Communicating Ethical Arguments to Organic Consumers: A Study Across Five European Countries

Additional ethical claims were tested with mock organic egg labels in five EU countries. The attitudes towards the advertising labels were assessed by multiple copy testing measures. A total of 156 individual responses were analysed. The study confirms the difficulty of conducting advertising research in a multicultural framework, and shows that additional local/ regional claims can reinforce the appeal of organic products

Consumer motivations in the purchase of organic food. A means-end approach

The paper presents partial results from an Italian study on consumer perception and knowledge of organic food and related behaviour. Uses the means-end chain model to link attributes of products to the needs of consumers. In order to provide insights into consumer motivation in purchasing organic products, 60 respondents were interviewed using ``hard’’ laddering approach to the measurement of means-end chains. The results (ladders) of these semi-qualitative interviews are coded, aggregated and presented in a set of hierarchical structured value maps. Even if organic products are perceived as difficult to find and expensive, most consumers judge them positively. All consumers associate organic products with health at different levels of abstraction and want good, tasty and nourishing products, because pleasure and wellbeing are their most important values. Results show that differences exist between groups of consumers with respect to their frequency of use (experience) of organic products and level of information (expertise). Reports and discusses results on consumer cognitive structures at different level of experience.Organic food, Consumer behaviour, Italy, Means-End Chain, Laddering

Consumer Perception of Local and Organic Products: Substitution or Complementary Goods?

Many consumers are interested in local products because of the perceived benefits of freshness, stronger taste and higher quality. To consumers the origin attribute represents a strong purchasing criterion. With respect to organic produce, local food products may be perceived either as substitutes or as complementary. A qualitative approach to data collection (focus groups) and to data processing (content analysis) has been used to analyse Italian consumers’ perception with respect to local and organic food products. In the framework of the EU project QLIF (FP6-506358) a discussion guide to focus group interview was used in order to identify important purchase criteria, the willingness to pay, as well as the role of organic food products in purchasing criteria. Two animal – yogurt and eggs – and two non animal products – bread and tomatoes – were taken into account. Focus groups interviews indicate that Italian consumers place much importance on the local origin of food products, especially if fresh consumed. The origin with its implication of seasonality, territoriality and localness are among the major motivating and trust factors, however not always linked to organic food products. The lack of availability of local and organic food products together with retailing issues are taken into consideration. Differentiation throughout animal and non-animal products and between processed food products and commodities is analysed. Organic seems to suffer in global markets, localness may suggest a solution. The research provides insights on substitution and complementary marketing strategies

Organic food quality & safety perception throughout Europe

Many more consumer s have tried at least once organic food, but despite higher consumer awareness, they still show a great concern about food quality and safety. Recent research showed that there is still little knowledge of how organic products are produced and processed and which characteristics are fundamental for the consumer with regard to quality and safety. In this scenario, primary producers, processors and other stakeholders in the organic supply- chain have the difficult task of understanding consumers' complex and sometimes contradictory wishes with regard to organic food. The aim of this study is to examine food quality and safety issues related to buying organic products. To provide better insight on the safety and quality issues in a cross - cultural setting, the linkages among consumer's personal values - as final expression of consumer product knowledge - are analysed, by means of laddering data on 8 EU countries.laddering, food safety, food quality, cross cultural study, values, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The positioning of organic products: which way forward?

The current positioning of organic products is based on a segmentation approach that recognises the organic market basically as a (enlarging) niche. Research conducted by the authors through various EU projects shows that the positioning of organic products cannot simply hinge on attributes/characteristics that differentiate organic products from their competitors, nor is a strategy based on benefit segmentation enough. A value/need based positioning of organic food products is proposed, based on a lateral marketing approach

Consumption of Organic Foods from a Life History Perspective:An Explorative Study among Italian consumers

Taking into consideration individuals’ cognitive reasoning, and assuming that consumption of organic food has involved a change of mind about food experiences and food habits, we have identified the concepts, stories and theories mentioned by respondents in their discourses about organic food. Regular consumers trust organic products because they believe that they are healthier and tastier than any other product. A growing stock of information supports their food choice and confidence in organic food. Occasional consumers have strong beliefs about the better taste and the higher quality of organic food in general. Non organic users sometimes perceive organic food as a new fashion, the last fad. Organic food is still confused with close ‘substitutes’, such as ‘natural’, ‘macrobiotic’ and similar products. Many occasional consumers believe that regular consumers are somewhat obsessed with organic food and that they look and behave strangely. Organic products are generally perceived and experienced as expensive products, when compared to conventional alternatives. To organic consumer the rewards they perceive to gain from organic food is well beyond the resources (in terms of time and money) they employ to search for the higher quality of organic products. Institutional attempts to change consumer behaviour are commonly categorized into consumer information, consumer education and consumer advice (Peter et al., 1999).In order to increase both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty, the level of consumer information and product knowledge should be increased. Besides, consumers will become more committed if their beliefs regarding the intrinsic self-relevance of organic food will increase in the future

CORE ORGANIC "Farmers Consumer Partnership" Report on the Elaboration and test of new communication concepts (Deliverable n. 3 - WP4)

Globalisation and growing anonymity of trade with organic products causes farmers in Europe to see themselves forced to lower their production standards in order to stand up to world-wide competition. Furthermore, consumers criticise food products, which were produced under unsatisfactory social and environmental conditions. Thus, this project investigates marketing and communication strategies by which organic farmers try to include higher ethical values in their production than the statutory ones. The aim is to know, which communication arguments for ethical aspects have proved to be the most promising from the consumers’ point of view in different countries. In the first part of this project, promising communication strategies and arguments of farmers’ organisations will be identified. Selected arguments will be tested in different regions by a so-called Information Display Matrix (IDM). With this tool, the best ranked alternative product attributes and sales arguments will be detected. Advertising companies will then develop product labels and leaflets with information using the best-ranked arguments per country. Afterwards, different proposals for labels and leaflets will be tested in a two step approach with consumers by using Focus Group Discussions and a sales experiment in a so-called Consumer Choice Test. The experiment will be used to analyse consumers’ buying behaviour and willingness to pay by presenting real products in a close to realistic laboratory setting. The results will provide a valuable tool for the strategic positioning of organic companies and farmers’ initiatives to differentiate their products from the mass market of organic products and improve their products’ image and the consumers’ willingness to pay. The results will also be interesting for policy makers to gain a better understanding of the country-specific attitudes of ethical consumers. With regards to the testing of new coomunication arguments, a national public call to advertising companies for the production of a communication tool (product label) was used to test for the most promising national organicPlus arguments of WP 3 (Animal Welfare, Local Food Production and Fair Price) through Focus Group (FG) discussions (three FGs per country). Both FGs (consumer jury) and questionnaires were used to capture the variability of consumer reactions to the communication tools in the five different EU countries: Austria (AT), Germany (DE), Italy (IT), Switzerland (CH) and the United Kingdom (UK). The organicPlus arguments were expressed in words, symbols and pictures on the egg labels. Later, to measure the effectiveness of the labels, a total of 18 FG discussions were held to investigate the consumer attitudes and preferences towards the advertising labels. To test the different egg labels, the consumer juries discussed the labels, after which the participants were asked to fill in individual questionnaires. These were designed to measure participant reactions and responses to the label arguments and their general attitudes towards advertising. After ten days, telephone interview were carried out that were designed to measure the participants’ recall of the labels. Five different measures were used in the questionnaires to evaluate participants’ attitudes towards the egg labels: emotional quotient (label liking), believability, effectiveness (willingness to buy), and recall, and a general measure of attitude towards advertising was also used. Only organic egg consumers and buyers of organic eggs, as either regular or occasional, were included into the survey sample. Although the intention of this advertising label test was to examine the organicPlus arguments via a common communication tool, the results provide a particularly dissimilar picture of participants’ attitudes towards the egg labels across the five different EU countries. Although previously tested and selected by the research teams, the label layout, the graphical elements, and the colour of the labels were widely discussed by the FG participants. Most participants disliked the layout. This negative perception towards all of the labels could have biased the organicPlus argument perception analyses. What is quite clear that arose from the CH and DE discussions was that participants did not like to be emotionally touched by the labels/ arguments. The only particular wording that the participants from all of the countries liked to see on the labels was: ‘6 fresh organic free-range eggs’, which made them trust the quality of the eggs. The bad perception of the labels is confirmed by the emotional quotient and believability measurements of the organicPlus arguments. In some cases, translation issues and label style were the reasons behind the participants’ bad opinions about the labels: many of the participants emphasised the unprofessional styles of the labels. Animal Welfare was the most liked argument. Local Food Production was generally scored second. Fair Prices showed the lowest scores. Particularly in DE and CH, the participants complained about the lack of relevant information versus “empty and meaningless” label claims. Despite the generalised low level of liking of the labels, one communication concept (headline, body copy, and related symbols) for each argument was preferred (or less disliked) in all of the countries. Animal Welfare 1 was preferred to Animal Welfare 2, Local Food Production 1 to Local Food Production 2, and Fair Price 1 to Fair Price 2. In summary, most consumers: •are not happy to ‘support’ farmers; •are ready to treat cows “with love and care”, but cannot associate strong emotional bonds to hens; •are not happy with vague and overblown statements (100% organic), in all of the countries except IT; •need to associate the term ‘local’ with a specific place; •cannot positively associate the term ‘tradition’ with primary production, but only with processing methods. The results support the use of a green label for organic egg packaging, while care needs to be taken with the addition of any extra organicPlus claims. Labels naively appealing to emotions were not accepted in most of the countries under scrutiny, while pure price information is not enough to promote some arguments, especially the Fair Price one, if the consumer cognitive dissonance is too high

Organic supply chain collaboration: a case study in eight EU Countries

This study aims at contributing to a better understanding of the linkage between supply chain performance and possible performance improvement with respect to food quality and safety. Therefore, the paper addresses the question whether the level of collaborative planning and close supply chain relationships could help improve quality and safety of organic supply chains. The study was conducted as a part of the multi-disciplinary EU-wide survey of organic supply chains, carried out in 8 European countries. In this paper we report the results of the study regarding the structures and performance of six different organic supply chains in these eight European countries: milk (CH, UK), apples (DE, CH), pork (UK, NL), eggs (DE, UK), wheat (HU, IT, FR) and tomatoes (IT, NL). In depth interviews with key-informants were carried out in 2006 to investigate the structures, performance and relationships within the supply chains. Results show a low level of collaboration among various actors especially on cost and benefits sharing. Highly integrated supply chains show higher collaboration especially in the domain of Decision Synchronization. Trust and collaboration appear to be related with increased performance, while, the higher the perceived risk for quality and safety is, the higher the probability of supply chain collaboration.Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Quality function deployment in the organic animal food sector: application to poultry meat

none3This study presents the results of an Italian investigation into the development of food quality for poultry meat in the organic sector, using the quality function deployment technique. The results show that among the characteristics of poultry, meat consumers assign greater importance to those that are strictly related to animal welfare issues. Price and product appearance (i.e., colour, presence of fat) come in second. To meet these needs, producers can effectively operate along the supply chain by acting on poultry housing type, genotype lines, and stocking density. Information about these issues should then be shared with the consumers (i.e., clear product labelling).Naspetti, Simona; Alberti, Francesca; Solfanelli, FrancescoNaspetti, Simona; Alberti, Francesca; Solfanelli, Francesc

IMPROVING FOOD QUALITY FOR THE ORGANIC POULTRY MEAT SECTOR: A QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT APPROACH

The paper presents results from an Italian study on the development of the food quality for poultry meat into the organic sector, using the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique. Results show that among the visual characteristics of poultry meat consumers assign greater importance to attributes strictly related to the animal welfare issue. Price and product appearance (colour and fat presence) come as second. To meet these needs, producers can effectively operate along the supply chain by acting on: housing type, genotype lines and stocking density (animal concentration/mq). Information about these issues (labelling) should also be provided to the consumers