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The adoption of different quality assurance schemes, such as the Protected Denomination of Origin/Geographical Indication (PDO/PGI) by the European Union, has been a response to the growing demand for certified quality food products among consumers. Tries to offer some more insights into the effectiveness of the PDO scheme and its acceptance by the consumer. The use of conjoint analysis in exploring Greek consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for PDO apples from the area of Zagora, Central Greece, has been selected as one of the most appropriate approaches to that target. Opens with a brief theoretical background presentation on the concepts of food quality and labelling. Proceeds with a detailed description of the research methodology, focusing on the WTP measurement method through the use of conjoint analysis, the identification of segments based on the importance consumers attach to the PDO label and the development of their profiles. Finally, concludes with some thoughts regarding the managerial implications of the findings, the limitations of the survey and the suggested research extensions.

The paper aims at investigating whether and how the product designation of origin (PDO) label influences consumers' acceptance, attributes' perception and purchase intention of PDO foods.

The study employs an experimental lab study based on the affective test of acceptance methodology with a nine-point hedonic scale. Three PDO foods are compared with similar non-PDO samples concerning cheese, cured ham and olive oil categories.

The presence of PDO labels enhances the consumers' acceptance as well as their perception of sensory attributes. A critical role of the brand name as an enhancer of consumer acceptance also emerges, highlighting the relationship between brand-name and PDO label.

The main limitation is related to the lab study methodology, which employs a small number of participants and occurs far from a “normal” situation of consumption. The acceptance test, moreover, does not provide explanations about motives underlying the differences in consumers' perception and preferences.

Practical implications are suggested for food companies concerning the management of both PDO labels and brand strategies and the product's properties that could improve the sensory perception of consumers and their overall product's acceptance.

The study contributes to the debate on consumer behaviour towards PDO foods by adding evidence about the positive influence of such a certification on individual preferences on the basis of a sensory methodology that has been little employed for studying the domain of product certifications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer preferences in the Slovenian context with regard to cheese, ham and honey labelled with the national and EU protected designation of origin (PDO) indication and the protected geographical indication (PGI) associated with price and origin.

An online survey with a representative sample of the Slovenian population of 650 consumers was conducted. Consumer preferences were estimated using choice-based conjoint analysis.

The findings show that price is the most powerful driver of consumer preferences for cheese and honey, whereas it is origin for ham, which proved to be the most strongly desired “Slovenian” food product of all items analysed. Label is the least preferable attribute for all three products considered. Cheese, ham and honey bearing the national PDO and PGI labels were more desired than products carrying the EU PDO and PGI labels. The study findings also show the main statistically significant differences in the age and gender of consumers.

The biggest limitation is that the study focused on certain labels only, related to quality, and origin in particular.

This result highlights the need to extend and intensify promotional and communication activities to increase consumer preferences for the national and EU PDO- and PGI-labelled cheeses, ham and honey.

This study contributes to relevant literature by presenting the results regarding consumer preferences for the EU and national quality labels for different food categories in Slovenia, which has no tradition in using the EU quality labels.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) utilization on European Union (EU) cheese market.

Secondary data comes from the database of origin and registration. In total, 235 product names registered in the database for cheeses and cheese products were analyzed according to type of label and country of origin. To discover a dependences between the variables, χ2 test and contingency coefficients were calculated. Hierarchical clustering method enabled to identify the clusters of countries with similar distribution of products in the database.

More than 80 percent of cheeses and cheese products are certified with PDO. Leading countries in number of certified products are France and Italy. Taking into account all product classes in the database, only 6 percent of all PGIs, 33 percent of PDOs and 15 percent of TSGs were awarded for cheeses and cheese products. A middle weak correlation between the number of certified products and the country of origin was confirmed.

The number of certified products is continuously increasing, their distribution between countries may change slightly over time. Only cluster analysis and two criteria of comparison were used.

To local food producers, the findings provide a more deep insight to the EU cheese market. It could stimulate their effort in products certification.

The paper brings findings about PDO/PGI/TSG utilization for cheese products in EU countries. There is not research study carried out from the same perspective.

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.

Protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI) products form the core of the European Union (EU) quality food policy. Low and fragmented logo recognition perils the entire plan. This work aims to provide a “classification” of European consumers as regards logo awareness based on generic demographic and socio-economic characteristics and to test hypotheses relating PDO awareness with the purchasing behaviour of consumers.

The work utilises publicly available pan-European databases collected from Eurobarometer in four rolling surveys from 2012 to 2017. The statistical analysis exploits the spatially nested nature of the data.

The “logo aware” consumer is distinctively different from the average representative European consumer. A range of demographic, human capital and socio-economic characteristics and behavioural and attitudinal traits differentiate the consumers who are aware of the logo. Country and region effects are vital.

Benefits of large and representative samples accrue by utilising available Eurobarometer surveys. This comes at a cost. The individual researcher has no control over the questions included in the questionnaire.

Consumer classification forms the basis of awareness-raising strategies. It reveals the numerous segments of aware and non-aware consumers and opens a discussion about tools and methods to reach out to the European consumer.

This analysis holds an exact pan-European perspective and incorporates consumers' characteristics, behaviour, attitudes and country and region effects.

The present study focuses on the role of PDO certification in fostering the quality perception of certified-food consumers – highlighting the difference between quality brands and environmental labels. The case study of Mozzarella di Gioia del Colle DOP was taken into consideration to evaluate the opportunity of supporting a food product suitable for all families and promoting it worldwide through a quality certification.

The authors made a qualitative analysis on local Apulian consumers and, for testing our hypotheses, structural equation models were applied to evaluate the effect of familiarity on the relationships between perceived risk, trust, satisfaction, loyalty, resolution to pay a higher price and intent to purchase a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) certified food product.

The authors observed managerial implications which seek to improve the collaborative network between the subjects employed in the phases of the production process, the stakeholders and the consortia, in order to plan a holistic development territorial strategy. It is useful to start a process of knowledge and evaluation of the benefits of the quality mark in the territory of origin of the PDO food product.

The authors provided theoretical and managerial implications which aim at improving the collaborative network between the subjects employed in the phases of the production process, stakeholders and consortia, in the outlook of territorial development strategies.

According to the analysis of the theoretical background, the opportunity to recognise the origin of a certain product allows the consumer to easily appreciate its intrinsic quality, relating a combination of factors to the territorial matching. It also focuses on the analysis of a different feedback at a local level from consumers, showing a lower intention to pay by consumers living in the same area where the PDO product comes from rather than other food goods.

The purpose of this paper is to assess consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for three different food claims on semi-cured, pasteurized sheep milk cheese. In particular, the authors used a health-related claim (the nutritional claim indicating a reduced fat content: “light”), a regional claim (“designation of origin – PDO”) and an organic claim (the European organic logo). Moreover, the authors investigated whether consumers’ personal characteristics could influence their WTP for those types of cheese.

A home-grown experimental auction was applied in Spain during Spring 2012. The authors opted to use the nth random price with repeated rounds and without price feedback.

The results show that consumers were willing to pay more for PDO cheese, followed by organic and light cheese. Moreover, respondents who were female, older and with a university-level education showed some environmental concerns, influencing their WTP for different cheeses.

Empirical evidence on consumers’ preferences for PDO, organic and nutritional claims, evaluated jointly, is lacking in Spain. Moreover, the home-grown auction has several merits in terms of real market simulation and consumer preference application.

The study of consumers’ motivations, attitudes and preferences are of great importance for marketing strategy definitions when considering protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses. Previous research, a survey on PDO cheese retailers, and in depth interviews with PDO cheese producers showed that: “price per kilo”, “cheese texture”, “unit of sale size” and “recognition as PDO” were the main attributes affecting preferences for cheeses in Greater Lisbon’s market. Conjoint analysis was used to estimate utilities for those attributes and to determine the existence of consumer groups with similar preference profiles. Results show that recognition as PDO is the most important attribute for the choice of traditional cheeses, followed by price, texture and unit of sale. Three groups of consumers were identified. The first accounts for 28 per cent of respondents who prefer creamy cheese and are not price‐sensitive. A second group is particularly price‐sensitive: it sums up to 16 per cent of respondents. Finally, representing 56 per cent, are those who value certification quality labels but are not willing to pay a premium price for it. The results found may encourage producers to adjust their marketing efforts to consider the different PDO cheese consumer segments.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of the perceived wine quality across intrinsic and extrinsic attributes on satisfaction, loyalty and buying intention of Spanish protected designations of origin (PDO) wine consumers.

Information is obtained from an initial qualitative approach through a dynamic group that allows us to develop the scales on which to quantify the different concepts. After this process a personal questionnaire is completed. With this aim the structural equation model (SEM) methodology is applied. However, as a previous measure, scales are depurated (analysis of reliability, dimensionality and validity) in order to guarantee an appropriate concept measurement.

The results obtained in the hypothesis contrast of the model reveal the existence of a positive influence of the intrinsic perceived quality attributes (colour, smell and flavour) on consumers' satisfaction. On the other hand, it is not possible to find enough evidence to support the influence of extrinsic perceived quality attributes (price, brand and region of origin) on consumers' satisfaction and loyalty. A possible explanation of these findings could be the small degree of consumers' involvement before the wide variety of PDO wines on the market. Quite probably, this aspect could influence their satisfaction and loyalty towards these kinds of products.

Managers must design marketing strategies to emphasise the intrinsic properties of the agro‐food products by means of their extrinsic attributes. In fact, quality stamps, PDO properties and other possible differentiating quality aspects must be highlighted on the labels. All these aspects could allow the product to improve its image and consolidate product links in consumer minds. Through this process it would be possible to achieve a better perceived quality and higher consumer satisfaction, loyalty and buying intention.

This paper analyses the particularities of a traditional agro‐food product protected under a PDO and how these particularities influence on satisfaction, loyalty and buying intention. The literature analysing the interrelation between satisfaction, loyalty and buying intention concepts is very scarce in the PDO wine context.