Role of gastronomic,externality and feasibility attributes in consumer demand for organic and local foods: The case of honey and apples

Local food systems providing high‐value products are seen as a tool to sustain economic activity on family farms in rural areas. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of gastronomic, externality and feasibility characteristics in consumers' demand for local and for organic foods. An Internet questionnaire survey was conducted in 2010 among Danish consumers. 3211 respondents completed the questionnaire, which included questions about respondents' food‐related values and their specific perception of organic and local varieties of honey and apples. Variables related to consumers' food‐related values and product perception were analysed using principal component analysis, in order to identify overall dimensions (factors) in these variables. Although statements about gastronomic attributes (e.g. taste, appearance, quality) were quite strongly represented in three of these factors, externality and availability concerns also contributed significantly to the overall variation in the variables. Multinomial logit choice modelling was used for describing the relationship between these dimensions and respondents' stated choices regarding organic and local varieties of honey and apples. Results suggest that although both organic and local food supply chains are often associated with special attributes such as gastronomic characteristics and relatively beneficial externality attributes, these attributes are perceived differently for the two types of supply chains. Perceived gastronomic quality is the most important determinant for food choice, but externality and feasibility aspects are also important correlates.     

Does Taste Beat Food Safety? Evidence From the “Pêra Rocha” Case in Portugal

Nowadays, fresh fruits such as pears are differentiated by cultivars, origins, and appearances, as well as by companies' production and processing methods. We may now observe many denominations of origin, retailers,' and private labels in order to signal the differentiation to the consumers, who are often willing to pay large price premiums for products with specific attributes. In this article, we used an experimental auction to assess how information on quality attributes affects consumers' willingness to pay for different types of pears. The main results show that information on the products' characteristics related to food safety instantly influences consumers' willingness to pay. However, it appears that in the end, sensory intrinsic attributes related to taste beat the guarantee of food safety in driving the buying behaviour.     

Japanese consumers' use of extrinsic and intrinsic cues to mitigate risky food choices

The stated preference data were used to simulate and examine consumers' valuation of important extrinsic and intrinsic cues that are associated with risky foods. This analysis generates information on how consumers assess trade‐offs between price and selected intrinsic and extrinsic cues to determine their choice among alternative products. From this, optimum level of product quality attributes (i.e. intrinsic cues) and optimum price level for import products can be derived. Also, most effective sources of communicating food safety and risk management can be identified. The results show that the country origin cue is a key factor in understanding consumers' choice behaviour for food product that entails potential risk, which may suggest that consumers are using this information as a risk‐reduction strategy.     

A conceptual framework for analyzing consumers' food label preferences: An exploratory study of sustainability labels in France,Quebec, Spain and the US

In a qualitative study of 375 consumers in France, Quebec, Spain and the US, respondents are asked to choose between pairs of actual food labels and to describe the reason(s) for their choice. The food labels included sustainability labels (eco‐labels, Fair Trade, origin) as well as product attribute (e.g. quality, kosher) and health/nutrition labels. Respondents' reasons were coded in the original language using the same coding system across all four nations to examine their preferences for label message, design and source. We also examined the role of consumers' values, beliefs and experiences on their label choices. The coding system was drawn from a review of theoretical and empirical literature and provides a conceptual framework we call the Label Consumer Interaction model for evaluating consumers' food label preferences. Although this is case study, the results point to substantial differences across nations in terms of preferred labels, as well as the rationale for their choice in terms of attributes of the labels and consumer characteristics.     

Consumers' perceptions of functional foods: trust and food‐neophobia in a cross‐cultural context

Consumers' perceptions of functional foods are complicated by perceived risks and complexity that appear from growing and sometimes confusing information flow. Social trust can serve as a mean for the reduction of risk and complexity. It is thus vital to understand the sources of distrust and food‐neophobia as well as coping mechanisms used by consumers to ensure food provision and safety. We discuss the results of a qualitative inquiry in the form of focus groups into consumers' perceptions of functional foods in Russia and Germany. Altogether eight focus group interviews were carried out in different parts of Russia and Germany in December–January 2012–2013. A total of 59 people participated in the discussions. Different perspectives provided by the discussions in the two countries indicate different levels of trust. Deeper culturally embedded and wider‐spread distrust in formal institutions in Russia pushes consumers towards developing informal networks to ensure food provision and safety. It leads to high levels of food‐neophobia as consumers perceive traditions as the most important guarantee for healthy food. On the other hand, German participants indicate a number of formal institutions that are trustworthy and through which information concerning novel and healthy attributes in foods can be communicated. We provide exploratory views on the importance of social trust in consumers' perceptions of functional foods and lay out mechanisms that consumers develop to deal with increasing risk and complexity in food choices.     

Estimating Consumer Preferences for Value-Added Fish Products in Oman

Abstract

The European meat industry is confronted with substantial changes of consumer preferences in relation to the type and quantity of meat in everyday diet. One of the main reasons behind these changes is the public impression that meat is a “dangerous” to consume food. This feeling is the result of recent food scares where meat played a central role and their effect on consumers' perceptions about meat safety. The research at hand explores the market potential of organic meat in Greece and emphasizes the perceptions about meat consumption held by organic consumers as opposed to those held by non-consumers of organic foods. It is expected that organic consumers will be more interested in a series of quality attributes of meat commonly found in its organic type, in comparison to non-consumers of organic food. However, the main finding of the survey is that consumer demands in relation to meat quality and safety are particularly high, irrespective of meat's production method. The research concludes that the particularly low consumption of organic meat in Greece should be partially attributed to its insufficient differentiation in consumers' minds.     

Shopping centers revisited: The interplay between consumers’ spontaneous online communications and retail planning

This paper revisits shopping centers' characteristics in the light of consumers' choices of actual centers in spontaneous online communications. We argue that modes of shopping centers marketing, which comprise a certain set of attributes to ensure consumers' choice, need to be updated to relate to new specific consumers' needs and choices, taking into account the recent increasing role of technologies, leisure activities and changes in consumer behavior. To this end, the paper considers consumers' unsolicited communications on Twitter as an effective source of insights. Drawing upon 10,544 consumers' tweets relating to the 19 main shopping centers in UK posted in May 2019 analyzed through machine learning algorithms. Results report the interplay between consumers' unsolicited online judgments and retail planning, while suggesting new methods for understanding consumers’ insights.     

The Effects of Nutrition Label Comparison Baselines on Consumers' Food Choices

Recent legislative changes in the European Union have mandated nutrition labeling for the majority of pre‐packaged foods. This research compared effects of several nutrition labeling formats on consumers' food choices (i.e., the nutrition table, GDA 100 g/ml, and GDA portion). We primarily focused on whether nutrition label information was standardized to a fixed or varying comparison baseline. Fixed baselines (e.g., 100 g/ml) allow consumers to make direct, relative comparisons of products, while varying baselines (e.g., portion size) often require consumers to undertake complex mathematical calculations. Findings suggest that consumers' food choices are likely to be healthier when nutrition label information is presented on a fixed baseline. Gender was found to moderate these effects such that women made healthier choices—but only when the nutrition label baseline was fixed. Thus, the type of comparison baseline is an important characteristic of nutrition labels for public policymakers, public health officials, and academic researchers to consider.     

An exploration of the influence of food labels on South African consumers' purchasing behaviour

New labelling legislation in South Africa is expected to help consumers sustain a healthy lifestyle through the food choices they make. This study was undertaken to explore a sample of South African consumers' reasons for reading labels and the influence of food labels on their purchasing behaviour. The study was conducted using focus group discussions held with label reading consumers in Potchefstroom in the North West Province of South Africa. Findings suggested that these participants read food labels to assess the nutritional value, personal benefits, health attributes and product quality. Various purchasing influences were also identified, suggesting that consumers are in some cases motivated by food labels to purchase a product, or may be unresponsive to the label or indifferent by being aware of the information but not reluctant to buy a product that does not indicate essential information. Several indirect consideration factors such as situational factors (e.g. family), extrinsic (e.g. price) and intrinsic (e.g. taste) may contribute to the purchasing behaviour of some consumers. These findings are useful to propose a perceptual model of the way in which food labels influence purchasing behaviour of a sample of South African consumers and explain the role of food labels in the purchasing decision of label‐reading consumers. This information is especially significant for new packaging and labelling initiatives as it highlights the reasons why label‐reading South African consumers read label information.     

Peer presence promotes popular choices: A “Spicy” field study on social influence and brand choice

Retail research has highlighted how the presence of others can affect consumers' brand evaluations, purchase intentions, and choice behavior. This field study investigated whether the presence (vs. absence) of peers and other consumers, respectively, could influence consumers' propensity to purchase popular brands (i.e., a market leader) within a given product category. Consumers at a supermarket were observed when standing in front of a spice shelf and their choices were analyzed as a function of whether they shopped alone or in the presence of peers versus other consumers. The results revealed that peer presence, but not the mere presence of other consumers, increased consumers' inclination to make popular brand choices, and that this effect was mediated by their stated familiarity with the chosen brand. As such, peer presence seems to increase consumers’ reliance on heuristics and the accessibility of concepts linked to popularity, leading to congruent popular brand choices. Moreover, consumers shopping in the presence of others generally took a longer time before choosing a brand and touched slightly more products in the presence of other consumers. Taken together, these results contribute to theory refinement in social influence from ecologically valid conditions and offer a set of implications for companies, store managers, and people working in the food industry.     

Restrained by resources: The effect of scarcity cues and childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on consumer preference for feasibility

Scarcity cues are ubiquitous in our everyday lives and thus attract great attention in consumer research. However, little attention has been devoted to examining whether exposure to scarcity cues influences consumers' trade-off between feasibility and desirability in product choices. The present research argues that the impact of scarcity cues on consumers' preference for products that offer more feasible or more desirable features depends on consumers' childhood socioeconomic status (childhood SES). The findings consistently show that consumers with low childhood SES who were reminded of resource scarcity seek more feasibility in product choices than consumers in other conditions. We trace this effect to the fact that scarcity cues cause consumers with low childhood SES to process information at a low construal level. By presenting this conceptualization and evidence, the present study contributes to research on childhood SES, resource scarcity, and construal level theory (CLT).     

Employing a Dichotomous Choice Model to Assess Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Organically Produced Products

Abstract

This study employs a dichotomous choice model to identify the socio-economic characteristics and attitudes that influence consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for organically produced products (OPP). Considering consumers' growing interest in quality and safety of food, the study attempts to identify consumers level of awareness on OPP, the intention to buy OPP and the WTP a higher price for OPP. Results highlight consumers awareness and intention, revealing useful information for the development of OPP market. The estimated maximum WTP indicates that consumers are willing to pay a substantial extra price to purchase OPP. Finally, WTP seems to be affected by certain consumer attitudes and socio-economic factors.     

Understanding consumers' perspectives on food labelling in India

This study aims at identifying the factors influencing consumers' perception on food labelling and its impact on food purchase decision making, through personal interviews of 631 respondents using a structured questionnaire. To analyse the consumers' perceptions on food labelling, factor analysis has been carried out to identify the underlying dimensions among a set of food labelling attributes using the principal component analysis. Based on factor analysis, four sets of components/factors have emerged, that is, (i) serving method; (ii) quality and nutrition; (iii) production and storage; and (iv) product identification, which explain 66.271% of the variance. Logit regression analysis indicates that among the socio‐demographic indicators, the estimated coefficients for gender, education, income and location of residence are statistically significant. Similarly, information on quality and nutrition, production and storage processes, and basic information of the product is found to be significant, implying that these factors are more likely to influence the use of food labels in making informed purchase decisions by the consumers. The findings of the study give practical insights on food labelling issues for the food processors and policy makers.     

Consumers' perceptions of food packaging: an exploratory investigation in Potchefstroom,South Africa

Consumers form perceptions of various food products through their comprehension of the visual stimuli on food packaging that attract their attention. These perceptions directly affect their purchasing decision at the point of purchase, which emphasizes the importance of attention‐capturing packaging attributes. However, little research is available regarding consumers' perceptions of food packaging, especially in the South African context. This study aimed to explore a sample of South African consumers' perceptions of food packaging and how these perceptions were formed through the perceptual process. A qualitative, exploratory study was conducted by means of 25 semi‐structured interviews and through the use of ambiguous mock packaging as a projective technique. Participants were questioned regarding their general perceptions of food packaging. The attention‐capturing ability of packaging as well as consumers' interpretation of this packaging after exposure to the mock packaging was also discussed. Findings from the study indicated that participants mainly based their perception of food packaging on its functional (being purposive, recyclable and informative) and physical attributes (being attractive, of high quality and hygienic). This study also indicated that information and visual attributes of packaging are important to gain consumers' attention in‐store. Participants' comprehension of packaging included general associations of specific food products with certain types of packaging, such as associations with quality and shelf life. Negative associations with packaging mostly entailed difficulty to handle the product, poor quality of the product and environmental problems. This study identifies those product attributes that participants regarded as the most important stimuli for forming positive perceptions regarding food packaging. It is important for manufacturers to pay attention to the information on perceptions that was gained in this study, as it might help them to create packaging that better fulfil consumer needs. These findings could also be applied in a larger study of a quantitative nature, which will ultimately result in more positive consumer shopping experiences and consumer satisfaction regarding food packaging.     

Consumers' experiences of cold chain food packaging: A qualitative study among women in South Africa

Food packaging defines a product's uniqueness and strengthens consumers' relationship with a brand, in this way offering functional and experiential benefits. Although cold chain food is predicted to become even more important to consumers, consumers' experiences of the packaging of these products have been neglected in the literature. Thus, this exploratory study investigated these experiences of female participants in Potchefstroom, South Africa, using semi‐structured interviews and a projective technique assisted by ambiguous mock packaging. The findings reveal that despite marketers' intention to use packaging to lure consumers to purchase food products, participants also valued functionality and quality in cold chain food packaging. This study also identified a dislike of carton boxes and preference for plastic bottles for this kind of packaging, as well as further negative and positive characteristics for consideration by manufacturers. Although brand loyalty and price sensitivity were stronger considerations for some participants than the packaging, the latter seemed to play a pre‐eminent role in most participants' purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is recommended that when designing packaging for frozen and refrigerated foods, product developers and manufacturers should take into account consumers' experiences, requirements and needs of the packaging specific to cold chain food. Our research offers a starting point for designing cold chain food packaging that complies as closely as possible with consumers' expectations.     

Ethical claims and labelling: An analysis of consumers' beliefs and choice behaviours

Abstract

Although consumers' growing interest in ethical consumption has been well-documented, their understanding of specific claims, and the link between their stated concerns and behaviour, has not. Using a framework from systematic-heuristic and behaviour modification theory, this study explored consumers' understanding of varied ethical claims and a specific eco-label, and then estimated the effect these stimuli had on their choice behaviours. In-depth interviews revealed a strong interest in environmental and social attributes but considerable scepticism about specific claims. However, a choice modelling experiment found ethical attributes nevertheless influenced respondents' choices. Two distinct clusters whose views and choice behaviours differed markedly existed: one was primarily price-driven and the other more responsive to specific claims. Discrepancies between the qualitative and quantitative studies appear attributable to differences in information processing; many consumers respond strongly to heuristics, even though they believe themselves sceptical of the claims these communicate. The findings raise important policy questions about the scientific basis of many ethical claims, since consumers were strongly influenced by these, despite their views to the contrary.     

The Influence of Consumer Degree of Knowledge on Consumer Behavior: The Case of Spanish Olive Oil

This article analyses the influence of perceived quality measured across intrinsic and extrinsic attributes on satisfaction and consumer loyalty for a traditional food product as with PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) olive oil “Aceite del Bajo Aragón.” In addition, the article highlights the influence of consumer's degree of knowledge on these relationships. The results suggest that the main drivers to explain consumers' satisfaction and loyalty are the perceived quality of the intrinsic attributes (color, appearance, flavor, etc.). However, when consumers are classified attending to their degree of knowledge the main explanatory variable of satisfaction and loyalty of the more experienced consumers are the extrinsic attributes of the product (brand name, place of origin, images associated to the product, etc.). These findings allow us to develop important managerial implications for building a brand image for a PDO.     

Modelling the antecedents of consumers' willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products

The purpose of this paper is to model the antecedents of consumers' willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products. This research utilizes the Theory of Planned Behaviour to model the impact of consumers' awareness of eco-labels, environmental concerns, beliefs in the environmental ability of eco-labels, and presence of children on their willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products. This study uses structural equational modelling and PROCESS macros, to test the moderated mediation model on a sample of 333 online responses. Findings suggest the impact of consumers' environmental concerns and eco-label awareness on their willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products is partially mediated by consumers' belief in the environmental ability of these eco-labels. The relationship is further moderated by the presence of children living in the household. This study establishes the value of consumers' beliefs in the environmental ability of eco-labels and implies that communication strategies need to be carefully refined to provide consumers with more information about eco-labels and to emphasize the environmental ability of eco-labels utilized within the food industry as this can have an impact on their willingness to pay for these products, especially for consumers, who have children in the same household.     

Calorie information effects on consumers' food choices: Sources of observed gender heterogeneity

A larger portion of males is overweight than is females. Females' food choices in comparison to those of males reflect the greater importance that females attribute to health and physical appearance; their more complex attitude toward risk; the greater esteem in which they hold home-cooked food; and sociological factors. This paper explores the variables that affect consumers' food choices, shedding light specifically on the choice process and analyzing whether gender affects predispositions toward foods, perceptions, choice processes, or all three. Perceptions and choice processes based on memory judgments serve only as a benchmark used to compare choices consumers make under calorie information. The results of two experiments wherein the researchers exposed subjects to two forms of calorie information on three fast food items suggest that differences in perceptions of foods' healthfulness and taste aspects account for gender differences in memory-based choices. In addition to this baseline difference in perceptions, a gender difference in reaction to calorie information in terms of consumers' behavior exists. While calorie information affected both perceptions and choice processes for females, information changed the perceptions of food only for males.