Effect of Religious and Cultural Information of Olive Oil on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Japan

Consumer Acceptance and Preference for Olive Oil Attributes-A Review

Olive oil is largely produced in southern European countries. It encompasses a mix of search (e.g., price, color, packaging features), experience (e.g., taste), and credence attributes (e.g., organic, health claim). The importance of these attributes on consumers' attitudes and preferences for Olive oil has been explored quite extensively in the past. However, a recent body of literature has focused on product nutritional information and health claims in shaping consumers' attitudes and preferences for Olive oil. This work aims to offer an updated review of consumers' acceptance and preferences for Olive oil features. Applying the Systematic Literature Review method, a sample of 47 studies published over the last 20 years was reviewed through descriptive and content analysis. The following attributes, grouped in search, experience, and credence categories, were discussed: origin, sustainability, brand, health and safety, the production process, packaging, color, taste and flavor, and product features. The discussion of marketing and research implications closes the study. The study provides an overview of the literature background of consumer behaviors of Olive Oil, investigating the recent literature focused on product nutritional information and health claims.

Sustainability Labels on Olive Oil: A Review on Consumer Attitudes and Behavior

Product labeling is a way to inform consumers and increase their awareness about sustainability attributes of products. It guarantees the use of specific production conditions, promotes market incentives and highlights environmental, social and/or ethical product attributes. This study provides a literature review of sustainability labels on olive oil including consumer attitudes and behavior towards this product. Results show that consumers have positive attitudes towards olive oil carrying sustainability labels and are willing to pay more for olive oil carrying those labels. However, the major drivers of this behavior are far from being related to sustainability. This insight jeopardizes the main objective of those labels and suggests more clarifications about the information delivered by them. More in-depth investigations are needed about the drivers of consumer behavior towards olive oil carrying sustainability labels.

Segmenting Olive Oil Consumers Based on Consumption and Preferences toward Extrinsic, Intrinsic and Sensorial Attributes of Olive Oil

The aim of this paper was to identify and describe segments of a study population that consumes olive oil. Therefore, a survey was conducted in 2019 on a sample of 705 German and 175 UK consumers. In both samples, three consumer segments were identified. These three segments differed significantly with regard to purchase and consumption patterns, as well as attitudes toward the extrinsic, intrinsic, sensorial, and health attributes of olive oil. Their main preferences related to health properties of olive oil, followed by hedonic attributes; therefore, these aspects should be marketed in German markets. For UK consumers, validation of extrinsic attributes, such as region, micro-location, and protected designation of geographical origin (PDO), should be used in marketing campaigns in light of economic sustainability on local family farms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Since UK consumers rely heavily on vendors’ recommendations, more effort should be made in the UK market to establish habits of consumption and an olive oil culture that would be sustainable in long-term time frames.