Labelling effects on consumer intention to purchase for soybean oil

Abstract

The effect of some soybean oil label attributes on consumer intention to purchase was evaluated by using conjoint analysis. Four attributes with two levels each were chosen and manipulated. They were: brand name (familiar and unfamiliar), price (high and low), nutritional information (with and without cholesterol, and rich in vitamin E) and soybean type (with and without the term “transgenic”). A complete factorial design was used and 16 hypothetical soybean oil packages were created and evaluated by 144 consumers based on their intention to purchase. The term transgenic had a negative impact on the purchase intention of 76% of consumers, i.e., they declared an intention not to buy the transgenic soybean oil. Overall purchase intention was affected by price, with the low priced oils obtaining a higher purchase intention.