Retailers’ communication on ugly fruits and vegetables: What are consumers’ perceptions?

Didier Louis (1) , Cindy Lombart (2)

1 LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique
2 Audencia Recherche

This research investigates retailers’ societal advertisements on ugly fruits and vegetables. A three (retailer's claim is focusing on consumers’ health, on food taste, on food price) x 2 (the retailer studied is Intermarché, Biocoop) between subjects design has been conducted. Several paths that retailers can follow in order to build the credibility of their message and consumers’ attitude toward the ad (the two explanatory variables relating to the message) as well as consumers’ trust in the retailer and their attitude toward this retailer (two explained variables relating to the retailer) are indicated. The direct and indirect impacts of societal advertisements on ugly fruits and vegetables on consumers’ relationship with retailers are thus pointed out.

Keywords: Societal advertisements; Abnormal fruits and vegetables; Legitimacy of the retailer; Credibility of the message; Attitude toward the ad; CSR; Price image; Trust in the retailer; Attitude toward the retailer

Domains: Business administration

Didier Louis, Cindy Lombart. Retailers’ communication on ugly fruits and vegetables: What are consumers’ perceptions?. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2018, 41, pp.256 - 271. ⟨10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.01.006⟩. ⟨hal-01709478⟩