Los determinantes de la compra de productos con etiquetas de contenido social y ambiental

Abstract

Las empresas social y medioambientalmente responsables realizan grandes inversiones para obtener los sellos que las certifiquen como tales. De cara a diferenciarse en el mercado, los logos o etiquetas responsables son considerados como un vehículo eficaz para comunicar al consumidor los atributos sociales y ambientales de los productos. Sin embargo, estudios previos concluyen que la mayoría de los consumidores no las conocen, no las entienden o no creen en ellas. Mientras que trabajos anteriores han examinado la influencia de las actitudes en la compra de productos con etiquetas, este trabajo analiza la influencia de la comprensión y de variables asociadas a la motivación en la compra de productos con etiquetado responsable. A partir de entrevistas estructuradas a 289 consumidores en Madrid, se concluye que el conocimiento de la etiqueta es un antecedente clave de la compra de productos con atributos éticos. Así, las organizaciones interesadas en el marcado RSE deben invertir en comunicación orientada a construir el conocimiento de la etiqueta. A partir de los resultados encontrados, se formulan sugerencias para profesionales y académicos interesados en el marketing de productos con etiquetado a contenido social y ambiental.

Narrowing the gap between consumer purchasing intention and behaviour through ecolabelling: a challenge for eco-entrepreneurism

“…On the other hand, consumers with some previous experience with ecolabelled products were more influenced by trust in product qualities, such as taste and health-related consequences. Greater consumer sensitivity towards environmental and/or social aspects implies greater purchasing motivation towards products that reflect environmental and/or social commitment, because consumers will seek to align their values with the products that they purchase (Carrero and Valor, 2015;Eldesouky et al, 2020).…”

“…Consumers with little time to dedicate to shopping will neither stop to compare products nor to examine sustainability-related labels/certificates, because their decision-making over the purchase is done within a short period of time (Song et al, 2019). Therefore, with less time to dedicate to purchasing, their capability to differentiate between products with labels/ certificates is likewise reduced, and their adoption of responsible consumer behaviour is of greater difficulty (Carrero and Valor, 2015). Grankvist and Biel (2007) found that the habit of purchasing a product, in other words, repetitive and frequent purchasing, had a negative influence on consumer attitudes towards ecolabelled products.…”

“…The excessive number of ecolabels means that it is not feasible for consumers to analyse all of them and certificates, because there is no source of information in which they are all compiled. One of the most complete directories, "Ecolabel Index", covers a total of 457 labels present in 199 countries and 25 industries; while it was estimated in another study that there were around 200 labels of environmental and social significance in Europe (Carrero and Valor, 2015).…”

“…Sectors such as fishing, agriculture, foodstuffs and electronic products display specific labels. Accreditation bodies and firms also provide information on ecolabelling so that consumers may become familiar with the ecolabels that reflect their interests and tastes, despite having no familiarity with the language of other ecolabels that may remain unknown to them (Carrero and Valor, 2015); and finally, (4) the absence of a complete list of ecolabels circulating within a country or a sector and the absence of a single law regulating the ecolabels of obligatory compliance for firms complicates consumer awareness of their information. Consumers may, for all of the above reasons, be deterred from consulting ecolabelling information, overlooking less well-known ecolabels in favour of other better known ones.…”

“…In Spain, 73% of the consumers described themselves as responsible consumers, in so far as they shopped with environmental, social and economic criteria in mind (OCU, 2018). However, the intentions of those consumers are not materialising in higher percentage sales of sustainable products, leaving a significant gap between the willingness of consumers to consume sustainable productsintention to purchaseand the real level of product salesactual shopping behaviour (Carrero et al, 2010;Carrero and Valor, 2015). Product attributes such as price, brand, quantity, expiry date and nutritional information compete with ecological labels to capture the attention of consumers, to be perceived as relevant and to influence consumer product selection behaviour.…”