Search results

The purpose of this paper is to translate consumer requirements regarding olive-oil quality attributes into specific olive-growing practices that most contribute to satisfy these attributes.

After identifying consumer requirements or needs regarding different attributes of olive-oil quality, through a survey of 439 olive-oil consumers, the authors determine the olive-growing practices that optimally satisfy consumer needs through expert opinions. Finally, the use of expert knowledge to construct the House of Quality or the first matrix of quality function deployment allow the authors to define the relative contribution of the various olive-farming practices to the satisfaction of consumer requirements.

The findings have shown that the olive-oil quality attributes most requested by consumers incorporate organoleptic (e.g. acidity, flavour, colour), sociocultural (e.g. creating employment in rural areas, maintenance of the rural population) and environmental ones (environmental externalities). The “separation of olives collected from ground and trees” (separation), “timing of harvesting” (according to a fruit-ripeness index), the “method of the ground harvest” (no picking from the ground), and the “method of tree harvest” (handpicking) were some of the most commonly identified olive-farming practices that contribute the most to meeting consumers’ needs with regard to olive-oil quality.

The study suggests detailed analyses of the relationships between customer requirements and other agents practices involved in the olive sector (processing industries: mills, distribution, and marketing management, etc.) to more fully investigate the impact of all these practices on consumers’ perceived olive-oil quality attributes. This is the most reliable way to guarantee that the most sought-after quality characteristics are taken into account, not only in the farming stage but also in the various different stages of the olive agri-food chain.

Findings represent an opportunity in the market value chain to develop a quality olive oil which is more oriented towards the consumer and able to face future segmentations in the market. This is one of the main innovative features of this study, as it offers “good practice” guidelines to agents of the olive-oil sector from the consumer perspective.

This study provides positive implications to consumers, providing them important tools to make an informed choice, and producers and marketers helping the design of production strategies to optimally satisfy the consumer preference with regard to olive-oil quality, and attain a competitive advantage by adding value to the product.

This paper is regarded as the pioneer in the literature translating the “consumer voice” regarding olive-oil quality into specific olive-growing practices “good-practices guidelines”. Thus, the relevant required quality olive-oil attributes should be clearly described on the label, to enable consumers to identify the quality features and make an informed choice. Furthermore, to meet consumers’ needs, the olive-oil sector should focus on the olive-growing practices that optimally satisfy consumer requirements concerning olive-oil quality attributes. This would help to improve legitimacy and boost public support for the Common Agricultural Policy subsidies for the agricultural sector in general, and the olive sector in particular. The findings are particularly valuable in helping policy makers to design marketing strategies to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of Spanish olive oil.

Focused on the olive oil sector in Chile which is a non-traditional market (both in production and consumption), the purpose of this paper is to determine the implicit value of the most relevant attributes of olive oil on the final price charged by supermarkets to consumers through the hedonic pricing methodology.

Field work was carried out between September and October 2012 in 12 supermarkets belonging to the four most important Chilean retail chains. A log-linear price-attribute function was used to estimate the hedonic price function. The sample included 248 observations olive oil prices available to consumers in the leading supermarkets in the city of Chillán (Chile).

The model estimation results led to the observation that the attributes that most positively influenced final price are oil acidity level, tin can container of imported oil, and origin. On the other hand, the attributes that most negatively influenced final consumer price are retailer house brand and plastic container.

A limitation of this study is associated with the geographic area where it was carried out, that is, the city of Chillán in the Bío-Bío Region, which is the second largest region and accounts for 12 per cent of the total population. Further research should include other cities such as Santiago (capital), Concepción, Curicó and Valparaíso.

This study can be considered as a first approximation of a hedonic pricing model estimation for olive oil in non-traditional markets like Chile, which is considered an emerging market.

Investigate the behaviour and the habits of the consumers from central-southern Italy in relation to extra olive oil consumption, focussing on the impact of protected designation of origin (PDO) and EU–organic certification on purchase intention and quality perception.

A specific questionnaire was submitted to 160 consumers; a subsample of ten experts, ten semi-experts and ten habitual consumers of olive oil tested, through a blind test first and a normal one then, three Italian samples: an extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) without certification, an organic EVOO and a PDO EVOO, which were characterised also from a chemical-physical point of view. The answers provided during the tastings were statistically analysed and compared.

People interviewed prefer local olive oils; they are positively influenced by PDO/organic certification, while price is not a decisive factor on the purchasing choices. According to tasting panel results: experts gave consistent answers preferring organic olive oil, semi-experts are positively influenced by the PDO brand contrary to what they claimed; non-experts would buy EVOO, although they are positively influenced by the PDO brand and negatively by the organic certification.

Only knowledge and experience can aid consumers make consistent and aware choices. Information campaigns could help them to distinguish products, correctly identify food attributes and overcome their scepticism towards quality of organic products.

Few works investigated the impact of quality and sustainability labelling on perception of olive oils, valuing the consistency between answers provided before and after sensory assessments.

This paper attempts to determine effective push‐pull marketing strategies concerning olive oil in Greece, based on the analysis of consumers' and distributors' values and the comparison of importance that each group gives to different product characteristics.

In this paper, multicriteria analysis is used in order to identify olive oil market segments and the factors that affect the purchase behaviour of olive oil consumers. Consumers' preferences, attitudes and perceptions with regard to special characteristics of olive oil such as quality, packaging, image, odour, colour, etc. are explored. In addition, description and analysis of the marketing channels of olive oil in Greece is presented. Finally, consumers' preferences are compared to the judgments of distributors in order to identify useful similarities‐dissimilarities in their perceptions and attitudes, concerning the attributes of the product.

The study of the olive oil market in Greece shows the importance of the product for the Greek market. Findings also suggest that the olive oil market in Greece is very complex. The qualitative analysis shows that perceived quality is the only attribute of the product that is considered very important for both consumers and distributors. In addition, perceptual maps can be a useful tool for the comparative analysis of preferences between consumers and distributors.

The paper identifies key factors that influence the behaviour of Greek consumers and distributors regarding olive oil purchases. These factors and the comparison between the two groups have a great influence on the marketing decisions of agricultural products and food industry in general.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an initial step for understanding the sensory perception and purchase intent of Brazilian olive oil consumers. It also investigates the sensory perception and purchase intent for a Brazilian-made olive oil.

The sample, consisting of 115 surveyed consumers, is described demographically. The aspects related to sensory analysis and purchase intent associated with the key attributes indicated by the consumers are then discussed. Finally, consumer segmentation is carried out to characterize the consumers in more detail, in terms of both demographic and predictive variables for olive oil consumption.

Consumers displayed a sensory perception that is coherent with olive oil characteristics, thus being able to distinguish three different olive oils from a compound oil sample. Regarding purchase intent and preference, consumers showed mixed behaviors, which was not entirely convergent with the identified sensory aspects. Therefore, it was possible to segment them into three distinct groups: utilitarian, naïve, and expert consumers.

Brazil is an emergent olive oil market, which can create both research and business opportunities for the country. This preliminary study contributes to the advancement of this research subject in the non-traditional markets for olive oil.

Urban metropolitan consumers react to the different qualitative categorizations of the product thus creating homogeneous market segments. The aim of this paper is to identify specific market segments which allow for the definition of homogeneous olive oil consumer targets.

This study was based on the stated preferences of consumers and emphasizes the role that different quality scales of olive oil have in the eye of the consumer. The data, collected through a questionnaire, were analysed by means of inferential and multivariate statistics techniques, that is, the study specifically entailed a factorial and cluster analysis.

This paper explores olive oil market segments broken down by the different quality levels of existing products, thus trying to identify main consumer preferences. Our outcomes suggest the existence of three main quality classes of olive oil consumer: basic, popular and premium.

Even though we gathered data and information from a broad sample, the study does not fully reflect the average Italian population since we based our study on a convenience sample of northern Italian consumers. A more extended sample is needed to test our hypothesis in other regional areas.

The outcomes derived from this study provide useful insights both for marketers and olive oil producers by allowing more efficient strategic decisions in terms of product segmentation.

This study, aimed at matching olive oil market segments and consumer preferences, shows the existence of three well-defined quality classes of olive oil consumer: basic, popular and premium. In addition, this study ascertains for the first time how the attitude towards local products is positively influenced by family origin as a result of an inter-generational attitude.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on high segments of the Italian olive oil and wine markets. The main goal is to compare the role and the effectiveness of the certification of origin in the creation of value in the two selected markets. Moreover, the authors investigate how different quality clues in the olive oil and wine sectors are related to prices.

To meet the goal the authors estimate two separate hedonic price models where the price of the product is regressed over different quality clues some of which are sector specific and some are common to the two sectors. The models are estimated on data which come from two of the major Italian guides chosen for their well established reputation and for the richness of information.

The results indicate that: product origin and the relative certification schemes play a relevant role in the formation of prices in both markets; while the olive oil price seems to be more sensitive to farm location than to the certification of origin, the opposite happens for the wines; the higher segments of the Italian olive oil market is increasingly sophisticated and follows the main tendencies established in the quality wine markets where many quality attributes are intensely active.

First, it should be kept in mind that results for higher market segment may not hold for different segments where relevant quality clues may be different. Second, reader should be aware that comparability of the two samples is constrained by limited data availability for the olive oil sector compared to the wine sector.

This study represents one of the first attempts to compare the role of the certification of origin in the creation of value in the Italian agro-food markets.

This study aims to identify the effect of selected agro-industrial factors associated with the olive oil phenolic composition, total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant capacity and oxidative stability index (OSI). The study also aims to assess the relationship between the quality indices and each of the individual phenol, TPC, antioxidant capacity and OSI.

Olive oil samples (n=108) were collected from Lebanese northern (Akkar and Zgharta-Koura) and southern (Hasbaya and Jezzine) regions, at three harvesting times (early, intermediate, late) and using different types of mills (traditional, sinolea, two- and three-phase decanters). The samples were analyzed using official standard methods.

The highest TPC, antioxidant capacity and OSI were obtained in early harvested olive oil, using two-phase decanters for TPC and three-phase decanters for antioxidant capacity and OSI. A prediction model, including the free acidity, K232, TPC, C18:2, C18:0, tyrosol and apigenin, was obtained; it allowed to predict very highly significantly the OSI (p < 0.001). Apigenin, tyrosol and C18:2 recorded the highest standardized coefficients (ß^+= 0.35) and thus had the highest influence on OSI. As per antioxidant capacity of olive oil, another very highly statistically significant prediction model was constructed (p < 0.001). It included only two predictors, oleacein and TPC, with the latter having the most influence (ß^+= 0.37).

The overall results highlighted the detrimental effects of agro-industrial factors on olive oil chemical composition, and this contributes significantly to improve olive oil’s quality and characteristics, which are important for the product economical and nutritional values.

Olive oil has an ancient history dating back to 3000 BC or even earlier. Cultivation of the olive tree probably started in the Middle East and then spread throughout the Mediterranean basin. All the cuisines of the area exploited its culinary properties and it has also been used to produce light, maintain body tone and heal wounds.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the price of extra virgin olive (EVO) oil and its main quality attributes, in the specific case of business-to-consumers electronic commerce (B2C EC) channel. The final objective is to provide useful insights for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) interested in online selling of EVO.

A hedonic price model was estimated considering the following attributes: packaging, cultivar composition, organic certification, oil extraction method, origin certification and localization of selling firms. A survey was performed in 2012 considering 169 virtual stores of SMEs (farms, mills and bottlers) located in all the main Italian olive-growing areas. A data set of 667 references was used to estimate the implicit prices of considered attributes.

The EVOs sold through virtual stores are highly differentiated on the basis of several quality attributes among which the most important is the certification of origin (protected denominations of origin/protected geographical indication). Therefore the firm location could generate considerable advantages or disadvantages in adopting a B2C EC strategy.

Future researches should develop a comparison between the premium prices and costs associated to each attribute in order to find the best product differentiation strategy. An accurate analysis about the implementation and management costs of EC systems as well as an examination of interactions between online and offline sale channels is needed. It would be useful to compare the manufacturer direct sell business model with other business model.

Few studies applied the hedonic price model to analyse the retail olive oil market. Nevertheless, no studies have analysed the market of EVO sold in virtual shops.