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HomeEmpirical testing of the impact on consumer choice resulting from differences in the composition of seemingly identical branded products
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Differences in composition of seemingly identical branded (food) products (DC-SIP) has been a source of growing concern in the EU in recent years. In 2013, the European Parliament drew attention to the fact that findings of various surveys show that "on a long-term basis consumers are concerned about possible differences in the quality of products with the same brand and packaging which are distributed in the single market" (European Parliament 2018). In 2016, leaders of the EU Member States (MS) brought up the issue of DC-SIP in the European Council and agreed to investigate the existence of the practice further and to eventually finding a solution at European level., During his State of the Union Address in 2017, President Juncker explicitly referred to the issue of companies selling seemingly identical products with a different composition in different MS. To provide a snapshot into how widespread this situation was in the EU, in close collaboration with experts from Member States' competent authorities and stakeholders of the food chain, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) developed a harmonised methodology for the comparative testing of DC-SIP in food across MS (European Commission, 2018). The result of the application of this methodology to different products found that 9% and 22% of evaluated food products had differences in composition but had identical or similar front packaging, respectively. The rest of the food products evaluated were either identical (33%), had similar compositional characteristics (9%) or had a different composition and also a different front package (27%) (European Commission 2019). This report aims to contribute to the existing studies on differences in composition of seemingly identical branded (food) products (DC-SIP) by verifying whether the presence of DC-SIP influences consumer preferences and willingness to pay for a different version of the same branded product. The study used two different methodologies, an (online) discrete choice experiment (DCE) and a sensory testing experiment (referred to as "lab experiment"), in six MS (i.e. Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Spain, and Sweden) with a total of 10,600 respondents so that the following could be analysed: (i) consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for different versions of the same branded food products, and (ii) the impact of information on DC-SIP on consumer preferences for domestic or other-country versions of a product.
- Published:
- Themes: Agro-industry
- Subject: brand name , consumer behaviour , consumer information , consumer motivation , food chemistry , food price , foodstuff , foodstuffs legislation , Germany , Hungary , labelling , Lithuania , packaging , processed food product , product quality , research report , Romania , sample survey , Spain , Sweden
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| ISSN 1831-9424 | ISBN 978-92-76-15032-9 | DOI 10.2760/497543 | Catalogue number KJ-NA-30043-EN-N |
- Released on EU publications website:
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