Centre for Economic Transformation| CET

The Effects of Quality and Bio Labels on the Willingness-to-Pay

Article

The purpose of this study was to examine the indirect effect of different signals in product packaging, namely a quality label and a bio label, on the willingness to pay. In order to investigate this, a between-group online experiment was designed in which four groups were created. The experiment consisted in showing the respondents photos on the same product in four different conditions in which the signals that appeared on the package were manipulated: no signal/standard package, presence of a quality sticker, presence of a bio label and presence of both signals, quality sticker and bio label.

The results show that signals of quality influence the perception of quality and price, but they had no indirect effect on the purchase intentions. The quality label did not influence the perceived quality and perceived price, and, therefore, it had not influence on the willingness to pay. The bio label had a great impact on the perceived quality and an indirect effect on the willingness to pay via these two variables. When both signals were used, the results were similar to the third condition when just the bio label was used. This indicates that the quality label has no effect on consumers’ perceptions even if used in combination with other signals, but bio labels have a strong implication on consumer behavior.

Reference

Situmeang, F. & Situmeang, R. The Effects of Quality and Bio Labels on the Willingness-to-Pay. In: Advanced Science Letters 23 (1), 577-580.

Publication date

Jan 2017

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