International Food Marketing Research Symposium
19-20 June, 2014 - Aarhus, Denmark
Cross cultural consumer behavior: the use of local language for market
segmentation. A study in the region Friuli Venetia Giulia (Italy)
F. Rosa
1,
Abstract
Cross cultural consumer behavior is a growing market interest: the globalization of marketplaces, migration, multicultural market places, emerging proudness for ethnic identity after a period of cultural homologation suggest to consider these consumers’ changes for marketing strategies. As well the EU encourages all citizens to be multilingual by learning at least two languages in addition to their mother tongue, to maintain alive their cultural backgrounds and preserve their ethnic identity rooted into cultural historic and religious values. The objective of this study is to verify whether the local language used in a marketing communication strategy could significantly affect the consumers’ preferences for food products. The theoretical foundation is the consumer motivational approach that encompasses the traditional consumer theory, going deeper into motivations interfering with the consumers’ preference order. The empirical analysis is performed with a multivariate conjoint analysis, to evaluate the preferences for attributes described in different language. A number of students from the University of Udin (located in North-East part of Italy) have been submitted to interviews to examine their preferences for a simulated sandwich package distributed by vendor machine reporting information in different
languages. The evidences are that the consumer’s reaction to different languages depends on
socio-demographic profile, cultural background, language knowledge and family education; these results suggest that the local language can be effective in market segmentation for specific group of consumers. These results are of interest for many EU countries where the presence of bilingual communities suggest that the marketing communication in local language could affect the consumer decisions of those categories of food whose attributes encounter the preferences of these bilingual consumers.
Keywords: food, consumer behavior, local languages, communication, involvement, conjoint analysis.
There is a growing interest among the 28 EU member countries for local languages due to migration trends and presence of historic linguistic groups, demanding institutionalized protection for their language and an adequate representation in media, education, official communication. Language can contribute to enhance the development of the citizen status and to a true core value of the ethnic values and historic heritage (Schmid, 2008; Luna and Perracchio, 2002; Laroche et al., 1998; Askegaard and Madsen, 1995; Rosa et al. 2001). The Council of Europe (CoE), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have committed themselves to protect the local languages as historical heritage, by encouraging the EU citizens to become multilingual, speaking at least two languages in addition to their mother tongue (Glazer, N., Moynihan, 1970). In the EU are now spoken 24 official languages, and other 38 have the status of minority languages: France (Breton and Occitan), Belgium (Vallon and and Flemish), UK and Ireland (Scottish, Gaelic, Cornish, Irish, Welsh), Spain (Catalan, Galician, Basque, Aragonese) and others. In Italy the linguistic condition is even more varied: there are twelve recognized languages most of them rooted with Latin, others with German, Greek, Albanian. The
Occitan is diffused in Piedmont and Calabria; the Catalan in Alghero, the French in Valle d’Aosta, the German in South Tirol, in Friuli are spoken Friulian, Slovenian and German, the Greek in Apulia, the Albanese in Molise and other regions. Local languages contribute to preserve the ethnical identity of local communities and the intergroup solidarity built on recognition of common cultural and historical background. Various expressions are the club affiliation, endogamy, food preferences, folkloric traditions, religious rituals performed in local language (Rotunno and Goldrick, 1982). In table 1 are reported the internal/external traits of the ethnicity influencing the relations of the minority groups (external) and family group (internal).
Tab. 1- Internal/external traits of the ethnical identity
External Internal
Local language used in private and public events Traditions, habits, rituals, ceremonies
Participation in ethnic network and organization Participation in collective rituals,
Common religion
Celebrations of marriage inside the group (endogamy) Preparation of traditional food and selected ingredients
Cognitive: subjective knowledge of group values Heritage and history
Stereotypes
Moral obligation and commitment versus the group Affective: attachment to a given group
Until recently the ethnicity has been considered an historical artefact, gradually dissolving with the disappearing of boundaries across states or national cultures and economies and rapid integration of the minority groups into the dominant culture (Glazer and Moynihan, 1970). This opinion is largely diffused in United States based on the homologation process of the dominant anglo-saxone culture that accelerate the emergence of an homogeneous global common thinking (Berry and Laponce, 1994; Laroche et al., 1998; Alden et al., 2006; Schmidt, 2008). On the other hand there is a growing consciousness for the local cultures remaining influential on consumer behavior and increasing entrenchment of local cultures to the global forces. (Cleveland et al., 2009). The opening of the Canadian policy to the multiculturalism and the growing influence in the US of the Hispanic community have accelerated the revival of ethnic distinctiveness (Caltabiano, 1984). Ethnic identity represents but one aspect of the more complex multicultural process intimated by such terms as the “cultural change” (Keefe and Padilla, 1987), “ethnic change” (Laroche et al., 1998). The second facet of this process is the acculturation, reflecting the acquisition of traits of the dominant culture. Considerable attention has been dedicated to the ethnic identity both as a construct in its own right (Phinney, 1990) and a correlate/determinant of a wide array of phenomena including the marketing relations (Hirschman, 1981; Faber et al., 1987). Ethnicity is overall a multidimensional construct: many authors have stressed the primacy of language in the process of maintaining one’s culture of origin (Keefe and Padilla, 1987; Rosenthal and Hrynevich, 1985). This complexity partly rests on the way its aspects impact on food habits: it is quite apparent that acculturation and ethnic identification are related to the consumption habits as the product attribute evaluation is congruent with one’s level of ethnic identity and/or acculturation (Laroche et al., 1998; Almli et al., 2011; Rotunno et al.,1982). The language plays a central role in the formation and maintenance of ethnical identity, legitimated in and through education, contributing to maintain the cultural and linguistic shape of the community-nation. (Laroche et al, 1998). The changing cultural attitude for the ethnic values of minorities, justifies the growing interest for
strategies of marketing communications focused on “non-conventional (non-official, local or mother
loyalty; and opinion leadership (Lastovicka and Gardner, 1979). The language influences the consumer involvement because represents the heightened state of awareness that motivates to seek out, attend to, and think about product information prior to purchase. The involvement is framed within a broadly concept of motivation, defined a state of arousal experienced by the individual with perception (cues) of product attributes, contributing to the explanatory processes of attitude changes (Sherif and Hovland,1961; Petty and Cacioppo, 1981a); Laurent and Kapferer, 1985). However the language changes the personal perception of intrinsic attributes related to the fundamental individual’s values as the inclusion into an ethnic group, changes the perception of stimuli that are either novel to the individual or highlight previously unperceived associations between the stimulus and the values of the individual. (Luna and Perracchio, 2002; Verbeke, 2005). The individual involvement depends on these association between language and stimuli: there are three dimensions of the involvement: personal, product, situation:
i) personal: individual behavior depends on the involvement based on self-concept, needs, and values that influence the extent of consumer involvement for a product or service. The more product image, the value symbolism inherent in it and the needs it serves are fitting together with the consumer self- image, values and needs, the more likely the consumer is to feel involved in it;
ii) product: some products are a greater source of pleasure to the consumer than others: Tea and coffee have a higher level of hedonic (pleasure) value compared to, say household cleaners. Hence the involvement increases when a product attract the customer’s attention and language is a tool to generate attention using specific cultural messages;
iii) situation: different component of the product experience contribute to the intensity of emotional involvement. One is likely to be more self- conscious about the products and brands one looks at when shopping with friends than when shopping alone. The need to make a faster decision also influences the involvement that is higher when there are social implications in purchasing; thus involvement may be from outside the individual, as with situational involvement or from within the individual as with enduring involvement. It can be induced by a host of personal-product-and situation related factors,
many of which can be controlled by the marketer. Although we aim to identify the ultimate bases of the
(Rodriguez-Santos and Grunnert, 2013). This research is dedicated to understand the role of language in market communication by comparing the consumer’s preferences to word/expression in different languages, and the utility of a product profile as an expression of individual's cultural value system disclosed in a specific cultural context2. (Hersleth et al., 2013; Houghton et al., 2006; Le Mée, 2006; Rosa and Nassivera, 2013). The experiment is made in Friuli Venetia Julia, a region situated in North East part of Italy that has been selected for the historical melting in this small territory of different cultures from the bordering countries Austria and Slovenia, affecting the food consumption habits that within this region the variations among consumers’ habits are even greater than between countries (Alden et al., 2006; Hofstede et al., 2010). This offers an opportunity to make a market experiment about the effectiveness of communication strategies using the local language quite diffused among the EU countries. The article is structured as it follows: paragraph 2 is dedicated to revise the literature about language and marketing communication, paragraph 3 examines the theoretical background; paragraph 4 discusses the methodology and the material for the empirical analysis; paragraph 5 reports the results and paragraph 6 is dedicated to the conclusions and future development.
2 – Language, marketing communication and relations
Considering the global character of today's food market and relative opportunities for producers to sell their products in a bigger marketing area, one important issue to be considered is the cross-cultural food perceptions, to set up appropriate market strategies targeted to specific consumer groups for market segmentation. It is assumed that the description of sensory food attributes vary across cultures affecting the order of consumers’ preferences. Within this framework, cross-cultural studies focused on perception and verbalization of sensory properties about food attributes have contributed to improve the effectiveness of market communication strategies. (Lotong et al, 2002). The descriptors used in communicating sensory properties are becoming increasingly important to address the consumer’s preferences toward specific food product attributes (Swahn et al., 2010). If the words or expressions describing the product quality are not properly mastered, the attributes of the quality construct, particularly those immaterial ones related to the territory, culture and identity are not sufficiently understood and perceived and as a consequence, the relationship between local food and consumer
preferences is weakening. The market segmentation then incorporates the cultural identity in a more comprehensive approach explaining how those manifestations can affect the cognition, and behavior of consumers. (Herleth, 2013). An experimental scheme used to relate the product attributes to functional and psychosocial consequences and perhaps to higher level of perceived consumer values is the mean-chain model proposed to link those symbols as ethnicity, community, identity, group solidarity to the preferences for food product (Reynold et al, 1988; Grunnert et al., 1995; Sullivan et al., 2006). With this model the language used in marketing communication has the power to shift or reinforce the symbolic meaning related to food in different cultures (McCracken, 1986) in a way that the product represents a bundle of attributes related to benefits and values contributing to create niche or segment markets targeted to consumer groups. (Luna, et al, 2001; Rosa et al., 2003; Rosa, 2007). The degree of consumer’s involvement depends also on the intensity of emotional cues generated by sensory stimuli empowered by marketing communication strategies. (Grunnert et al., 1989; Brunsø, et al, 1999). In explaining the meanings of the food attributes in different languages there are two possibilities: the consumer is indifferent to the language used to describe the food attributes or there are different reaction to the word or expression to the language used: this means that the descriptive terms of the color attribute red: red, rosso, rot or rojo are different in optimizing the meanings of sensory properties and
generate different emotional cues and associations (Fabbro, 2002; Hersleth et al., 2013). Marketers'
strategies are then used as an instrument to transfer these meanings or values from the culturally
constituted world to consumer goods (McCracken, 1986, 1988). The market communication strategy
may also affect a culture's manifestations through advertising: the culture influences the behavior through its manifestations: values, heroes, rituals, and symbols from one side and cognition affection,
emotion from the other side (Hofstede et al., 2010). This interpretation suggests the consumer behavior
as a result of his cultural background verbally or symbolically linked to the language that will activate the dynamic interaction between affect, cognition symbols and values.
Values: the ethnic group exhibit specific cultural traits coherent with values on which is built the solidity of the intergroup relations. A value as a centrally held, enduring belief guides actions and judgments across specific situations and beyond immediate goals to more ultimate end-states of existence''. There are different taxonomies of values: the Rokeach's values implies a differentiation between preferred end states of being (terminal values) and preferred modes of behavior or means to achieve end states (instrumental values).
Cultural values, expressed in society's perceptions of reality and beliefs of what is desirable, are
transferred to products through advertising and communication (Belk,1985) and charged with cultural meaning. For example, a good wine can be elevated to a cultural symbol for the value ``a sense of accomplishment'' and consumers, in their efforts to define their social self, are moved to consume the wine of a specific region with the French “terroir” word (Durgee, 1986). Cultural categories depend on culture: the anthropological view of culture also recognizes that cognitive constructs (i.e. categories) are influenced by cultural manifestations (i.e. values). (D'Andrade,1992; Tu et al., 2010).
Affect. A number of studies have examined the role of cultural values on the attitude formation process. It is possible to distinguish between advertising studies and consumer behavior studies. Affects toward the ad and/or product represent two of the most important gauges of success in advertising. Therefore, a number of advertising researchers have examined affective variables in cross-cultural advertising. In particular, several studies have attempted to ascertain the role of cultural values on ad-elicited attitudes. Hence, symbols generally express cultural values: with consumption rituals, goods become symbols of cultural values. At the same time, symbols reinforce values, or may even shift them. For example, if a specific cheese is seen as a symbol for wealth and repeated advertising associates wealth with a desirable end state, values may shift in certain societal groups toward wealth as a terminal value.
Fig 1 The cultural background affecting consumer’s behavior through language in mktg communication strategy
Symbols Values Heroes Rituals
Consumer choice
Cognition, Affection, Emotion Language as Mktg
2.1 – Language: symbol and values
The nature of the relationship between language symbolism and values has been widely discussed: language is a set of symbols, the product symbolism is generated at the society level and beliefs of what is desirable can be transmitted to the product through advertising. (Belk, 1985; Sherry and Camargo, 1987). Some authors suggest the cultural values may motivate the creation of words that may not exist in other cultures; at the same time, the language may give origin to values that are literally `unthinkable'
in other cultures because of lack of adequate terminology (Pinker, 1994). Consumer ethnocentrism is a
construct studied by cross-cultural researchers and the language is an instrumental value determining different perceptions of domestic versus foreign products (cognition), and different attitudes and behavior (Shimp and Sharma, 1987; Rokeach, 1973). An example is the Mc Donald Company that has introduced in Italy an hybrid hamburger with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to match with the specific preferences of Italian customers for quality perception transmitted by national/regional products stereotypes. (Rosa, 2007). By examining subcultural differences in the USA, Shim and Gehrt (1996) found that Whites, Native Americans, and Hispanics tend to approach shopping with orientations consistent with the values predominant in their respective reference groups. Altogether, values seem to be the manifestation of culture, some studied confirm that the cultural values are a central construct in an individual's cultural identity (Hofstede, 1997). The local language in advertising has experienced increasing attention: Luna and Peracchio (1999) have extended the psycholinguistics theories to target the advertising to bilingual consumers. Schmitt et al. (1994) have compared the Chinese and English speakers and the involvement generated by structural differences of these languages for consumers' information processing and mental representations (e.g. whether visually or auditory presented information is remembered better). Sherry and Camargo (1987) examining the effect of language and symbol on consumers' cognition, conclude that mixed-language (Japanese-English) ads in communicate certain values that single-language ads could not be expressed.
Symbols and affect: Koslow et al. (1994) using a sociolinguistic approach in advertising suggests the
Hispanic consumers' perception of the advertiser's sensitivity toward their culture mediates language effects on attitudes. Positive responses to advertising are obtained by including at least some portions of the Spanish language. Pan and Schmitt (1996) following a cognitive approach suggest that a logograph based writing system (i.e. Chinese writing) is more active in promoting visual processing,
while the alphabetic systems promote aural processing during the attitude formation. Schmitt and
different choices across cultures/languages. Dolinsky and Feinberg (1986) using the psycholinguistics
approach, to examine the influence of languages on bilingual subculture consumers observe that the
second language processing leads to information overload driving to suboptimal decisions more easily than first language processing.
3 – Methodology
The random utility theory (Lancaster, 1966) assumes the product as a bundle of measurable attributes generating partial utilities (part-worth utility) that contribute to the assessment of the overall consumer utility (Melton et al., 1996). The following equation represents the aggregative criteria in a common preference and ranking the product preferences in a complete weak order:
(1) Uj = f (X1j
,
X2j,...Xnj; Z1 , Z2,...,Zn; n) + e,Ut is the total utility of product j, depending on Xij (i =1..n attribute and j = 1..m product ), the values of part-worth utility estimation of specific sensorial attributes: color, flavor, taste, odor of the product j,
assumed to be separable and additive; Zk is the vector of socioeconomic components,, is a vector of
parameter estimates for each attribute level, and e is the error term (Furlan and Martone, 2011; Green et
al., 2001, Gustafsson et al., 2001). In addition to the utility levels, the conjoint analysis estimates the relative importance of the attributes of the product that is the difference between the maximum utility and usefulness of its minimum levels expressed in percent of the sum of the differences of all the product’s attributes. The relative importance is a measure of the sensitiveness of the consumer to the attribute and for the language is a measure of the intensity of consumer’s response to the effectiveness of
the word-language used for describing the attributes. A previous step in the analysis consists in using
laddering technique to find the words that best fit with the attribute meanings, by eliciting goals and underlying values, during early stages of the consumer’s experience. (Hawley, 2009; Lotong et al., 2002; Reynold et al., 1988). Then the Conjoint analysis (CA) is the multivariate statistical method used to measure the overall product utility not yet in the market; this method is appropriate to analyze the observed or stated preferences for a good by estimating the utility of attributes and levels, that best fit
with the consumer’s needs. Here the analysis is focused on the evaluation of the preferences for
attributes described in different languages. (Swahn, 2010).3 The preferences are examined with respect
3The dependent variable is a rating on an ordinal scale of measurement that translates preferences whereas the independent
to the attributes namely physical or services, allowing to investigate the consumer involvement in purchasing a product with estimation of the usefulness and importance of single attributes of the product
compared to similar alternative product profiles (Claret et al., 2012; Ennekinng et al., 2007; Green et al.,
1990; Lancaster, 1966; Saito et al, 2013; Solomon, 1983). The information is used to select the best, among alternative product profiles that simultaneously vary across the most preferred attributes (Green & Wind, 1975; Green & Srinivasan, 1990). CA measures the trade-offs of respondent interviewed when choosing from alternative profiles in a product and the overall preference judgments using behaviorally oriented constructs such as intentions to buy, likelihood of trial, language role, ethnic features and so on. The elicitation of constructs from respondents requires each option be described on all the attributes and correlations in the construction of stimulus sets so as to increase the realism of the task. The utility of a message encoded in a given language reflects its own contribution to the highest product utility perception. (Hawley, 2009). Because the attribute combination can generate too many profiles, the orthogonal matrix (or fractional factorial design), is used to reduce the attribute combinations to a smaller set of product profiles, representative of the possible combinations that are allowed to appear together in full-profile descriptions. It should be added, however, that this technique also provides for the creation of some control cards not used then to estimate the coefficients related to each attribute, but
to check the statistical validity of these estimates. For the purpose to adequately describe the stimulus
presentation it has been elaborated a schedule with the attributes described in a visual representation of the product, with a package of the ham sandwich to give the aesthetic appearance, such as package design and product styling (Moskowitz et al., 1977).
4 - Empirical analysis: attributes and product profile
4.1 – Attributes
perceived by consumers. This is a very sensitive task because the literal translation of a word describing an attribute in different languages could generate different meanings and associations according with the individual’s cultural background. (Luna and Peracchio, 2002). Then the effectiveness of using a specific language in market communication will depend on the ability to understand the cross-cultural
differences with word/expression (function, property, origin, arousal) used as descriptors of the
product’s attributes. If the words are not coherent with the meaning of attributes as they are intended by
consumers, the quality information of the message is not adequately decoded by the consumer and the communication will result to be ineffective at some levels (Swahn et al., 2010). The first step in descriptive analysis consists in searching the descriptive vocabulary or sentences having the highest impact in different languages and this previous analysis has been done with the collaboration of trained experts, panelists and consumers and dedicated to elicit the descriptors of the attributes to find adequate correspondence in different cultural contests (FCP - free choice profiling and RCP - repertory grid method, see Hersleth et al., 2013; Andani et al, 2001). This product is a simulated packed ham sandwich distributed by automatic vendor machine properly described in a schedule reporting the combinations of five attributes that have been selected after a previous focus group interview: brand, AOP, eco-labels, shelf-life and price. The schedule is submitted to a sample of consumer panel formed by 318 university students randomly selected for their residence: inside and outside the region FVG and language profiiency.
1 – The brand is formulated with the expression “house of ham” translated in two languages: Italian and Friulian. The Italian version is “Casa del prosciutto”, the Friulian version is “Cjase dal persut” the word Casa or Cjase remind the familiar concept of home made product and the elective place of family relations; further this expression reminds a factory with small dimensions, family managed where the ham is stored and cured with artisan methods.
2 - The AOP geographic denominations ham is an attribute with two levels: a – “Prosciutto San
Daniele” is the regional AOP name of cured ham a brand diffused in the region Friuli as well as in Italy; b – “Prosciutto Parma” is the AOP name of cured ham made in Parma competitor of the Friulian brand name. The intrinsic quality of these two AOP products are similar since the two AOP Consortia impose similar strict quality standards and controls through the all pig chain: origin of pigs, breeding, feeding, slaughtering, ham processing, timing, seasoning period, quality control, and certification procedures.
strategy.Eco-labels are generally established with specific organizations, which may be independent or institutional standards that establish the requirements to be fulfilled for each product category. The attribute eco-label has these levels: absent or present with the following message: "We saved water and energy" reported in English, Italian and Friulian languages.
4 – The shelf life is the time spanning from packaging to deadline: during this time it can be reasonably assumed that the hygienic and organoleptic properties of the food product can be traced back to those of the newly packaged product or in any case in which the loss of "quality" is considered tolerable. The shelf-life is a function of the product composition, method of conservation, environmental parameters. 5 – The price is related to the perception of quality here considered at two levels: convenience or luxury: students who have usually a lower income are requested to make an effort to compare the values of the product quality attributes including those immaterial ones to contribute to the product’s value. The overall quality evaluation will be the sum of single attribute utility revealing the influence of language in transmitting these cross-cultural values. Then this attribute is appropriate to observe if decisions are made on the basis of utilitarian rather than psychological motivations.
Table 2 – Attributes and levels selected for the experiment
Attributes Levels
Brand * 2 - Casa del prosciutto, Cjase dal persut; AOP origin 2 – Parma, San Daniele;
Ecolabel 4 - Absent; Risparmiato acqua ed energia; Saved water and energy; A vin sparagnade aghe e energie; Shelf life** 2 – 5, 7 days;
Price (€/sandwich) 2 - 1,20 €, 1,60 €.
* Text yellow-gold on a color background of crude ham. ** The schedule reported the number of days between packaging and deadline.
The Utility equation of the product is:
fractional factorial design is used to reduce the number of profiles to a manageable size and avoid the multi-collinearity problems across the profiles.
After a short introductory description of the scope of the interview to inform the respondents about the product the interviewed are requested to examine the schedule described in fig. 2. The sample,4 is
formed by 318 students randomly selected in the campus, with the following socio-demographic characteristics: i) gender: 51.4 % males and 48.6% females, ii) age between 19 and 27 years; iii) education: university students; iv) residence: 60,3 % students are resident in the FVG region, the 37,1% are students not resident in Friuli, and the 2.6% are foreign students; v) language knowledge: three groups: i) English: the 80,4 % understand and speak English, the 3,5% do not understand English; ii) Friulian: the 40,8% understand and speak Friulian, other 27,3 % understand but do not speak Friulian, the 31,9% do not speck the Friulian language; iii) absence of language knowledge: the 19,6 % do not understand any of these languages (see also Picco, 2009). They are asked to complete a questionnaire and a preliminary analysis is performed with the validation of the estimated preferences using the coefficients: R of Pearson and Kendall's τ. The results are reported in table 3 below suggest that the correlation values between the preferences given by the respondents and those estimated with the CA are high and significant (Pearson's R, 0,985 and 0,950 and Kendall's Tau, 0,999 for controls).
Table 3 – Validation test for the estimated preferences
Test Value Sig.
R of Pearson 0,985 0,000
Tau of Kendall 0,950 0,000
Tau of Kendall for check 0,999 0,000
4.3 - Preference order
In table 4 are reported the rank of preferences for the five attributes: the highest preference is given to the eco-label (30,19), followed by the brand, (21,48), product origin (20,99), price (15,57) and shelf-life, (11,77).
Table 4 - Average values of the preferences
The table 5 reports the average values of the preferences by combining the attributes and levels: the preferences range between positive and negative values; the order of preferences is changed with respect the previous attribute ranking, due to the levels that suggest the language influence to change
significantly the preference order.
1) constant (84,21); 2) product origin + San Daniele, (6,11); 3) ecolabel + italian (4,84); 4) brand + italian + color (2,63); 5) ecolabel + friulian (0,19);
B) negative values:
6) brand + Italian (-0,31); 7) ecolabel + English (-0,71) 8) brand + friulian + color (-0,95; 9) brand + friulian 1,37); 10) shelf-life 5 days 2,21); 11) shelf-life 7 days 3,09); 12) Ecolabel + absent (-4,31); 13) price 1,2 (-17,44); price 1,6 (-23,26)
5 - Comment
5.1 –Preferences for attributes and levels
Constant: the highest value of constant (84,21) suggests the importance of residual factors not included in this analysis to explain the overall utility value of the ham product. Product origin: the San Daniele (6,11) is preferred to the Parma Ham (-6,11); the geographic area of seasoning ham, transfer the product image to the landscape and nature of the region to increase the consumers appreciation for the local product. Parma ham is the competitor AOP, appreciated for its reputation of higher intrinsic quality at national level, in this region the higher preference is for the brand San Daniele where San Daniele is a name of a village in FVG region. This result is explained as a cross- cultural interference of regional stereotypes responsible of superior quality perception of local brand that has contribute to the elaboration of a subjective and multidimensional construct, encompassing several physical and psychological values. (Dittmar H., 1994). The stereotypes are explained with the hedonism and perfectionist motives and inherent situational conditions (e.g., economic, societal, and political factors): purchasing the regional brand ham product means to acquire values for individual member of a reference group. (Cleveland et al., 2009; Kaynac et al., 2002). The personal and interpersonal oriented perceptions of superior regional brand quality for different groups of consumers means that in comparing the two brands, the overall regional brand would integrate the perceptions of higher quality from different perspectives. (Wiedman et al, 2007).
components contributing to the product appearance by transmitting perception of freshness and tenderness. The importance of color related to sensory perception of cured ham is expected as the color differences are easy to be perceived and described but could be more complicate when one intends to describe precisely the quality of the ham product using the color alone. The association color + language suggests two considerations: the first is a cultural one: the Italian language is associated with the color, intensively perceived as a sensorial cue responsible of the aesthetic experience including the appreciation of the formal, expressive and symbolic meaning of quality (De Klerk and Lubbe, 2004). The Friulians respondents are more concerned with the perception of the intrinsic quality related to labor skills as a component of best practices to achieve a superior quality products of San Daniele. The language is used in the marketing communication strategies to solicit the consumer tastes with color description being an effective sensorial cue. A poor product perception is due to the incomplete product profiles as the brand + Italian or brand + Friulian: without color association the level of preference is significant lower. Shelf life and prices are not influencing the preference value: this result is coherent with the consumers’ stereotype that increases the perceived quality for regional AOP products quite diffused in Italy. The Italian consumers behavior is affected by the regional product origin to which is associated a superior quality perceived higher in preference order to price convenience or shelf life. In developing a regional imagery for a product, the importance for various marketing mix variables (i.e product, appearance, brand name, price, shelf life etc., is firmly established as well as the imaginary elicited by a regional products AOP that is a stereotype of superior quality. This image is embedded in such variables representative of regional product as the historical background, tradition, people values. (Piron, 2000) For the Friulian respondents the preference for these intangible attributes of ethnical identity and stereotypes related to the territory, geographic origin, environmental concern prevail on the market attributes as price or shelf life.
5.2 – Preferences and clusters
Table 6 – Relative importance of attributes in clusters
The total value indicate that the ecolabel is the most preferred attribute (28,51), followed by the product, (24,7) brand (19,89), price (14,31) and shelf life (12,60).
The clusters exhibit different combination of preferences for attributes:
cluster 1: the RMSE shows the highest difference from the sample value due to attribute perceptions quite different from the sample mean: the product has the highest preference (value equal to 67); the residual 33 is distributed among the others attributes with similar values; cluster 2: the lowest RMSE value suggests that preferences for attributes of this cluster are similar to the sample value and is also one of the most representative. The product is still the most important but the preference value (31,34) signals a minor relative importance compared with the other attributes: it is growing the importance of ecolabel (27) and brand (18,21);
Fig 3 - Cluster two steps: ranking of the five attributes for the six groups and product profile
Cluster TwoStep importanza attributi
22,2% intervistati 16,7% intervistati 11,9% intervistati 21,9% intervistati 19,3% intervistati 8,0% intervistati M ed ia 80,00 60,00 40,00 20,00 0,00
Barre degli errori: +/- 2 SE
Prezzo Ecolabel Shelf life Prodotto Marca
5.3 – Language competence and consumer preferences
In table 7 are reported the results of the preferences for various attributes using the sample stratification for language competence: spoken, understood, or absent. The most preferred attribute is the eco-label that shows the highest value in the three linguistic groups. Product is mostly appreciated by those who have some knowledge of Friulian while the brand is appreciated by non Friulian speakers; finally the price is in the lower position with similar preference expressed by the three groups.
Attribute and levels:
The results shows the relation between consumer attitude and linguistic competence: using the Italian language the preferences are positive for the interviewed without knowledge of Friulan language and negative for the interviewed with knowledge of the Friulian. This information is important to evaluate the opportunity to use the local language for market communication: if the increase in sales obtained by segmenting the demand with local language is inferior to the aggregated demand, the effect of the local language in communication in not evident.
Friulian or Friulian + color: these combinations are moderately appreciated by Friulian and strongly adversed by non Friulian speaking. This results suggest that the use of Friulian in any of these attribute combination will create a reaction against the product by a consistent number of customers.
Geographic denomination AOP: The preference for San Daniele is expressed by the all respondents however higher preferences are directly correlated to the Friulian group influencing the AOP quality perception even if the language is not directly used in a communication strategy. This underlines that the preference for San Daniele is also influenced by ethnic values and stereotypes transmitted by the AOP. Shelf life: for both levels (5 and 7 days), the negative sign suggest a low perception of this attribute. Price: the negative sign is consistent with the consumer theory and the value suggest that the lower price is preferred to the higher one even for a higher quality product.
Table 7 - Consumer preferences for attributes based on language proficiency
Attributes
Friulian language competence
Spoken Understood Absent Total
Mean Standard error Mean Standard error Mean Standard error Mean Standard error Constant 86,68 5,15 88,07 7,27 77,73 5,89 84,21 3,44 Italian -1,73 ,56 -1,25 ,60 2,32 ,78 -,31 ,39 Italian + Color 2,32 ,58 1,95 ,76 3,62 ,84 2,63 ,41 Friulian -,38 ,49 -1,42 ,71 -2,59 ,93 -1,37 ,41 Friulan + Color -,20 ,62 ,72 ,83 -3,34 ,91 -,95 ,46 San Daniele 8,18 ,82 5,79 ,98 3,74 ,71 6,11 ,49 Parma -8,18 ,82 -5,79 ,98 -3,74 ,71 -6,11 ,49 Absent -4,89 ,84 -5,87 1,28 -2,23 1,02 -4,31 ,59 Italian 3,85 ,64 5,50 1,01 5,54 1,03 4,84 ,50 English -1,03 ,79 -,17 1,25 -,77 1,02 -,71 ,57 Friulian 2,07 ,79 ,54 ,91 -2,53 1,21 ,19 ,57
Shelf life 5 days -1,86 2,39 -4,47 2,99 -,72 2,62 -2,21 1,52
Shelf life 7 days -2,60 3,34 -6,26 4,19 -1,00 3,67 -3,09 2,13
5.4 - Testing the differences for attributes
The two tail test assumes the variances are equal at 5% level. For any significant pair the key of the smaller attribute value is reported in the column with the higher attribute value. All the tests for the paired values are corrected using the Bonferroni procedure.
Table 8 – Significant difference of the attribute related to language competence
Attributes Friulian language competence
Spoken Understood Absent
(A) (B) (C) Constant Italian A B Italian + Color Friulian Friulian + Color C C
AOC San Daniele C
AOC Parma A
Absent Italian English
Friulian C
Shelf life 5 days Shelf life 7 days Price 1,20 Price 1,60 Brand A B Product C C Shelf life Ecolabel A Price
Comment on preference for attributes:
Italian: preferred to Friulian by non speaking Friulian against the two groups A and B speaking Friulian; Friulian + color (2 levels): preferred to Italian + color by the two Friulian groups;
AOC: San Daniele preferred by Friulian speaking;
Product: preferred by the two Friulian groups;
Ecolabel: preferred by friulian speaking versus the Italian speaking.
6.5 - Combination of language and color for the simulation of marketing quota
The attribute ranking has emphasized the combination of language and color synergic effect; with eight simulation are experimented th preferences for different associations of attributes and levels: language, color, price. Results are reported in table 9 in order of preferences.
Table 9 – Preferences for combination of different brand representation and prices in market quota simulation
Association 1: Italian + brand + price (1,20 €)
Association 6: Italian + brand + color + price (1.60 €)
Association 7: Friulian + brand + price + (1.60 €)
Association 8: Friulian + brand + color + price (1.60 €)
Table 10 – Simulation of market quota
Table 11 –Simulation of Probability preference
Table 12 – Marker segmentation and sale value of 100 consumers
5.6 - Evaluation
1 – Segmentation using the language alone. The use of Italian or Friulian languages alone has determined a modest market segmentation. With the lower price the market quota changes from 14.8 (Italian) to 16,4 (Friulian); both quotas cover the 31,2 of the market. At higher price these quotas are respectively 6,8 for Italian and 5,2 for Friulian, and both cover the 12% of the entire market. The sum of the quotas at lower and higher prices are almost equivalent: 20,9 for Italian and 21,6 for Friulian.
consumer preferences with respect to the Friulian alone: at the lower price the quota has passed from 16,4% (without color) to 18 % (with color) equivalent to + 2,4%. At the higher price the quota has increased from 5,2 to 6,6 (+ 4,3%).
6 - Conclusion
Several contribution and implications for marketing in the EU contest can be drawn from this research, addressed to investigate the effectiveness of local language in marketing communication strategies to increase the preferences of local consumers for local food products. The region FVG is the ideal locus for this cross cultural experiment: cross border relations and at least three minority official languages Friulian, Slovenian and German still used in the region make the local language a viable alternative to the traditional communication strategies. The theoretical background is the psycholinguistic theory and Lancaster theory applied to marketing strategies allowing to improve the transmission of physical and symbolic meanings of the food product attributes using words in different languages to capture different consumers’ preferences for specific food products using: i) the multi-dimensional construct of the cultural environment (ethnical, identity, values, symbols) theoretically rigorous and easy to be experimented; ii) relate the consumer behavior to preferences expressed for the attributes described in different languages; iii) simulate the consumer behavior in a given market contest and test the reaction to price for consumer with different language knowledge assuming the price a discriminating factor of quality perception. The empirical evidences are given by the Conjoint analysis and results suggest the following considerations: i) the language has the capacity to change the consumer’s preference order according with socio-demographic profile, cultural background and level of language knowledge; ii) the language effectiveness depends not only on the descriptors of the attributes that are perceived differently by consumers according with their socio-demographic profile (recipients) but also on the communication ambience (empathy ) and communication-mix strategies adopted (sender); iii) the country of origin stereotypes are more entrenched with ethnocentric consumers, highly sensitive to local
combination: sensorial attributes and ethnic identity have generated the higher level of consumer preference. This synergic effect is interpreted as the local language increases the consumers’ awareness of belonging to a group with specific social, ethnic identity, while the color stimulate a sensorial experience that is both emotional and cognitive.
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