid questionnaires as shown on <Table 1>, among the surveyed samples, 135 were males, accounting for 42.8% of the surveyed population, and 180 were females, accounting for 57.2% of the surveyed population. In terms of age, by analyzing the age distribution of the population in the questionnaire and combining the population’s age distribution in the Yanbian Statistical Yearbook in 2017, the comparison shows that the survey samples are basically consistent with the Table 2 demographic structure in the statistical yearbook. In terms of profession, there were 45 students, accounting for 14.2% of the surveyed population, 64 factory workers, accounting for 20.3% of the surveyed population, 37 civil servants, accounting for 11.7% of the surveyed population, and 97 clerks of enterprises and institutions people, accounting for 30.7% of the number of people surveyed, 18 retired people, accounting for 5.7% of the number of people surveyed, 54 people in other professions, accounting for 17.4%. In terms of monthly household income, 63 people had a monthly income of less than 4,000 yuan, accounting for 20%, 104 people had a monthly income of 4,000 to 6,000 yuan, accounting for 33%, and 67 people had a monthly income of 6,000 to 8,000 yuan, accounting for 21.2%, 81 were over 8,000 yuan, accounting for 25.8%. In summary, it can be seen that the sample distribution is relatively balanced, which is suitable for further research.

Variables Selection and Research Hypothesis

(1) The relationship between brand recognition and purchase intention

In the process of contact with a product or brand, consumers learn about the specific attributes of the product through external stimuli such as advertisements, recommendations from friends, and consumers’ own experience, thus forming their cognition of the product or brand and influencing consumers’ purchase intention based on recognition. This article believes that consumers’ recognition of the Yanbian Cattle regional brand will impact consumers’ purchase intention. According to Keller, Aaker’s (1993, 2012) research, we believe that Yanbian yellow cattle regional brand recognition includes two sub-dimensions of brand awareness and brand image. Tolba and Hassan (2009) pointed out that brand recognition significantly impacted marketing and its performance. Asma Ali (2019) pointed out that brand awareness impacts the purchase intention to consume Halal Certified food in Korea. Sang Liguo (2015) proposed that Samsung mobile brand aware- ness and image impact consumers’ purchase intention. Therefore, we make the following hypothesis 1:

(2) The relationship between consumers' perception and purchase intention

The quality of risk that the consumer obtains from the product belongs to the category of perception. To study these two aspects, we need to study consumers’ purchase intention and behavior from the field of psychology. Gronroos (1994) pointed out that consumers will evaluate the quality of products after they buy them. If the quality exceeds consumers’ psychological expectations, their perceived quality is good. Aaker (1996) pointed out that brand awareness is positively correlated with perceived quality and negatively correlated with the perceived risk. Therefore, we make the following hypothesis 2:

RESULTS

Reliability and validity test

Before data analysis, the first thing to consider is the reliability and validity of the data. A test questionnaire’s reliability is a measure of the degree of stability and consistency that a measure of a phenomenon provides. Nunnally (1978) believes that Cronbach’s alpha should be above 0.7, and Devellis (1991) proposed that the scale’s reliability is above 0.8, indicating that the scale is very reliable, and the reliability above 0.6 indicates that the reliability of the questionnaire can be passed.

Validity analysis is used to measure the accuracy or correctness of certain behavioral characteristics. In this study, the validity of the questionnaire was tested by factor analysis. It can be seen from the result in Table 4 that the KMO value is 0.883, which is suitable for factor analysis.

Linear regression

With the help of SPSS22.0, this paper uses Enter method to analyze consumers’ purchase intention by linear regression analysis. As the basic characteristics of demographics may also affect consumers’ purchase intention, this paper takes them as the control variables to discuss the influence of each variable on consumers’ purchase intention. The results are shown in Table 5.

In this paper, the statistical characteristics of the consumer are treated as control variables. Among them, gender, age, and education level, and monthly household income could explain consumers’ purchase intention to some extent. After controlling the influence of demographic characteristics on consumers’ purchase intention, the R2 of the regression model reached 0.482, that is to say, after consumers’ brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality and perceived risk were brought into the regression equation. These four variables had better explanatory ability to purchase intention(β_{brand awareness}=0.341, p<0.01; β_{brand image}=0.604, p<0.01; β_{perceived quality}=0.734, p<0.01; β_{perceived risk}=-0.676, p<0.01). The analysis results show that brand awareness, brand image, and perceived quality have a positive impact on consumers’ purchase intention of Yanbian yellow cattle, but the perceived risk has a negative impact on consumers’ purchase intention of Yanbian yellow cattle. Consequently, the Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 are supported.

Conclusions

Yanbian yellow cattle is one of the five best cattle breeds in China. Its own development can drive the economic development of the Yanbian area and provide experiences for developing the cattle industry and other regional cattle brands in China. This study starts from the Yanbian yellow cattle regional brand, and divides brand recognition into two dimensions of brand awareness and brand image, builds a model of the relationship between each dimension of brand awareness and consumer perception and purchase intention. It conducted empirical analysis on sample data, verified the hypothesis and made conclusions. The study verifies that brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality, and risk have effects on consumers’ purchase intention of Yanbian yellow cattle. Specifically, brand awareness, brand image, and perceived quality positively impact consumers’ purchase intention of Yanbian yellow cattle, and perceived risk has a negative impact on consumers’ purchase intention of Yanbian yellow cattle. Relevant parties must consider the risks that consumers may perceive and take effective measures to reduce perceived risks. Conversely, dispelling consumer concerns will increase consumers’ purchase intention. Brand recognition has a relatively obvious impact on consumer’s willingness to buy. In the current environment of brand competition, improving consumer brand awareness can promote brand competitiveness.

Combined with the Yanbian yellow cattle regional brand’s status in the Yanbian area, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: Strengthen brand communication and enhance regional brand awareness and carry out active publicity to improve consumers’ awareness of Yanbian yellow cattle. We can use advertising, personnel sales, online marketing, special reports, participate in large-scale exhibitions or combine cultural activities to organize the Yanbian Yellow Cattle Cultural Festival, multi-pronged to expand its influence. Through the characteristic culture of the Yanbian area to optimize the regional brand image of Yanbian yellow cattle. Promote and support the establishment and development of beef traceability system and ensure product quality. And we need to establish a sound claim system to guarantee the rights and interests of consumers effectively. At the same time, the government should play its own role and strengthen the construction of the regional brand, make full use of talents from university and research institutions to support the technical develop-ment of the Yanbian cattle regional brand.

적 요

본 연구에서는 중국 길림성 연변 주 지역의 ‘연변황우’ 소비 자 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였음. 먼저 국내외 브랜드 인지 및 구매 의사에 관한 이론을 검토하고 소비자의 브랜드 인식 등의 이론을 바탕으로 연구 가설을 제시하였음. ‘연변황우’에 대한 소비자 구매 의사에 영향을 미치는 요인을 구축하여 분 석을 실시하였음. 연구 결과