Influence of Marketing on the Perception of a Vegan Food Product

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Utjecaj marketinga na percepciju veganskog prehrambenog proizvoda
• Author: Gabrijela Mikulić
• Mentor: Mirjana Tonković (mentor)
• Committee member: Nina Pavlin-Bernardić (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Jasmina Mehulić (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of Psychology); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2021-09-23, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Psychology; Other Applied Psychologies

Abstract

The outcome of successful marketing is an increase in sales and revenue, but the impact of marketing can also be utilized to contribute to positive changes. Example of such a change is encouraging omnivores to eat a plant­based diet. However, most people have a negative attitude towards veganism and remain resistant to change. For more effective marketing campaigns, it is crucial to know the attitudes of the target population, as well as the impact of marketing decisions on the perception of the advertised product. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine participants ’attitudes about the vegan diet and to determine the impact of marketing on omnivores’ perception of a vegan food product (a cookie) using an experimental design. 1166 participants answered an online survey with different measures of product acceptability and a scale of attitudes towards the vegan diet. The results on indicate that omnivores have a negative general attitude towards the vegan diet, while vegetarians and vegans have a more positive attitude and don’t differ from each other. The same pattern of results holds true on the subscales of the attitudes questionnaire, Benefits and Satisfaction. On the Practicality subscale, all dietary groups differ significantly, with omnivores giving the lowest and vegans the highest estimates. The experimental part of the research found a negative impact of vegan marketing, where omnivores gave significantly lower estimates of buying likelihood if the cookie was presented as vegan. Compared to the control, participants indicate higher expected retail price for the vegan cookie, as well as willingness to pay. Different advertised motivations for producing a vegan cookie didn’t influence any of the estimates. Overall, results indicate that it may not be advisable to emphasize that a product is vegan if the goal is to market the product towards the general population.

Abstract (croatian)

Ishod uspješnog marketinga je povećanje prodaje, a time i prihoda, ali utjecaj marketinga može biti od koristi i u kontekstu pozitivnih promjena. Jedna od tih promjena je poticanje svejeda na prehranu temeljenu na biljnoj hrani. Ipak, većina ljudi ima negativan stav prema veganstvu i nije sklona promjeni. Za efektivnije marketinške kampanje ključno je znati stavove ciljne populacije, kao i utjecaj marketinških odluka na percepciju proizvoda koji je na tržištu. Zbog toga, cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati stav sudionika o veganskoj prehrani i utvrditi utjecaj marketinga na to kako svejedi percipiraju veganski prehrambeni proizvod (keks) koristeći eksperimentalni nacrt. 1166 sudionika ispunilo je online upitnik s različitim mjerama prihvatljivosti keksa te skalom stavova prema veganskoj prehrani. Rezultati pokazuju kako svejedi u prosjeku imaju negativan generalni stav prema veganskoj prehrani, dok vegetarijanci i vegani imaju pozitivniji stav i me usobno se ne razlikuju. Jednaki rezultati dobiveni su i na subskalama upitnika stavova Korisnost i Uživanje. Na subskali Praktičnost sve se prehrambene skupine značajno razlikuju, gdje su svejedi dali najniže, a vegani najviše procjene. Eksperimentalni dio istraživanja je utvrdio negativan utjecaj prikazivanja proizvoda kao veganskog, gdje svejedi daju značajno niže procjene vjerojatnosti kupovanja keksa ukoliko je prikazan kao veganski. Utjecaj prikazivanja različite motivacije za proizvodnju veganskog keksa nije se pokazao značajnim. U usporedbi s kontrolnim keksom, za veganski keks postoji očekivanje više maloprodajne cijene, kao i spremnost za plaćanje više cijene. Istraživanje upućuje kako je za plasiranje veganskog proizvoda s ciljem prodaje općoj populaciji vjerojatno nepoželjno isticati veganski sastav proizvoda u marketingu.

• Keywords: marketing; vegan diet; cognitive dissonance; willingness to pay
• Keywords (croatian): marketing; veganska prehrana; kognitivna disonanca; spremnost na plaćanje
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:163186
• Study programme: Title: Psychology; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra psihologije (magistar/magistra psihologije)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2021-09-29 08:13:05