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The purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese consumers’ perceptions in relation to both Chinese traditional and European food.

A web-based free word association test was administered to 302 consumers in China. They were asked to give the first three words that came into their minds when they were presented with each of two stimulus words, “traditional food” and “European food”. Three researchers grouped the elicited words into classes and then into dimensions. χ² association tests were used to assess and identify statistically significant differences in the frequencies of classes and dimensions for the two food concepts between socio-demographic groups.

The findings show that Chinese consumers define Chinese traditional food and European food through ten similar dimensions: Sensory appeal, Health, Origin, Marketing, Safety, Variety, Heritage, Symbolic meaning, Simplicity and Mood. Additionally, they associate Chinese traditional food with the dimensions Elaboration, Celebration and Habit, as well as link European food to the dimensions Convenience and New. Although ten dimensions are the same, obvious differences can be identified by comparing the classes for the two food concepts. Further, there are significant differences in the class associations for European food between age groups and in the dimension associations for Chinese traditional food between gender groups.

By using an online qualitative research method, this study is one of the first to address how Chinese consumers define both European food and their own traditional food in China, the largest East Asian country. The findings are particularly useful for the future development of traditional food products and for the future export of European food products onto China and even other countries in East Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the current image and consumer beliefs of European food in mainland Chinese consumers’ minds.

A web-based survey was conducted for data collection in December 2013 with 541 participants from two Chinese cities: Shanghai and Xi’an. The participants reported about the image of European food and characterized European food according to 14 items for product-related beliefs and 18 items for perceived profiles. Descriptive analysis, cluster analysis and partial least squares regression were employed for data analyses.

Findings show that European food has a unanimously positive image among mainland Chinese consumers. Three consumer segments were distinguished based on attribute beliefs about European food: a positive-beliefs segment, a negative-beliefs segment and an unfamiliar segment. The characteristics of typical European food consumers were high income, having long overseas experience, having visited Europe or living in a big and developed city. In addition, “safe” and “upscale” were the most important attribute beliefs driving mainland Chinese consumers to have a positive image of European food; while “unfamiliar” and “sweet” were the most negative drivers of European food’s image.

This is the first study to present information about consumer beliefs, general image and consumer segments in relation to European food in mainland China. These insights can help European food marketers to better understand mainland Chinese consumers and the current image of their products in mainland China so that they can develop effective marketing strategies for this huge and potential food market.

Honey is a product that has been consumed for thousands of years owing to honey's nutritional value and unique properties. This survey aimed to assess factors affecting consumer behaviour for honey in countries of the Balkans and Western Europe, on a comparative basis.

The high importance of honey consumption along with findings from previous surveys on consumer behaviour are included in the introduction chapter. Based on these, and focussing on the fundamental consumer behaviour theories (stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and health belief model (HBM)), a questionnaire was designed and answered by 2,113 individuals from the Balkans and Western Europe, of which 2,088 were honey consumers. Principal component analysis (PCA) analysis was used to interpret the results.

According to the analysis, both Western Europeans and Balkans consume honey weekly, whilst only a few consume honey daily. A crucial difference between the two samples is that Western Europeans consider honey to be an expensive product, whilst Balkans considers honey's price acceptable. In general, men consume more honey than women, and households with children purchase honey more often and in more significant quantities. In conclusion, the main reason affecting European honey consumption is the health impact, which is related to therapeutic properties and high nutritional value of honey.

PCA results clarified the factors affecting honey consumption, whilst at the same time, consumer profiles of Balkan and Western European consumers were outlined and compared with each other, outlining a more detailed description of honey consumption in Europe.

German consumers are not really like the image that the German courts present. The portrait of a helpless, debilitated, immature creature who is in need of protection so as not to be led astray by advertising is not accurate. The European Court of Justice paints the average buyer as sensible, attentive and cautious, as well as possessing the ability to analyse the message behind advertising. So, in fact, the German consumer is awake and responsive to European developments. What is needed is a balance between market freedom and the protection of consumers; including a high availability of information for these potential buyers. When the consumer is adequately informed he/she will then be in the position to reap the full benefits of a single European market. But market access is crucial. With the growth of market access and information the subsequent behaviour of the potential consumers is determined by their ability to make rational decisions once given all the information. The availability of consumer information is twofold when applied to regulating the market: the autonomy of consumers becomes the mechanism for reconciling the market freedom rights of manufacturers; and the right that the buyer possesses to have their economic interests protected.

In the context of increasing private provision of social security and welfare, alongside what is argued to be the ‘financialisation’ of daily lives, individuals in many countries face an array of potentially difficult financial choices and decisions. Limitations in levels of knowledge and expertise may lead them to consider seeking financial advice. Yet, in the wake of the great financial crisis, trust in the financial services industry is low.

At the same time, in a number of countries the financial advice sector is facing its own challenges. These include regulatory issues concerning the definition, suitability and delivery of advice; the affordability of advice; and the challenges and opportunities facing the advice sector as a result of the increasing use of technology in the financial services sector.

This chapter examines the implications of these developments for the regulation and governance of financial advice in the context of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. In particular, it considers the example of the UK and issues this raises for the implementation of recent European regulatory reforms.

Formation of a single market within the EU and democratisation and development of a market economy in Eastern Europe undoubtedly enhance standardisation of marketing in the European area. Multinational companies planning to enter the Eastern European market frequently assume that this region is culturally and economically undifferentiated. The purpose of the study is to analyze whether the purchasing and consumption behaviour of Slovene consumers is similar to that of consumers from other Eastern European countries. The attention is focused on the following five dimensions: orientation towards domestic brands versus Western brands, experimentation with unknown brands and new products; brand loyalty; quality orientation and quality indicators; and price sensitivity.

As the third part of an article, this explores and reviews current trans‐national protection for brands in Europe. How have the recent European trade mark reforms impacted on the whole area? Looks at a pan‐European strategy which benefits the large players. Linguistic and cultural differences still affect the behaviour of the European consumer. Future applicants of a CTM need to understand these implications in order to follow a cost‐effective and practical means to safeguard their brands.

Focuses on the importance of successful competitive positioning in the European consumer market. Presents a model for establishing a competitive position in the minds of consumers. Proposes that the model presented will help marketing executives achieve a better competition position in the European market by the successful use of components and elements which it has identified.

Pan‐European integration through the mechanism of the Single European Market poses a unique challenge to marketing‐led business organizations, as the needs and requirements of the putative Euro‐consumer can be difficult to identify and categorize. Despite difficulties in the standardization of data capture methods, much headway has been made in the development of European‐wide socio‐demographic and psychographic consumer typologies and resultant decision‐support systems, which transcend purely national boundaries and look at alternative bases for segmentation. However, despite these efforts, the real barriers still lie in the lack of enforceable consumer protection measures. A greater degree of standardization and communication in this area is a sine qua non if the emergence of a true Euro‐consumer is to become reality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of consumer trust in the banking sector on the basis of the earlier literature and to compare consumer trust in banking and distinct banking services in 29 European countries in order to find out if there are deviations in consumer trust in banks at the organisational level, and at a service level, and between distinct services and between various countries.

The study employs a survey gathered in 2012 in 29 European countries containing 41,308 consumer assessments concerning banking services. The data are analysed by using SPSS-statistical software.

The study reveals deviations between various banking services and company-level results regarding consumers’ trust in their banking relationships. Consumer trust is the highest in banking accounts and the lowest in investments and pensions. The study also highlights deviations in consumer trust between European countries, and identifies countries with low, medium and high trust in banking and in distinct banking services.

The culture and well-being of a nation may affect in consumer trust in general. The data are bound to certain limitations, its formula is decided at European Commission level.

Low trust may indicate serious problems in the markets and it should be a signal to bank managers to take actions, e.g. by reducing the levels of perceived risk in high-complexity banking services, launching simpler products, present service offerings in a more customer-oriented way, applying behavioural perspectives in relationships with consumers, encourage on-going behavioural loyalty, and maintaining customer service at high priority. Low-trust consumers have to be approached with a different strategy than those with high trust.

The paper contributes to the literature on trust by defining the content of consumer trust in the banking context. The empirical results of consumer trust in banking in 29 European markets at country level and at banking service level increase knowledge of trust as experienced by consumers. They reveal that trust is a service-specific phenomenon showing that the degree of consumer trust varies depending on the service in question, and there is vast deviation between the European countries. The highest trust in all the three banking services is experienced in Malta, Finland and Luxembourg, and the lowest in Spain. Otherwise the countries show variation across the banking services. The results indicate also demographic deviations in trust.