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.     

Measuring consumer's willingness to pay for organic and Fair Trade products

Previous research has extensively studied consumer's environmental and social concerns. However, measuring the value of the environmental or social dimension of a product remains a challenge. This paper proposes to partially fill this gap by measuring the double ‘Fair Trade and organic’ labels' value using an experimental method – the Becker‐DeGroot‐Marschak's mechanism. Two ‘organic and Fair Trade’ and two conventional chocolate products were tested on a sample of 102 consumers. Results show that organic and Fair Trade labels increase consumers' willingness to pay, and allow the identification of three consumers clusters. The first cluster represents people insensitive to the label. For the second cluster, the ‘organic and Fair Trade’ labels' influence on the improving image of the products is positive and important. And finally, for the third cluster, the valuation of the ‘organic and Fair Trade’ label is determined by the product's taste. Our research contributes to a better understanding of consumers' valuation of Fair Trade and organic labels, leading to our conclusions, which offer managerial implications with respect to this market (importance of taste and usefulness of double labels).     

How a “China-made” label influences Chinese Youth's product evaluation: The priming effect of patriotic and nationalistic news

This study is to verify whether and how a “China-made” label can influence online consumers' product evaluation as adding labels to highlight products' attributes has become an acquainted measure online by e-tailers/firms to attract online consumers' attentions. For this purpose, we conduct a 2 (label of “China-made” vs. no label) x 3 (patriotism priming vs. nationalism priming vs. no priming) between-subject factorial design to verify hypotheses. The results reveal that when consumers' nationalism is primed, the label significantly enhances the product evaluation by increasing the perceived social value of the product. Priming consumers’ patriotism, on the other hand, does not play a moderating role for this effect. A follow-up study confirms such effects for both low involvement and high involvement products. Therefore, e-tailers/firms that own China-made brands/products are advised to signal the “Chinese identity” of their products to online consumers under the current circumstance when nationalism and domestic brands are rising in China. The results also indicate that although products produced in a developing country are marked with a negative country of origin effect, marketers can turn it into a strength in marketing in certain conditions.     

Does sustainability really matter to consumers? Assessing the importance of online shop and apparel product attributes

Although there is a shift in consumers' consumption behavior towards more sustainable patterns across a variety of different contexts, sustainable apparel has still not become a mainstream trend despite the textile industry's excessive usage of valuable resources. Albeit extant research found different potential barriers elucidating why consumers hesitate to purchase such apparel, it remains unclear whether sustainability really matters to consumers in a clothing context and further, which aspects are of relevance during consumers' purchase decision. We thus conducted two studies with four best-worst scaling experiments in which 4,350 online shoppers assessed the importance of both conventional and sustainable apparel attributes, as well as sustainable apparel attributes only, and the willingness to pay for sustainable product attributes. We further inquired the importance of conventional as well as sustainable online shop attributes. Our findings indicate that conventional apparel attributes such as fit and comfort, price-performance ratio, and quality are of higher relevance to consumers than sustainable attributes. The most important sustainable apparel attributes are the garment's durability, fair wages and working conditions, as well as an environmentally friendly production process. Consumers also indicated to prefer the latter three attributes to a 20% discount. Moreover, consumers demand less as well as sustainable packaging, free returns, and discount campaigns. Our findings reveal a gender gap regarding green consumerism with female respondents assessing most sustainable attributes as more important than male respondents do.     

Consumers' perceptions of individual and combined sustainable food labels: a UK pilot investigation

Consumers are faced with an increasing number of sustainable food labels. These different labels may be complementary or add to the increasing competition of product information in consumers' minds. We investigate: (1) the perceptions that consumers in the UK have about sustainable labels vs. other labels, such as origin or nutrition labels; and (2) consumers' reactions to combinations of different sustainable labels. Overall, the findings from two focus groups conducted in the UK indicate that consumers have positive perceptions of organic and fair trade labels but tend to be sceptical about unfamiliar labels and general claims such as ‘climate friendly’. The results also indicate the importance of familiarity, trust and fit between combinations of labels as well as between associating a label with a brand. While the combination of certain labels can enhance the value of a food product, this study also indicates that other label combinations (e.g. private and sustainable label) can detract from a label's value. Implications and recommendations are suggested for managers to counter the image of greenwashing, and for policy makers to facilitate sustainable food choices.     

Consumer attitudes and loyalty towards private brands

Private or store brands improve the efficiency of consumer decision making by offering equivalent quality products at lower prices. The present study evaluated consumer attitudes towards private brands with the goal of understanding their appeal in order to enhance efforts to convince more consumers to buy them. We used three samples (ns = 279, 245 and 305) of US consumers to compare attitudes of buyers of private and national brands in three product categories: orange juice, cereal and bottled water. The results show that private label buyers (23% of orange juice, 6.5% of cereal and 14% of bottled water buyers) consider brands themselves to be less important and private brands to offer better performance than do national brand buyers. When asked about specific brands, national brand buyers tended to be price insensitive towards national brands, and private label buyers price insensitive towards store brands. In addition, the national brand buyers saw some of the national brands to be more relevant to their lifestyles and needs, but the private label buyers saw the private labels the same way. Being relevant to consumers' lives appears to influence brand selection. Besides touting lower prices, private brand promotions might stress the equivalent performance of private labels and create promotions showing how these brands can be relevant to consumers' lifestyles and needs.     

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.     

Low‐literate consumers' use of clothing labels amidst personal and product related challenges

Low‐literate consumers experience various challenges in the marketplace. This quantitative study focused on low‐literate female consumers' use of clothing labels amidst personal and product‐related challenges in the marketplace. An interviewer‐administered questionnaire was used among black African female consumers (n = 450) with literacy levels ranging from Grades 5 to 8 (on average, 11–14 years old), residing in the Emfuleni Local Municipality area, Gauteng, South Africa. Personal challenges experienced involved reading and numeracy skills, as well as concrete and pictographic thinking. Although respondents indicated that they read and understand clothing labels, results revealed problems experienced when attempting to use the information provided. Their numeracy skills were average and related abstract thinking skills were fair. Product‐related challenges were related to the format of labels, care‐label knowledge and evaluation of clothing quality. Respondents' preference for symbolic and graphic presentation of size format provided evidence of pictographic thinking. Care label understanding was poor, and clothing products were evaluated concretely. Some of the older respondents were inclined to follow the peripheral route of elaboration when reading clothing‐label information. We conclude that low‐literate consumers' use of clothing label information can improve if provided in a format that they can read and understand.     

Perceptions,attitudes, and behaviors toward sustainable fashion: Application of Q and Q‐R methodologies

While sustainability has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners, consumer attitudes and behaviors toward sustainable consumption have not yet been elucidated. The decision‐making process around sustainable consumption involves diverse and complex considerations including some forms of compromise (tradeoff). In addition, sustainability is a broad and subjective concept, and is not a primary attribute of a product Impacting the choices of consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to apply new methods to overcome the limitations of conventional evidence‐based research. This research uses Q and Q‐R methodologies to identify consumers' subjective viewpoints toward sustainable fashion and to present socio‐demographic differences across segments of sustainable fashion consumers. Study 1 uses Q methodology to interview 26 consumers and to identify four types of decision makers: doubtful egoists, single‐minded bystanders, wavering intellects, and opinion leaders. Study 2 uses Q‐R methodology to verify the psychological and socio‐demographic variables among 328 consumers. The research provides useful suggestions for selecting and approaching target consumer segments in the sustainable fashion industry.     

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.     

Ethical consumer behaviour in Germany: The attitude‐behaviour gap in the green apparel industry

In today's society, the trend of ethical consumerism is undeniable. Yet, even though consumers are ethically concerned, they rarely transform their intentions into a green purchasing behaviour—and this phenomenon is also evident in the sustainable fashion industry. This study aims to understand the prevailing attitude‐behaviour gap and explores the barriers that constrain consumers in purchasing green apparel. A total of 13 in‐depth interviews were conducted and analysed to the principles of grounded theory. The analysis reveals that the following barriers impede consumption of sustainable fashion: price, availability, knowledge, transparency, image, inertia and consumption habits. The impact of each dimension on consumers' purchase decisions might be of interest to apparel manufacturers and retailers who should implement strategies to encourage eco‐conscious apparel acquisition and focus on diminishing these barriers. Accordingly, three major recommendations are made: (a) to concentrate on specific product attributes; (b) to adopt an efficient digital communication strategy; and (c) to make a greater effort on making green apparel attainable. This study contributes to the overall understanding of consumer behaviour in the ethical fashion industry and examines in‐depth the purchasing criteria for sustainable fashion for consumers.     

Struggles in optimal labelling: how different consumers react to various labels for genetically modified foods

The labelling of genetically modified (GM) foods is an important policy issue, as consumers' attitudes towards these foods appear to be quite sensitive to information about their potential benefits and risks. Because it is difficult for labels to differ across consumers, differences in reactions to label information could lead to conflicts across consumer groups or to different market outcomes. Using factor and cluster analysis, we uncover three consumer segments with different attitudes to the risks and benefits of GM foods. Our segmentation‐based analysis on consumer reactions to information points out important differences across consumers. Not only did we find differences across segments in how they view the credibility of GM‐related information, we also find differences in how information influences segments' perceptions of the product, and in their likelihood to buy.     

Environmental and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability and Price Effects on Consumer Responses

The lack of attention to sustainability, as a concept with multiple dimensions, has presented a developmental gap in green marketing literature, sustainability, and marketing literature for decades. Based on the established premise of customer–corporate (C–C) identification, in which consumers respond favorably to companies with corporate social responsibility initiatives that they identify with, we propose that consumers would respond similarly to companies with sustainability initiatives. We postulate that consumers care about protecting and preserving favorable economic environments (an economic dimension of sustainability) as much as they care about natural environments. Thus, we investigate how two sustainability dimensions (i.e., environmental and economic) and price can influence consumer responses. Using an experimental method, we demonstrate that consumers favor sustainability in both dimensions by giving positive evaluations of the company and purchase intent. In addition, consumers respond more negatively to poor company sustainability than to high company sustainability. In comparison, consumers respond more negatively to the company’s poor commitment to caring for the environment than to the company’s poor commitment to economic sustainability. We also find that consumers do not respond favorably to low prices when they have information about the firm’s poor environmental sustainability. Finally, we find support for an interaction effect between consumer support for sustainability and corporate sustainability; that is, consumers evaluate a company more favorably if the company shares the consumers’ social causes. Overall, we conclude, from our empirical study, support for the idea that consumers do respond to multiple dimensions of sustainability.     

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.     

Adolescents' sustainability concerns and reasons for not consuming sustainably

Many consumers report being concerned about sustainability but they do not necessarily consume in a sustainable manner. Understanding why this occurs is vital to encouraging sustainable consumption practices. Understanding the phenomenon in relation to adolescents is particularly important. In addition to being a significant segment of current consumers, adolescents are learning consumption habits and preferences that they will carry into adulthood. This research contributes to the domain by fulfilling two research objectives. The first objective was to develop and use a scale for measuring adolescents' sustainability concerns (ASC). The second objective was to identify and examine adolescents' reasons for not consuming sustainably. The research used a three‐stage multi‐method design that included small group interviews and two online surveys with adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. The ASC scale that we produced identifies 14 key sustainability concerns across the dimensions of environment, well‐being and society. The reasons for not consuming sustainably varied across these dimensions. For example, the most frequently reported reasons in the environmental dimension included cost and convenience whereas peer pressure and hedonic preferences were the dominant reasons for well‐being. More broadly, three groups of reasons for unsustainable consumption emerged. These included (i) limited application of sustainability concerns across consumption; (ii) deviating from concerns due to competing priorities; and (iii) limiting or eliminating personal responsibility. The contributions of this research have theoretical, methodological and practical implications for consumer researchers, social marketers and policy makers.     

Who is behind the sustainable purchase? The sustainable consumer profile in grocery shopping in Spain

Studies of sustainable consumer profiles are mainly label‐specific and focus on Organic or Fair Trade labels. As a result, when the sustainable consumer is defined, there is a sense that only one profile exists. If each label has a different positioning strategy and has different requirements, the buyers of these products may also be different. Through the use of consumer panel data, this paper aims to deepen the understanding of the household demographic profiles of consumers of sustainable brands in order to discover if there is a single sustainable consumer profile or whether there is diversity associated with different labels. This study reveals profile differences and these provide better understanding of the complexities of sustainable consumption. It reveals that the profiles of sustainable buyers are not the same across all labels and this should be taken into account by awarding institutions when designing and evaluating their positioning strategies.     

Consumer Perceptions of the Social Vs. Environmental Dimensions of Sustainability

Prior research on sustainable consumption has addressed a variety of issues yet is characterized by mixed results. Researchers have often treated sustainability as a uni-dimensional construct, overlooking important differences and thwarting a better understanding of consumer response. We demonstrate that consumers perceive the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability as psychologically distinct in theoretically and practically important ways. Specifically, consumers associate the social dimension of sustainability more with affective, short-term, and local considerations and the environmental dimension more with cognitive, long-term, and global considerations. We identify and explore these distinctions in a qualitative pilot study, which subsequently motivated development of three hypotheses. We provide evidence supporting these hypotheses in a series of five studies. Our findings enable a reinterpretation of prior equivocal research, serve as a foundation for future research, and provide guidance for how policy-makers can tailor policy and related communication efforts depending on whether the focal issue is related to social versus environmental concerns.     

(Mis)trust in marketing: a reflection on consumers' attitudes and perceptions

Consumers are at the focal point of marketers' attention. However, while extensive research is devoted to understanding consumers' motivations, attitudes and behaviour, surprisingly little attention is given to the consumers' views of marketing itself. This paper explores consumers' attitudes towards marketing and their perceptions of it, reflecting critically upon their views. Since much criticism of marketing focuses on its role in promoting consumption, we also consider perceptions of current levels of consumption and the extent to which marketing is held responsible for them. Based on 29 in-depth interviews we find evidence suggesting the prevalence of negative attitudes towards marketing, especially associated with deceptive or dishonest campaigns, although marketing's informative role is acknowledged. Importantly, findings reveal a limited understanding of the discipline, suggesting a gap between the concept of marketing and consumers' perceptions of it. This paper sends marketers important messages from consumers and offers grounds for further debate.