Rosa SchleenbeckerInformationsbedarf und Informationssuche beim Kauf von Produkten aus Fairem Handel

About this book deutschenglish

The consumption of so-called “ethical products”, amongst them products from Fair Trade, has gained a growing market importance during the recent years. From a marketing point of view, Fair Trade-products are characterised by the fact that they are credence goods, implying an information asymmetry between producers and end-consumer. This means that neither consumers nor external institutions can verify if the promised Fair Trade quality criteria are adhered. Consequently, consumers’ trust into the promised product attributes is an indispensable requirement for market success. Trust builds up upon information on the process related product characteristics. However, information should be adapted to consumers’ needs in order to avoid information overload and to perform a successful product communication. Hence, the goal of the research project was to identify the information need as regards extent and content of information, including the role of Fair Trade-labels. Beyond that, the importance of price and production method (organic/conventional) was examined.

A multi-method approach was chosen to achieve the research goal: Focus group discussions were performed to gain insights into Fair Trade-consumers’ knowledge on the products and the underlying product standards as well as consumers’ information need. A set of crucial Fair Trade-product information was developed based on the insights given in the discussions. In the next step, the set was tested by means of the Information Display Matrix (IDM)-method with 389 Fair Trade-consumers. The IDM was embedded into a written questionnaire. Both methods were computer-assisted.

The results display the importance of information when marketing Fair Trade-products and elaborate on the significance of the product attributes price, Fair Trade-label and additional labelling as organic product. Above that, the importance and design of additional information on Fair Trade production standards are discussed. Furthermore, information search strategies of the participants are exposed. In the following, suggestions for the marketing of Fair Trade-products are given.

Ihr Werk im Verlag Dr. Kovač

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Dissertation veröffentlichen