From commodity to brand: antecedents and outcomes of consumers' label perception
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421111157892 |
| Pages | 368-378 |
| Published date | 23 August 2011 |
| Date | 23 August 2011 |
| Author | Hans Martin Norberg,Natalia Maehle,Tor Korneliussen |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
From commodity to brand: antecedents and
outcomes of consumers’ label perception
Hans Martin Norberg and Natalia Maehle
Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Nofima), Tromsø, Norway
Tor Korneliussen
Bodø Graduate School of Business, Bodø, Norway
Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the significance of various aspects of consumers’ perception of a collective label as predictors for consumers’
intention to buy the labelled item and willingness to pay for the label.
Design/methodology/approach – The online survey was organised based on random sampling from a panel consisting of 46,000 people who had
previously agreed to serve as online consumer panellists for a large market research firm. A total of 2,844 invitations were sent out and 684 panellists
answered the invitation. The final sample consisted of 522 subjects.
Findings – The authors have developed and tested a model looking at the significance of various aspects of consumers’ perception of a collective label
as predictors for consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to pay for the labelled commodity.
Practical implications – By defining which factors influence consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to pay for the labelled product the paper
suggests what managers should pay attention to when they introduce a new label for a commodity.
Originality/value – The current article contributes to the literature in three ways. First, the paper replicates the results of the previous studies on
branding and extends the literature through introducing a new model defining consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to pay. Second, the
paper develops and tests a model that can be applied to collective labels. Third, the paper introduces a new label specific variable – importance of the
label.
Keywords Collective label, Purchase intentions, Willingness to pay, Consumers, Brands
Paper type Research paper
An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this article.
1. Introduction
The growing international competition and increasing choice
of products in the market makes it important for producers to
achieve a competitive advantage. Introducing brands and
labels is one of the main tools to distinguish products from the
competition and to get a better position on the market. There
have been a lot of studies looking on how consumers form
their preferences for traditional brands and what factors
influence their intention to buy these brands and willingness
to pay for a branded product. Research has for example
shown that brand trust has positive effect on brand attitude
(e.g. Okazaki et al., 2007), and brand attitude is positively
related to consumers’ purchase intentions (e.g. Fishbein and
Ajzen, 1975; Wilson et al., 1975; Laroche and Howard,
1980). In the current study we replicate the results of the
previous studies on the example of collective labels – brands
owned by an organisation or an association, whose members
use the label to identify themselves with certain characteristics
– and develop and test a new model summarising the effects
of different variables on consumers’ purchase intentions and
willingness to pay.
Even though theory of branding is applicable to a collective
label (Norberg, 2007), there may still be some differences
(Herstein and Tifferet, 2007). Due to the growing relevance of
collective labels as promotional tools and their distinctive
characteristics compared to the traditional brands, more
research on collective labels is necessary. Thus, the purpose
of our study is to investigate if purchase intentions and
willingness to pay for a collective label are influenced by the
same factors that apply to traditional brands. Studies on
consumer information processing of collective labels (Bjørner
et al., 2002; Miyazaki and Krishnamurty, 2002; Fotopoulos
and Krystallis, 2001; McEachern and Warnaby, 2004) do not
offer a clear picture of which factors influence consumer
preferences for products with this kind of labels. To address
this gap, we develop and test a model looking on the
significance of various aspects of consumers’ perception of a
collective label as predictors for consumers’ intention to buy
the labelled commodity and willingness to pay for the label. We
focus not only on the traditional factors known to influence
consumers’ preferences for brands (e.g. attitude toward the
brand/label, trust in the brand/label, consumers’ perceptions
and income) but also on such a label specific factor as the
importance of the label. To our knowledge, the current model
is the first model defining the purchase intentions and
willingness to pay for the collectively labelled product.
Therefore, the current article contributes to the literature in
three ways. First, we replicate the results of the previous
studies on branding and extend the literature through
introducing a new model defining consumers’ purchase
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
20/5 (2011) 368–378
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/10610421111157892]
368
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