This thesis investigated whether and how consumers’ purchase intention and willingness to pay for food products are affected by the number of certification seals and the level of pretension of a product benefit claim presented on the product packaging. Its objective was to find the ideal number of seals and level of claim pretentiousness where purchase intention and willingness to pay are highest and to give an explanation about consumers’ thought processes that may lead to this outcome. To this end, the role of consumers’ perception of the product quality and the manufacturer conscientiousness has been taken into consideration.
With reference to existing literature on product certification as well as concepts originating from human information processing theory and advertising research this study suspected that consumer attitudes and purchase intentions first increase up to a maximum point before decreasing again as the number of certification seals being employed simultaneously rises. The author furthermore hypothesized that consumers react negatively to a more pretentious benefit claim in terms of less favourable product and manufacturer attitudes and lower purchase intentions. The interaction effect of the number of seals and the pretentiousness of a benefit claim on manufacturer conscientiousness perception, product quality perception, purchase intention and willingness to pay was assumed to be likewise of inverted-U nature after the presence of a certification seal has offset the negative effect of a pretentious claim.
These hypotheses about the direct impact of the two types of extrinsic product attributes as well as additional hypotheses about the mediating role of product quality perception and manufacturer conscientiousness perception in the relationships between the extrinsic product attributes and consumers’ purchase intentions have been tested by means of a survey-based framed field experiment in a real-world retail environment. A factorial 5 (# of seals: 0,1,2,3,4) x 2 (claim: modest, pretentious) between-subject research design exposed grocery shoppers randomly to one of 10 different experiment conditions consisting of jars of jam of a fictive brand with a different number and combination of the 4 seals ‘BIO', ‘Bioland’, ‘Demeter’ and ‘Naturland’, and the two organic claims “Simply organic” and “More organic does not exist!”. The collected primary data has been analysed by means of multivariate Analysis of Variance and Regression Analysis.
Table of Contents
Preface
Executive Summary
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Appendices
1. Introduction
1.1 The dilemma of brand managers
1.2 Research objective
1.3 Research relevance
1.3.1 Academic relevance
1.3.2 Managerial relevance
1.4 Research outline
2. Theoretical background
2.1 The role of certification seals as signals
2.2 The impact of multiple certification seals
2.2.1 The effect on purchase intention and willingness to pay
2.2.2 The mediating role of product quality perception
2.2.3 The mediating role of manufacturer conscientiousness perception
2.3 The impact of a product benefit claim
2.3.1 The effect on purchase intention and willingness to pay
2.3.2 The mediating role of product quality perception
2.3.3 The mediating role of manufacturer conscientiousness perception
2.4 The combined impact of multiple certification seals and a product benefit claim
2.4.1 The effect on purchase intention and willingness to pay
2.4.2 The mediating role of product quality perception
2.4.3 The mediating role of manufacturer conscientiousness perception
3. Methodology
3.1 Research method and general research design
3.2 Pre-test
3.2.1 Determination of research stimuli
3.2.2 Data collection pre-test
3.2.3 Pre-test results
3.3 Main Experiment
3.3.1 Specific research design and main experiment stimuli
3.3.2 Data collection main experiment
3.3.3 Measurement of variables
4. Research results
4.1 Sample description and data preparation
4.2 Data reduction and exploration
4.2.1 Establishment and purification of scales
4.2.2 Comparison of questionnaire versions
4.2.3 Comparison of demographics, psychographics, product usage behaviour across experiment groups
4.2.4 Comparison of main research variables across demographics, psychographics, product usage behaviour
4.2.5 Comparison of main research variables across experiment groups
4.3 Testing the Conceptual Model
4.3.1 The direct impact of extrinsic product attributes
4.3.2 The mediating role of product quality perception
4.3.3 The mediating role of manufacturer conscientiousness perception
4.3.4 The overall cause-effect chain from extrinsic product attributes to behavioural intentions
4.4 Additional research findings
4.4.1 The impact of extrinsic product attributes on taste perception
4.4.2 The impact of extrinsic product attributes on ‘Manufacturer credibility perception’, ‘Price perception’, ‘Organicness perception’ and ‘Amount of product information’
4.4.3 Additional qualitative results
5. General discussion and conclusion
5.1 Discussion of research findings
5.1.1 The impact of multiple certification seals
5.1.2 The impact of a product benefit claim
5.1.3 The combined impact of multiple certification seals and a product benefit claim
5.2 Research implications
5.2.1 Academic implications
5.2.2 Managerial implications
5.3 Research limitations and recommendations for future research
5.4 The more the better, or too much of a good thing?
References
Appendix
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