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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether the internationalization characteristics of companies from an emerging market (internationalized company stage and presence of a sales subsidiary abroad) moderate the influence of country of brand origin positioning over the companies' financial performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors performed an ex-post-facto study of internationalized companies from Brazil spanning 16 years. Generalized estimating equations in panel data revealed the results with market share, return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q as dependent variables.FindingsThe result revealed that country of brand origin positioning is worth doing for internationalized companies from an emerging market, especially for multinationals with sales activity in the destination country. It positively affects all three financial metrics. For exporters, it is effective in increasing market share and returns on assets.Practical implicationsThe research demonstrates the effectiveness of the image positioning of exporting and multinational companies that have internationalization initiatives and allocation of external sales activities.Originality/valueIn emerging markets, country of brand origin positioning is a branding strategy used by companies seeking to internationalize. This research shows that the contexts of the characteristics of internationalization strategies change the results, and therefore the need to be considered for testing the effectiveness of country-of-brand-origin positioning.