The Impact of Brand on Consumer Preferences of Milk in Online Purchases: Conjoint Analysis Approach

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to determine preferences of Czech consumers in online shopping of long-life semi-skimmed milk and to identify the importance of milk attributes in their online buying process, with focus on brand. Specifically, the study is focusing on: 1) identification of the importance of a brand in comparison with packaging, price and quality label in online purchases, 2) finding milk with maximum utility for consumers, and 3) revealing the most preferred brand of milk when other attributes stay the same. Data were collected in September 2018 through an online survey, using full-profile conjoint analysis. A total of 185 respondents 18+ living in the Czech Republic, selected by quota sampling method concerning the role of men and women in household food purchases, completed a questionnaire. Research results reveal that brand is the most important extrinsic quality cue affecting milk choice in online purchases, with relative importance 50.3%. The importance of other surveyed attributes is balanced, with 18.6% for packaging, 17.6% for price and 13.5% for quality label. Comparison of consumer preferences for three different brands of milk with otherwise the same attributes revealed the highest preference for brand coming from the region. A familiar brand plays a key role in maintaining a competitive position in the online grocery market.

Examining the factors shaping consumer attitude towards the popular alcoholic beverages in Hungary

“…The basic conjoint analysis model is calculated by the following formula ( Eq. (3) ) ( Malhotra, 2016 ; Velčovská and Larsen, 2021 ): where: U(X) = overall utility of a product profile, α ij = the part-worth contribution or utility associated with the j th level (j = 1, 2, …, k) of the i th attribute (i = 1, 2, …, m), x ij = 1 if the j th level of the i th attribute is present, 0 otherwise, k i = number of levels of attribute i, m = number of attributes. …”

“…The basic conjoint analysis model is calculated by the following formula (Eq. ( 3)) (Malhotra, 2016;Velčovská & Larsen, 2021):…”

Public’s preferences in consuming spicery products (jamu) post-pandemic

“…The correlation is considered strong if the resulting R value is greater than 0.5 (R > 0.5) with a probability of < 0.05. This means a real correlation exists between the conjoint analysis results and the respondent's opinions [17]. In the conjoint analysis, several things must be considered, such as the value of importance and usability.…”

Consumer Preferences toward Goat Milk

“…The utility value describes each respondent's opinion in numbers as the basis for determining the level of satisfaction (Shingh et al, 2020;Velcovská & Larsen, 2021). In the study of consumer preference on goat milk using the conjoint method, the usability value describes the consumer's assessment of each attribute level with positive numbers and negative numbers.…”

“…Previous research on consumer preferences for dairy products (pure milk, processed cow milk, and processed goat milk) has been widely carried out. There are research on consumer behavior in buying dairy products (Bytyqi et al, 2020;Šugrová, 2018), the influencing factors on consumers' purchasing behaviors of milk products (Kaliji et al, 2019;Shunekeyeva, 2020), consumers' preference towards goat milk (Fanani & Thohari, 2018;Guney & Ocak, 2013;Solikah & Dewi, 2016), impacts of brands on consumers' decision (Kishokumar & Suganya, 2019;Velcovská & Larsen, 2021;Wijesinghe et al, 2020), and quality evaluation on production process of the powdered goat milk (Widodo et al, 2012).…”