Role of labels referring to quality and country of origin in food consumers’ decisions

Within a survey made of Hungarian awareness of, attitudes towards, and preferences for food labels and pricing, this study focused on consumers’ reactions to quality and country of origin labels. Data were collected with a standard questionnaire, face-to-face interviews (1000 participants) in the respondents’ home. It became obvious that consumers were looking for information about quality (rating its importance at 4.04) on packages, but information about origin (3.94) and production (3.89) was also important to them. The capability of respondents to spontaneously recall country of origin and quality labels was very limited: 35.5% of all respondents could not name any such labels. The best known label was “Hungarian Product” (30.5%), which was recognized by up to 90% of the respondents after they were shown it. Many consumers were ready to pay premium for products bearing this label (31.7%). According to our results, information about quality is important to consumers, but they do not look for it deliberately, and only a few consumers ascribe a higher value to products with labels bearing this information. There is a pressing need to increase consumers’ confidence for trademarks through dissemination of reliable information

Marketing Activity of the Hungarian SMEs Working in the Food Processing Industry

Abstract We are looking for the answer whether what tendencies were indicative of the future development of required marketing activity of the SMEs in the article dealing with marketing activity of the SMEs working in the food industry. The article based on a nationwide survey among 200 SMEs working in the food processing industry. In this article we focus on the SMEs working in the dairy and meat processing industries. The results of the nationwide research and some domestic references refer to that there is a latent demand on effective marketing activity among small and medium sized enterprises. It manifests itself in specifying marketing related fields to be improved in the future. The marketing itself is believed not to be an important field at the same time. This apparent opposition is the small enterprise marketing paradox in which background is the lack of knowledge about the marketing instruments. It can be stated that these small businesses collect mainly general market information and have no information about particular products. Therefore the presence of marketing planning is really rare and where there is some kind of planning it is not connected to available founds and follow-up control. The marketing strategy can be characterized by products processed mainly at low or medium level. Therefore the market position is defined by "lower pricegood quality". They mainly use the traditional distribution channels and their communication is accidental and has a low level. The marketing oriented way of thinking is still exists among the factors affecting on entrepreneurial behaviour which can not be found on the level of clusters according to our results. We could identify 8,3% of the enterprises as having satisfactory marketing activity

Towards a new strategy for organic milk marketing in Hungary

In Hungary, organic food market has both demand and supply oriented aspects: several times not necessary products are distributed, while the selection and volume of certain products are not satisfactory. Thus, our aim was to develop a coordinated benchmark strategy to increase the trade of organic products. To get more details on the Hungarian organic milk market, we conducted professional deep interviews and simultaneously applied the “mystery shopping” method. Nowadays, the market of organic milk and dairy products is slowly increasing in Hungary, however, there is no available statistical data. In the selection there are mostly Hungarian originated products, but some yoghurt, milk, and butter assortments are imported. Partial responsibility belongs to small sale shops’ habit of risk-avoidance. Without a proper selection of products, stores are unable to satisfy consumers’ needs; thus they focus on pushing certain products to increase demand. According to our results, ‘low price category’, ‘local/regional product’, and ‘prestige product’ strategies with attached in-store marketing elements are able to reverse the effects of an unfavourable marketing process

The Relationship Between the Motivators and Barriers of Health Behaviour and Consumer Attitudes Towards Functional Food

Due to the shift in consumer behaviour, the proportion of well informed, conscious consumers has been growing steadily, and functional foods with their capacity to protect health have been gaining more and more ground. To achieve market success in the field of functional foods, producers should be able to communicate information effectively concerning health issues and their newly developed product should indeed meet consumer expectations. The aim of our study was to identify and define the components of the dimensions of consumer attitudes in Hungary together with the barriers and motivators of health behaviour. Our research also examined how these factors influence consumer willingness to consume functional foods. Our surveys were carried out in focus groups of health-conscious (n=8) and not health-conscious (n=8) consumers. Our findings confirmed the adequacy of the international dual model, regarding the attitudes of Hungarian consumers towards functional food. Moreover, we also explored the most popular health food categories and sources of information on nutrition

Consumer attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition in Hungary

The aim of the research is to reveal the most important influencing factors that lead to consumers’ acceptance of personalised nutrition based on genetic testing. A nationwide representative questionnaire-based consumer survey was carried out involving 500 people in Hungary in 2014. The results show that consumers are divided over the new technology. Only 27.0% of the respondents have a positive attitude toward the new possibility, and they would be glad to use this new service in order to stay healthy. The rate of those who would have a genetic test because they want to follow a diet tailored to their needs is very low (16.0%). Our result suggested that the most important factors in consumer preference on personalised nutrition are positive health message and perceived risk/benefits, gender, and educational level. The most important factors regarding the attitude toward genetic testing are easy usage, benefits, the agreement among experts, and educational level