Green or Blue? That’s the organic product packaging question

Green or Blue?

That’s the organic

product packaging

question

Elīna Unbedahte

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University of Groningen/ Faculty of Economics and Business MSc Business Administration: Specialization Marketing

Green or Blue? - That’s the organic

product packaging question

Scientific theoretical and empirical research

By

Elīna Unbedahte

Master Thesis

Contact Information: + 31 729645560

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Executive Summary

Organic industry is growing like never before. New brands and products appear on the store shelves and continuously increasing product categories offer an organic option. However, as this industry’s brands do not believe in spending money in extensive marketing activities, packaging is left with the biggest task of delivering the product’s organic message. This research chose colours as the most effective packaging element which can deliver organic message. Moreover, product brand equity’s and hedonic level’s ability to moderate colours performance was examined, as well. Lastly, it was argued that packaging which delivers the strongest product organic perception will eventually benefit with increased quality perceptions and consumer willingness to purchase the product for premium price.

The results showed that colour has relatively small overall impact on explaining the product perceived organicness, suggesting that other packaging elements need to be examined when evaluating packaging’s ability to deliver organic message. However, it was clearly indicated that colour green communicates better the organic message than colour blue. Additionally, the results showed that the best colour is light green and the second best is dark green for organic products. While the colour explained small variance of the perceived product organicness, it was clear that the higher the perceived organicness the stronger consumer willingness to buy the product for a premium. Moreover, consumers confirmed that a convincing organic packaging does influence their quality perceptions.

Lastly, both – brand equity and hedonic level- did not moderate the packaging colour’s delivered organic message.

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Preface and Acknowledgement

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child. ”

- Carl Jung

Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Laurens Sloot, for his time, energy and helpful support. More importantly, I would like to thank for his understanding and friendly ear throughout this process.

Moreover, my gratitude goes to Jenny van Doorn, for her helpful and insightful comments. Without you, the reader would have to sweat reading the statistical part of this research.

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Table of Contents

Introduction ... 6

Problem Statement and Research Questions... 7

Relevance ... 8

Structure ... 10

Part I: Organic Field... 11

1. Organic Industry, Products and Consumers ... 11

1.1. Defining ... 11

1.2. Background ... 11

1.3. Consumers ... 12

2. Organic Logo ... 14

3. Perceived Product Organicness ... 16

Part II: Literature Review ... 18

1. Product packaging ... 18

2. Colours... 20

2.1. Colour and packaging... 20

2.2. Technical aspects of colour ... 22

2.3. Colour associations ... 23

3. Brand Equity ... 25

3.1. High Brand Equity- National Brand... 27

3.2. Low Brand Equity – Private Label ... 29

4. Shopping motivations ... 31

4.1. Low Hedonic motivations ... 32

4.2. High Hedonic motivations ... 33

5. Perceived quality, willingness to pay and purchase intentions ... 34

Part III: Research design ... 37

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4. Experimental Design ... 44

4.1. IV ... 44

4.2. Moderators ... 44

4.3. Products developed for researched ... 45

5. Measurement ... 46

5.1. Brand Equity measurement ... 46

5.2. Hedonic Level measurement ... 48

5.3. Perceived Product Organicness measurement ... 49

5.4. DV measurement ... 49

Part IV: Result Report ... 51

1. Sample ... 51

1.1. Normality and Linearity ... 51

1.2. Scale Validity ... 52

2. Model inspection ... 54

2.1. Colour influence on perceived product organicness... 54

2.2. Perceived organicness predictive power... 55

2.3. Moderating power of brand equity and hedonic level ... 56

2.4. Sample representativeness and the model ... 57

3. Discussion ... 58

3.3.Organic Consumer ... 60

Conclusion ... 62

Managerial Implications ... 63

Limitations and Further Research ... 64

References ... 65

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Introduction

Nowadays, sustainability and environmental awareness is growing in its importance. Subsequently, the number of consumers who become increasingly conscious of nature friendly living is growing, as well (Bartels and Hoogendam, 2010; Roberts, 1996). Unfortunately, being only environmentally conscious does not immediately imply heavy organic product consumption (Gurnert and Juhl, 1995; Roberts, 1996); however, surrounding society and media does have strong positive and noticeable influence (Bartels and Hoogendam, 2010). As a result, many new “green” brands appear on the average supermarket shelves as well as many of current brands expand with product extensions within organic field. Nevertheless, even though the amount of organic products in supermarkets is continuously increasing, they do not clearly and explicitly communicate their organic qualities and environmental benefits. Consequently, consumers are not externally stimulated to process the product origins and ponder about the comparative advantage organic products offer over similar generic products (Borin, Cerf and Krishnan, 2011).

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packaging element in order to communicate organic message and convince consumers about the increased organic assets.

Interestingly, consumer behaviour and product perceptions can vary based on the brand name and product type. For example, in case when two similar products are marketing an organic concept, the product that carries high brand equity brand name will experience considerably more frequently increased level of acceptance and claim believability than low brand equity brand name product (Broniarczyk and Gershoff, 2003). Ampuero and Vila (2006) added that colour can support or detract the overall product/brand message packaging delivers. The authors advocate that high brand equity brands will be more believable when using dark colours and vice versa. Thus, it can be concluded that when choosing appropriate colour option for product’s package brand equity has to be taken into an account.

The product type in this particular research is evaluated in terms of the level of product’s hedonic qualities. Highly hedonic products are habitually interrelated with positive emotions and, as a result, product and packaging aspects for such products are also perceived in an elevated and positive way. On the other hand, low hedonic product claims are best perceived by the consumer when they are direct and easy to process (Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010; Underwood et al., 2001). Therefore, when communicating organic product qualities knowing the type of product is also important when choosing packaging colour strategy.

In conclusion, as colour use in packaging can influence product/brand’s image, acceptance of the organic claims, perform as a search tool and create point of differentiation it has been chosen as the core element for this study. This thesis will be focusing on non-edible fast moving consumer goods and will differentiate between high and low brand equity products as well as utilitarian and hedonic products.

Problem Statement and Research Questions

To what extend does the packaging colour influence the product’s organic perception by the consumer?

 Does packaging colour influence consumer’s perceived level of product organicness?

 Are the packaging colour effects on consumer’s perceived product organicness moderated by the brand equity?

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 Is there ‘one best’ colour use in packaging for organic goods?

 Does perception of a more organic product influence consumer’s product quality perception, willingness to pay premium and purchase intentions?

Relevance

Consumers have their own paradigm on how and why they choose products. However, companies have found ways how to influence consumer product selection process; one of the most common approaches is developing brand equity, the other - using in-store stimuli. Such in-store stimuli can be displays, banners and even sales promotion representatives. A more recent development is to use the packaging’s ability to be the silent salesman (Ampuero and Vila, 2006; Wells, Farley and Armstrong, 2007). A body of literature (Bloch, 1995; Creusen and Schoormans, 2005; Garber et al., 2000; Garber, 1995; Mishra and Jain, 2012) has unilaterally agreed that packaging’s visual appearance can influence consumer’s product perception and, consequently, alter consumer’s product choice. Thus, proving that packaging is called as the silent-salesman for a reason and it can stimulate product sales. Therefore, nowadays, many retailers and manufacturers pay close attention to packaging design and restlessly try to find a combination that allows maximizing the amount of the units sold (Mishra and Jain, 2012; Pantin-Sohier; 2009; Rebollar et al., 2011).

Commonly, colour of the package is the first element altered when striving for a modification in consumer product selection processes (Funk and Ndubi, 2006). Moreover, colour change is one of the easiest and cheapest packaging elements that can be altered in a considerably short period of time (Aslam, 2006). In overall, colour alone can attract consumer, arouse an interest and create desire to test the product. Hence, in many cases a colour alteration can increase the units sold (Funk and Ndubi, 2006). Furthermore, a consistent colour- product/brand use also can strengthen the brand image, extend the brand equity halo and even create new revenue (Madden et al., 2000; Talhammer, 2007; Underwood, 2003). Therefore, it can be confirmed that colour is an important packaging element that can influence consumer’s product/brand perception and behaviour.

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al., 2000). Consequently, a surprisingly small amount of researches examine packaging colours and even less have depicted the relationship between packaging colour and consumer product expectation/perceptions and/or consumer behaviour (Gerber et al., 2000; Gordon et al., 1994; Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010; Pantin-Sohier, 2009; Rebollar et al, 2011; Schoormans and Robben, 1997). However, while the marketing field has skipped colour as a tool, psychology has not; this field has deeply evaluated and examined colour preferences and associations. Consequently, giving sufficient amount of grounding theories and colour effect expectations (Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010; Pantin-Sohier, 2009)

The few existing researches about packaging colour for FMCG have mainly focused on one product category, namely- coffee. One of the first colour packaging studies was conducted by Dichter in early 60’s where the same coffee was put in four containers that only differed by its colour (brown, red, blue and yellow). The author sought to prove that the container colour will influence the overall evaluation of the coffee. Dichter (1964) discovered that majority respondents expected that coffee packaged in brown container will be full-flavored, red will taste very rich, blue will possess mild flavour and smoothness, while yellow was expected to taste excessively mild. Thus, Dichter (1964) was able to prove his initial suspicion that colour does influence consumer perception about the product and its benefits. The author also advocated that colour should be used as a tool not only in packaging but also to send an advertising message. Gordon et al. (1994) also conducted packaging colour research for coffee, focusing on consumer responses towards different colours. While colours used (dark blue, white, purple) were different, the authors were able to confirm Dichter’s (1964) findings by concluding that packaging colour functions as non-verbal attribute. The authors added that colour alone can give certain product associations, product experience expectations and quality perceptions. Moreover, Gerber et al (1994) stated that colour can influence consumer judgements about certain brands, and, thus, alter consumer brand selection, as well.

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relationship between preferred colour and most liked packaging colour, the generally preferred colours are still on the top of the list of the most liked packages. Thus, using preferred colours in product’s packaging can result in brand’s packaging advantage. The author also found that there is clear colour/product-function associations, yet again proving that colour can perform as a communication tool. All these three examples clearly illustrate that colour has significant influence on consumer product evaluation. Moreover, as the colour effects for packaging have been researched in very limited product categories it provided a gap for further researches across other industries.

As organic industry is still currently growing and succeeding, regardless the economic crisis, it is a field that needs more attention. Moreover, organic products researched mainly represent food industry, often forgetting about the emerging quantities of organic products in other non-edible FMCG categories. Therefore, this research can give initial insight in one of such non-edible FMCG categories, identified as toiletries. Moreover, the results of this study can provide emerging organic product lines with preferable packaging colour’s strategies. As many companies, nowadays, spend more money on packaging than advertising (Rebollar et al., 2011), it is an information that can be highly appreciated and used. Moreover, by applying colour that is identified as most appropriate for a product/brand, the brand can gain an effective communication tool, while consumer will benefit from an additional search tool. Therefore, making shopping process easier to the consumer and providing both parties with a win-win situation.

Structure

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Part I: Organic Field

1. Organic Industry, Products and Consumers

1.1. Defining

Organic products can be described in many ways; nevertheless, the core elements always remain the same. The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems, minimize the pollution from air, soil and water and integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole. Moreover, organic label also means that the management practices are focused on restoring, maintaining and enhancing the ecological harmony. Thus, delivering products that are beneficial for both- the source it came from and the end user (National Organics Standards Board, 2012).

1.2. Background

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diversify their product variety by introducing private labels. Hence, maximizing own profit margins, while providing consumer with lower priced organic products (Prickett-Baker and Ozaki, 2008). Interestingly, the introduction of organic private labels was not as well accepted as expected. Many organic product consumers initially feared that, by exposing organic farmers to such pressures as lowering prices for private labels, will cause decrease in quality standards (Perrini et al., 2010). Moreover, consumers also did not believe in private label credibility from retailers that previously were inactive in social and environmental responsibility field. Nevertheless, with active consumer education and organic certification, the private labels are steadily growing their credibility and customer base. Currently, mainstream retailers have outperformed specialized organic stores (Jonas and Roosen, 2005) and around 54 per cent of organic products in 2010 were sold through mainstream supermarkets, leaving specialized retailers in second place with their 39 per cent of organic product sales (Organic Trade Association, 2011).

Nowadays, organic industry is still growing, with worldwide sales in 2010 for food and beverages being $26,7 billion (7.7 per cent growth compared to 2009) and non-food sales reached $ 1.97 billion (9.7 per cent growth since 2009) (Organic Trade Association, 2011). The last time measured, the organic land in 2009 increased by 2 million hectares compared to 2008 (World of Organic Agriculture, 2011), reaching 37,2 million hectares. Countries with the largest organic product market can be identified as USA, Germany, France and UK. Interestingly, the highest usage per capita is noticed in Denmark, Switzerland and Austria (Jonas and Roosen, 2005; Organic Trade Association. 2011; World of Organic Agriculture, 2011). It is argued that such phenomena occur due the high level of environmental awareness as well as higher spending ability (Perrini et al., 2010). Accordingly, USA and Europe can be identified as one of the most influential regions for organic product development.

1.3. Consumers

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influence also generations X and Y are strongly growing as organic product users (Barry, 1999). Therefore, when it comes to classifying organic consumer with such socio-demographic variable as age the results are inconsistent and undefinable. While age does not allow to be categorized to determine most common organic user, gender does. Most researchers were able to conclude that women tend to be more concerned with environmental issues than men. Moreover, their concerns are more often expressed in terms of actual organic products purchases (Laroche et al., 2001; Mainieri et al., 1997). Paco et al. (2008) reasoned that such pattern has occurred due to women’s role and perceptions of a caretaker as well as their preference for better products for themselves and their families.

The literature body has also found that there is positive relationship between education level and environmentally aware behaviour (Mainieri et al., 1997; Paco et al., 2008; Roberts, 1996; Straughan and Roberts, 1999). The general belief is that the higher the educational level the higher is one’s ability to gather and process the information and take responsibility for own actions. Subsequently, income has positive relationship with environmental behaviour and purchase intentions, as well (Paco et al., 2008). One of the reasons of such relationship is that high education level has strong positive relationship with income, thus, consumer behavioural patterns transfer. Furthermore, Straughan and Roberts (1999) added that higher income consumers do not feel the price differences as sharply as low income consumers. However, these socio-demographic variables (gender, education and income) give only general description of organic consumer and are not definitive. Therefore, socio-demographic variables are not always reliable predictors of organic consumption (Paco et al., 2008)

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product users are passive shoppers who do not look for and/or think of organic products. Laroche et al. (2011:513) were able to support Chan’s findings with stating that low organic product use is explained by consumers ‘perceived inconvenience of being environmentally friendly’ and vice versa.

Moreover, consumers believe that natural ingredient based FMCG are safer, healthier, more qualitative and efficacious than the mainstream products (Bartels and Hoogendam, 2010; Kim and Seock, 2009). Annunziata et al. (2011) in their research confirmed these beliefs adding that around 55 per cent of their respondents were highly concerned with preserving the environments and avoiding pesticide residues in production process. The authors also found that 51 per cent of their respondents believed that organic goods are of higher quality and 46 per cent believed that these products are also safer. Lastly, 48 per cent believed that organic certification is very important to prove the product’s quality and credibility. Similar findings about consumer environmental concerns were also found by Borin, Cerf and Krishnan (2011). Therefore, the stronger the environmental awareness and product involvement the higher the number of organic products purchased (Paco, Raposo and Filho, 2008).

2. Organic Logo

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meeting the standards of top-notch certificate is extremely difficult. One the other hand, once rewarded with high standard quality seal, the brand can use it to grow consumer awareness about the organic levels, apply super- premium pricing strategies and enjoy increased consumer trust. Meike and Ulrich (2012) believe that a seal of third and accredited party increases the trust at a much higher level than own brand organic claim. Often these labels also work as additional information tool that not only gives specific production or ingredient knowledge but also allows consumer to compare alternatives (Annunziata et al., 2011) and come to an educated product selection process. Subsequently, the organic logo allows organic products to shift from credence goods to a product with search attributes (Perrini et al., 2010). Annunziata et al. (2011) in their study found that 48 per cent of their respondents value organic logos as crucial quality seal and only 7 per cent do not care about such labels at all.

There are three main government-led systems that oversee the organic certification process, namely, European, U.S. and Japanese. The European system is the oldest and not only gives its own organic seal but also accredits other third-party certification seals. The main goal behind multiple certification organizations is to increase the competition between themselves that result in depletion of the certification cost (Zorn et al., 2011) and, preferably, in product price decrease, as well.

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organizations guarantee that 95 per cent or more of product’s ingredients come from natural, organic sources and are created in an ethical and environmentally responsible way.

3. Perceived Product Organicness

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Part II: Literature Review

1. Product packaging

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such as the shape, size and materials used and are less remembered than graphical components (Ampuero and Vila, 2006; Heroux, et al., 1988; Mishra and Jain, 2012). A careful and researched mix of both elements often allow companies to establish, reinforce and/or maintain strong set of brand associations (Bloch, 1995, Pantin-Sohier, 2009; Undwerwood, 2003; Woodside and Summers, 2011).

There are two main reasons that have contributed in increasing interest in packaging importance. The first reason is a combination of the historical switch from over-the-counter to self-service stores and growing competition/product supply. Nowadays, it is all about blending in (e.g. low equity brands that want to pertain high equity brand product quality by packaging similarly) and even more about standing out (Ampuero and Vila, 2006; Wells, Farley and Armstrong, 2007; Rundh, 2005; Woodside and Summers, 2011). The package not only has to be able to stand out within its competitors to get the consumer’s attention (Rundh, 2005; Woodside and Summers, 2011), but also communicate the brand value (Pantin-Sohier, 2009), persuade consumers about the product/brand (Rundh, 2005; Wells, Farley and Armstrong, 2007) and trigger purchase intentions (Giovannetti, 1995). Packaging essentially is the tool that lets the product to speak for itself (Pantin-Sohier, 2009).Therefore, it is often called the ‘silent salesman’ (Ampuero and Vila, 2006; Wells, Farley and Armstrong, 2007) that instead of actual store employee does everything possible to draw attention to the products, as well as inform consumer about product quality and usage benefits (Giovannetti, 1995; Rettie and Brewer, 2000). The second reason is the economic downturn that has forced companies to reduce spending on advertising and branding. Consequently, budget cuts in traditional marketing channels have added emphasis and focus on packaging capability to create in-store stimuli and brand communication (Ampuero and Vila, 2006; Rundh, 2005; Schoormans and Robben, 1996). Thus, the packaging, these days, is perceived as the last tool a company can use to convince the potential buyer before the point of sale (Giovannetti, 1995).

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as toothpaste is bought based on impulse in 75 per cent of purchases and other cosmetic products – in 70 per cent of cases (Schoormans and Robben, 1996). Moreover, it takes consumer only about ninety seconds to decide to buy or not to buy (Singh, 2006). Bloch (1995) as well as Creusen and Schoormans (2005) added that in cases when product, price and function is equal the consumer will choose the product that is perceived as more appealing to them, colour being the most influential factor (Creusen and Schoormans,2005). Thalhammer (2007) in his study about natural product packaging was able to support Bloch’s and Creusen and Schoorman’s finding, adding that up to 70 per cent of products chosen for purchase are based on presentation. Moreover, the author states that organic product consumer seeks packaging that matches the organic lifestyle and associations. Therefore, preferable packaging for organic products that would attract consumer can be described as such that gives natural and fresh feel. More importantly, the packaging must be in sync with the product and the story it is telling (Mishra and Jain, 2012; Talhammer, 2007). The more coherent the appearance with the brand and product the higher is consumer’s ability to relate and trust the product, brand and affiliated company (Pantin-Sohier, 2009; Thalhammer, 2007). Logically, increased trust and believability positively shifts into increased quality perceptions, willingness to pay and purchase intentions (Wells, Farley & Armstrong, 2007). Thus, it can be concluded that product packaging is capable to influence consumer perception about the product (Rundh, 2005) and even influence brand preferences (Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010)

2. Colours

2.1. Colour and packaging

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and specific product attributes can even stimulate emotional responses within consumers (Aslam, 2006; Hemphill. 1996; Madden et al., 2000). Coherent colour packaging can also strengthen and reinforce the desired product image and perceived benefits (Funk and Ndubi, 2006; Mishra and Jain, 2012; Pantin-Sohier, 2009; Talhammer, 2007). Furthermore, such colour use strategy can result in an increase in consumer’s product quality perceptions and willingness to pay (Aslam, 2006; Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010). Funk and Ndubi (2006) added that in some cases, colour use in packaging can also support and enhance external marketing activity (e.g. commercials, print advertising, social media activities, etc) effectiveness and even improve brand perceptions. The authors additionally found, that colour use alone can attract consumer towards unknown brands and generate new revenue. Therefore, it can be concluded that colour use in packaging can serve not only for aesthetic purposes but also can attract consumer attention and even work as stimulus-based information tool (Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010; Schoormans and Robben, 1997).

Packaging colour can evoke two types of consumer attention. The first one, involuntary attention, occurs when one product in its product category is packaged in unexpected and novel colour. In such cases consumer’s eye is immediately drawn to this product and can trigger willingness to experiment in a consumer (Clement, 2007). The second type is voluntary attention which is usually employed by the consumer self; consumers tend to remember the packaging colour of their favourite and routine products in order to minimize search costs at the next store visit (Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010).

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Consequently, many high brand equity brands tend to protect their specific colour with the trademark law known as Lanham Act in the Unites States (Aslam, 2006; Hoek and Gendal, 2010; Madden et al., 2000). Any company has right to trademark their colour, provided it possesses emotional and psychological properties. Aslam (2006) also adds that vivid colour use in packaging will gain higher level of consumer attention than dull and plain package ever would. Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala (2010) on the other hand believe that the colour has to be not only vivid, but also novel and warm. In overall, the general consensus is that aesthetic packaging leaves stronger memory nodes and enables information processing.

2.2. Technical aspects of colour

Colour consists of three core elements: hue, brightness and saturation. Hue is the most crucial element because it is the very reason that allows distinguishing and recognizing different colours (Ellis and Ficek, 2001). Each colour has series of wavelengths which varies from short to long and is often labelled as ‘cool’ and ‘warm’ colours, respectively. ‘Cool’ colours represent blue, green and purple, while ‘warm’ colours - red, yellow and orange (Ballast, 2002; Babina et al., 2003; Crowley, 1993). The second element of colour, namely, brightness, represents the degree of lightness or darkness in terms from white to black. The last element, saturation, represents the degree of exuberance of the hue when compared to neutral values of the same tones (Ellis and Ficek, 2001; Ballast, 2002). Saturation allows manipulating the clarity and vividness of colour. In world of colour there is another separate colour category called achromatic colours. This category represents white, grey and black. People tend to prefer white before grey and black and grey before black (Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994).

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positively correlate with arousal and vice versa. Additionally, Schoormans and Robben (1996) were able to derive to very similar conclusions, as well. Thus, the original study by Guilford and Smith (1959) that vivid and well-saturated colours are more pleasant and have higher arousal effect on consumers has been partially supported. However, the question of which one of the two – brightness or saturation- has a stronger effect on arousal and/or pleasure remains. Valdez and Mehrabian (1994) found that brighter colours provoked stronger reaction in terms of preference than did saturated ones. However, saturated colours had significantly stronger influence on consumers’ arousal than brighter colours did. Interestingly, darker (low brightness) and well-saturated colours also elicited feelings of strength, boldness and dominance within consumers (Aslam, 2006). Valdez and Mehrabian (1994) were able to also conclude that the brightness level had stronger effect on these emotions than saturation; the lower the brightness the stronger the associations and emotions to colour black.

2.3. Colour associations

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Various literature has examined people-colour preferences and have been able to derive to similar conclusions: blue is the most commonly liked colour, followed by green. White and purple have placed subsequent due to the high colour preference within women. The next colours on the preference list are red, orange and yellow and lastly, the least liked colours are grey and black (Adams and Osgood, 1973; Hemphill, 1996; Madden et al., 2000; Ko, 2011; Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994). Further on, two most preferred colours, namely – blue and green, are discussed at greater detail. Throughout the literature and researches so called ‘cool’ colours always gain more positive attitudes and stronger influence on customer than ‘warm’ ones. Blue has been unilaterally recognized as general population’s favourite colour followed by green. In overall, the short wavelength colours are found to be restful and quiet (Ballast, 2002) and able of provoking the greatest level of pleasure (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). As the most preferred colour blue elicits many types of feelings and entails as many perceived meanings and associations. Blue has the power to make people feel relaxed and calm, happy, comfortable, peaceful and even hopeful (Kaya and Epps et al., 2004). One of the main reasons why such feelings were identified is that people tend to pair blue with ocean, blue sky, water and other usually leisure and positive emotion creating elements (Hemphill. 1996). Blue is most commonly associated with security and comfort (Ballast, 2002; Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994), tenderness and smoothness (Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994), calmness, serenity (Hemphill, 1996) and cleanliness (Ko, 2011). Thus, the colour can be defined as good and settle (Adams and Osgood, 1973). Interestingly, Ko (2011) found that colour blue was the most preferred colour regardless the product function and its function associations. Furthermore, the author also concluded that due to the associations colour blue can positively increase the impression of products cleaning aptitude. Such finding supports Jacobs et al. (1991) findings that products packaged in blue are often perceived as high quality products. Moreover, packaging type of colour (keeping standard saturation) directly influences consumer’s product perceptions. Dark blue tend to create luxurious, expensive product impression, while light blue – good quality, but basic and cheap product impression (Jacobs et al., 1991; Madden et al 2000, Pantin-Sohier, 2009)

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1996) and most often create associations of comfort and quietness (Hemphill, 1996; Kaya and Epps, 2004) as well as naturalness, freshness and beauty (Davey, 1998, Mahnke, 1996; Saito, 1996). Adams and Osgood (1973) were able to determine that general population find the colour good and trustworthy. Valdez and Mehrabian (1994) support these outcomes by adding that every colour combination that included colour green were more preferred by the consumer. Moreover, use of green in colour combinations was more arousing to consumer than any other colour combination that did not include green. When colour green is paired with a particular brand consumers often see them as a brand who’s organization is innovative, caring and environmentally conscious (Aslam, 2006). When it comes to product packaging, Ko (2011) discovered that green most commonly is paired with ingredients used in the product. Additionally, similar to colour blue level of brightness can influence consumer’s product perceptions. Dark green elicits higher level of luxury, quality and price premium (Jacobs et al., 1991; Madden, 2000). Nevertheless, especially in cases of organic product packaging, all shades of green are well accepted, liked and seen as genuine; thus, light green does not elicit cheap and basic product merits (Talhammer, Brand Equity

3. Brand Equity

Brand equity as a marketing concept is relatively new. It emerged in 1990’s as a response to the top management and financial officer growing need to justify marketing activities and spending. Thus, brand equity’s initial function was to explain short- and long-term marketing activity influence to the company and their ability to build brand and future profits (Christodoulides et al., 2006). Consequently, shortly after brand equity became the central tool for marketing performance measurement (Ambler 2003).

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relatively straightforward and can be explained by evaluating company’s financial performance, thus, is not found as fascinating (Christodoulides et al., 2006). The consumer-based brand equity as it is known nowadays is based on two theoretical approaches, namely, cognitive psychology and signalling theory. Nevertheless, also in this case, one precedes the other and, consequently, main body of research is based upon cognitive psychology, especially memory (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Christodoulides et al., 2006; Keller 1993). Keller (1993) succeeded in developing one of the most accepted consumer-based definitions that well represents the cognitive psychology field. The author (Keller, 1993:2) defined consumer-based brand equity as the “differential effect of band knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand”. Meaning, that consumer is more responsive and receptive towards any type of marketing activities of a known brand product than identical unbranded product. In Keller’s definition brand knowledge can be divided in two core elements known as brand awareness and brand associations. Therefore, it can be summed up that consumer-based brand equity is present in cases when consumer is aware of the brand and can easily and clearly recall positive brand associations.

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quality perceptions as well as corporate responsibility and ethics. Nevertheless, regardless of all these attributes and marketing efforts, it is still mainly each consumer’s subjective perception of the brand (Aaker, 1996; Sriram, Balachander and Kalwani, 2007).

Generally, brands can be classified as high or low equity; the former can be described as brands that develop the attributes and consequently gain high recognisability and preference by consumers and the latter – as brands that lack or choose not to develop brand equity attributes and rarely benefit same treatment as high equity brands. In overall, branding is one of the most fundamental approaches for product identification and differentiation (Keller, 2002; Yoo et al., 2000). Strong brand equity gives companies competitive edge that is not based on price and, thus, it increases consumer decision process in a positive way. As consumers perceive products with developed brand equity as better and more valuable than lower equity brand products, they are more prone to choose these products and pay premium price (Yoo et al., 2000).

3.1. High Brand Equity- National Brand

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are committed to the brand (Oliver, 1997); hence, not seeing their favourite brand in a store will more likely cause store than brand switching (Sloot et al., 2005).

National brands use its marketing mix (product, price, distribution and advertising, etc)to communicate to the consumer that their production is up to highest standards and, thus, providing consumer with the best product quality possible. Consequently, consumers believe that national brands are superior in terms of credibility, quality, smell, appeal and other elements (de Wulf et al., 2005). Moreover, national brands tend to have hedonic quality allowing consumer perceptions and emotions about the product, its use and qualities be elevated (Sethuraman, 2000, Yoo et al., 2000). De Wulf et al., (2005), confirmed such tendencies with product non-blind sample test. While consumers where offered the same product, the one that was identified as high equity national brand was perceived of better quality and worth the premium pricing and vice versa. The authors concluded that such results appear due to the fact that when high brand equity brand is involved consumer mixes the actual product attributes with the ones of brand perceptions.

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start doubting the brand and its credibility (Broniarczyk and Gershoff, 2003; Buchanan, Simmons and Bickart, 1999; Creusen and Schoormans, 2005).

As organic products are credence goods it is crucial to assure consumer about the product credibility. In addition to brand credibility that originates from the brand equity, national brands are more widely and publicly scrutinized than private labels, as well. Consequently, consumers often feel that a well-known national brand would not tamper with its brand name. Hence, the quality perception and product credibility for national brand products is mainly already perceived as high and trusted by consumer (Olson, 2012; Yoo et al., 2005). Therefore, the use of organic logo for high equity national brand will have only moderate positive influence and ceiling effect will take place (Farbice et al., 2012).

3.2. Low Brand Equity – Private Label

Nowadays, private labels are one of the largest and popular representatives of low equity brands. However, it is important to note that not all private labels are low brand equity nor they are the only low brand equity representatives. Nevertheless, private labels are used as low brand equity representatives in this research and, hence, are discussed further on from low brand equity perspective.

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also to achieve higher profit margins (Ailawadi, 2001; Mills, 1995). Therefore, during the past two decades private labels have experienced vast growth within the market. Nowadays, most of the large retailers have their own private label line and it is available in just about every product category (Horvat, 2011; Pepe et al., 2011). Moreover, private label growth has outpaced national brands within FMCG category (Steenkamp, et al., 2010). Western Europe is the largest supporter of private labels; around 43 per cent of FMCG sold have been private label brands. USA is more reluctant to private labels; nevertheless, around 20 per cent of spending on FMCG comes from private labels, as well (Steenkamp, et al., 2010).

As private labels develop and become more than just profit maximizing tool, retailers closely follow the market development to fill in the gaps. The first step towards diversification within the private labels was introducing the three-tier quality approach to the consumer. Starting with economical no frills and thrills private label and finishing with premium quality one (Geykens et al., 2011). So called premium quality private label products are introduced as product substitutes and tend to match or be better quality than the national brand (Jonas and Roosen, 2005). Subsequently, when the organic products started to consistently fill in the shelves, retailers soon after followed with organic private labels, as well. By providing consumers with high quality but comparatively lower priced organic FMCG retailers can grow its customer base and build an image (Jonas and Roosen, 2005; Pepe et al., 2011)

Packaging has been found as one of the most influential factors that affect consumer perception of private label’s quality. Consumers use packaging as an extrinsic cue about the product quality and to help building overall product perceptions when they are not too familiar with the brand and/or product (Olson and Jacoby, 1972) and when it is not fully clear about the intrinsic product attributes (Underwood et al., 2001). Currently there are two approaches of packaging private labels.

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(Steenkamp et al., 2010). As organic private label products follow the premium one’s quality standards, the misidentification allows consumer to test the retailer’s provided product substitute and positively influence brand quality associations (Olson, 2012). The second packaging approach is colour use strategy. As previously discussed, colour in packaging is often used as tool of differentiation (Ampuero and Vila, 2006; Mishra and Jain, 2012; Rundh, 2005) or strengthening a certain image (Creusen and Schoormans, 2005; Mishra and Jain, 2012). For example, warm colours (organge, yellow and red) are found to often give impression of cheapness. Thus, when a brand wants to express such aspect of the product warm colours are used in the packaging (Madden et al., 2000; Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010). Additionally, colours that have high brightness (light, beige hues) also give impression of cheaper, non-A class brand. Consequently, many brands have switched from using more activating and aggressive warm colours (Kaya and Epps, 2004; Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994) towards calming and settle variations high-brightness cool colours (blue, green, purple) (Jacobs et al., 1991; Madden, 2000). Moreover, Ampuero and Vila (2006) advocate that high-brightness hues signal private label assets to the consumer. A more recent packaging colour strategy is to match the colour to the story the product and/or brand is telling (Wells, Farley and Armstrong, 2007, Pantin-Sohier, 2009; Talhammer, 2007). Therefore, in this particular situation the colour in packaging should either fit well with the brand, product and/or the organic benefits of the product (Limon et al., 2009; Talhammer, 2007). Moreover, packaging that fits well with the product and its special benefits have proved to have positive relationship with consumer purchase intentions (Limon et al., 2009)

Lastly, as private label initially does not have the quality assurance as the national brand, use of organic label is commended. Use of such label signals to the consumer that the credence product is up to industry standards and significantly improves the private label’s credibility (Fabrice et al., 2012). Moreover, decreasing the perceived quality gap between low and high equity brand has positive effects on consumer willingness to pay (Steenkamp et al., 2010).

4. Shopping motivations

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the need aside and allowed the desire to play a large role when it comes to purchasing products. Nevertheless, most shopping motivations can be categorized in one of the three basic elements: 1) pure and rational need for a product 2) to acquire the product and to also satisfy non-product related needs and 3) to fulfil desires and emotional voids that are not related to product acquisition (Arnold and Reynolds, 2003). In current literature, these basic elements are known as utilitarian, hedonic or mixture of both shopping motivations.

4.1. Low Hedonic motivations

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4.2. High Hedonic motivations

Hedonic shopping motivation is relatively younger concept than the utilitarian. Nevertheless, it is more intriguing subject for researchers since it offers more than just the rational and need driven reasons for shopping. Meaning, consumers who follow hedonic shopping approach are looking for the ‘full package’ – successful product purchase that is done in fun, exciting and fulfilling manner (Arnold and Reynolds, 2003; Babin et al., 1994). Chitturi et al. (2007) added that hedonic consumer is also concerned with promotion goals- being cool and sophisticated is at high importance. Moreover, in most cases hedonic emotions are present when the environment is multisensory, allows fantasy, is amusing and fun, gives illusion of freedom and allows escaping (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). Thus, hedonic shopping is present if consumer feels pure excitement, pleasure, captivation, escapism and impulsiveness (Babin et al., 1994; Dhar and Wertenbroch, 2000). Products that can best described as hedonic are luxury items (designer products, expensive cars), self-pampering products, chocolate, ice-cream as well as paintings, theatre, books and etc. Nevertheless, regardless the hedonic level of the product it also can be utilitarian and vice versa. The product classification can differ based on consumer perception (Odaka, 2005).

As hedonic products are mostly associated with such words as pleasant, nice, positive, good, beautiful, pleasing, happy, pleasing and soothing (Batra and Athola, 1991; Chitturi et al., 2008), it can be concluded that hedonic aspects are based on more personal emotions and expectations and are subjective as well as individual in nature (Clement et al., 2006). Therefore, when it comes to hedonic product packaging, consumer preferences vary immensely. Nevertheless, as hedonic products are explained with cheerful and positive emotions, the packaging colour can often applied to the emotions the product represents.

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for others. This shopping motivation generates high level of hedonic feeling when the shopping trip’s goal is achieved. The following shopping motivation is gratification shopping which occurs when consumer feels like treating and indulging oneself. This motivation involves high level of personal emotions and is not based on rationale. While gratification is based on pampering oneself, idea shopping represents the motivations of innovators and early adopters. It is all about keeping up with the latest trends and have fun, educate oneself and always be up to date. Lastly, value shopping describes motivations of consumers that are always looking for the best deal and highest discounts. When such shopping goal is achieved, consumer experience feelings of achievement, success and satisfaction. Therefore, consumer willingness to pay will depend on type of shopping motivations and wallet share.

5. Perceived quality, willingness to pay and purchase

intentions

Perceived product quality, willingness to pay and purchase intentions often are very inter-related aspects of consumer behaviour. All three of these aspects are influenced and to certain degree explained by examining brand equity of a product’s label, the hedonic attributes and the overall impression the packaging communicates.

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contrary, the authors found that highly hedonic organic foods were perceived to fall short in satisfying consumer hedonic needs.

Environmental awareness and responsibility, desire to do good and use healthier products are the main reasons of organic industry’s growth. Nevertheless, when it comes to willingness to pay main factors consumers are concerned with are perceived product quality and credibility (Didier and Lucie, 2008). While, with the industry’s growth, consumer belief in organic quality has significantly improved, some consumers still doubt it and, hence, are reluctant to pay premium (Chang, 2011). Nevertheless, increasing literature body can confirm that most of the environmentally inclined consumers are willing to pay price premiums (Borin, Cerf and Krishnan, 2011; Chan, 1999; Chang, 2011; Laroche et al., 2001). Moreover, high brand equity brands have spent decades building brand equity attributes and to communicate the superior quality. Consequently, consumers are used to pay premium for high brand equity national brands, while premium private labels still need consumer education in order to reach desired level of willingness to pay. Additionally, Laroche et al, (2001) discovered that consumers are willing to pay premium for brands that are known for their environmental activities, while absolutely punish brands whose manufacturers are known for environment damaging activities. Willingness to pay can also differ based on the hedonic shopping types. For example, value shopper will strive for the biggest discount, thus, premium pricing will not be accepted. On the other hand, gratification or even idea shoppers like to, respectively, pamper themselves and keep up with trends and price in not an issue.

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Part III: Research design

The following chapter will discuss the main aspects of research design. Firstly, the conceptual model will be introduced and, secondly, the hypothesis and their justification will be deliberated. Next, the research method and variables will be explained. Lastly, measurement approach for each variable will be introduced.

1. Research design

1.1. Model

2. Hypothesis Development

2.1. Main relationship

This research includes two principal hues (blue, green) that in literature are known as cool colours. Colours such as red, purple and yellow were considered for this research, but were eliminated due to three factors. Firstly, the warm colours (red and yellow) were found to be too activating (Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994) and often giving an impression of cheapness (Aslam, 2006). Secondly, when pairing such colours as yellow and purple with natural elements they have single and direct associations (purple – lavender; yellow- sunflowers) (Hemphill, 1996; Kaya and Epps., 2004) and, thus, they lack in scope of association. Thirdly, ‘cool’ colours have stronger unilateral colour associations worldwide (Madden et al., 2000) and these colours encourage purchase behaviour at higher level than ‘warm’ colours (Aslam, 2006). Achromatic colours such as black and grey were not selected due to their wide

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negative association list, low arousal and low consumer preference (Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994). Moreover, such colours do not give coherent story between the colour and the product, brand or organisation - one of the most important elements applied when selecting colour for organic product packaging (Talhammer, 2007) and this research, as well. White, on the other hand, had proved to have similar and mainly positive worldwide associations (Madden et al., 2000) and is well received as organic packaging colour or element. Nevertheless, as this research assess two variations of the same colour, white cannot be altered to create the required two colour options. Therefore, it does not fit the criteria and it is not selected for this particular organic product packaging research.

As mentioned before, blue is strongly liked and most preferred colour around the globe (Valdez and Mehrabian, 1994). Therefore, it can be argued that using blue packaging for organic non-edible FMCG would be an instant success and have positive effect on consumer purchase intentions. Nevertheless, the associations with the colour are inclined towards such natural elements as ocean, beach and blue sky (Kaya and Epps, 2004). Thus, while the blue should attract consumers based on simple colour liking, the level of acceptance of the colour for organic products’ packaging can vary based on product and/or ingredient compatibility to this colour’s associations.

Nature and environment is strongly associated with colour green (Kaya and Epps, 2004; Ko, 2011). Moreover, colour green in combination with organic logo (or other organic indication) strengthens the organic image of a product/brand/company (Aslam, 2006). Thus, it can be concluded that using this colour in organic non-edible FMCG packaging will be easily accepted by the consumer and will create pleasure, deliver consistent message to the consumer and have positive effect on consumer purchase intentions.

The literature also has shown that colour that is strongly associated with nature elements will have stronger effect on product’s perceived organic level than colour that is less strongly associated with nature (Hemphill, 1996; Ko, 2011). Subsequently, it can be argued that the colour green is stronger associated with nature and organic products than blue. Thus, the following hypothesis can be proposed:

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Generally, most consumers believe that, nowadays, organic products are made of ingredients that are pure and grown in natural way and, thus, can be only good and much better than standard quality products (Bartels and Hoogendam, 2010; Kim and Seock, 2009). Furthermore, when considering packaging’s colour Rebollar et al. (2011) research and findings give confirmation that colour does indeed influence consumer product quality expectations and perceptions. The more coherent the appearance with the brand and product the higher is consumer’s ability to relate to and trust the product, brand and affiliated company (Pantin-Sohier, 2009; Thalhammer, 2007). Therefore, product that, in addition to general consumer organic product origin understanding, delivers high organic message will enhance consumer’s product quality perception. Moreover, perceived quality has positive relationship with price (Rao and Monreo, 1989; Keller, 2009). Thus, when packaging is delivering organic product message that increases quality perception a parallel increase in willingness to pay premium is expected (Yoo et al., 2005). Thus, it can be concluded that packaging that delivers strong product organic message will encourage consumer willingness to pay (Borin, Cerf and Krishnan, 2011; Chan, 1999; Chang, 2011; Laroche et al., 2001; Talhammer, 2007). Moreover, van Doorn and Verhoef (2011) added that organic claim releases consumer from feeling guilty for paying premium. Finally, it is known that packaging is the last tool a company can use to attract and persuade consumer about purchase (Ampuero and Vila, 2006; Giovannetti, 1995; Wells, Farley and Armstrong, 2007). Therefore, providing consumer with more convincing ‘organic packaging’ can be seen as the final push consumer needs in order trigger thoughts of health and environmental concern, personal benefits, releasing from guilt and even increasing self-esteem. Thus, strong organic product packaging’s communication is expected to encourage organic non-edible FMCG purchase. Consequently, the following three hypotheses can be proposed:

H2a: Induced level of product’s organic perception will have positive relationship

with consumer’s overall product’s quality perception

H2b: Induced level of product’s organic perception will have positive relationship

with consumer’s willingness to pay

H2c: Induced level of product’s organic perception will have positive relationship

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2.2. Interaction Effects

Organic products are credence goods (Annunziata et al., 2011), thus, additional product assurance is necessary. The most common approach to increase the product’s credibility is to use third party organic logo (Getz and Shreck, 2006; Meike and Ulrich, 2012; Perrini et al., 2010). Interestingly, the latest research shows that high equity brands are so well known and trusted that the benefits from organic logo use have inverted U shape (Farbice et al., 2012). Therefore, it can be implied that high equity national brands can decrease the gap between product organic claims and consumer doubt also by the use of their brand name alone. Additionally, the consumer gives higher importance to insignificant claims when they are attached to high equity brands (Broniarczyk and Gershoff, 2003). Hence, consumers are keen to find reasoning and justification about high brand equity brand colour choices for organic product packaging regardless the colour used. De Wulf et al. (2005) reasoned that such phenomena appear because consumer mixes the actual product attributes with the ones of high equity brand perceptions. It can be concluded that consumer overlooks actual credence elements and focuses on the brand and its associations. Consequently, it is expected that both colours will be better accepted and liked by the consumer when it carries high brand equity brand name than when it carries low brand equity brand name. Hence, the following hypothesis can be drawn:

H3a: There is a positive relationship between brand equity and organic perception

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brands currently employ 3 types of colour use in packaging. First one is known as copycat, where low brand equity brands use the same schemes as the leading high brand equity brand in each particular product category (Barnes and Ward, 1995; Creusen and Schoormans, 2005; Olson, 2012). The second approach is to use colours that express cheapness (e.g. yellow) (Aslam, 2006). The last approach is to follow Ampuero and Vila (2006) suggestion of expressing product availability through colour use. The authors also found that, in cases when the product is aimed to express accessibility and reasonable pricing, high brightness and close to white colours communicate it the most (Ampuero and Vila, 2006). Moreover, it is found that when consumer is faced with a new product packaging is used as extrinsic cue and search tool. The consumer is also prone to scrutinize more lower brand equity brand’s colour choices and organic claims than high brand equity brand’s (Underwood et al., 2001). Therefore, the brand has to deliver consistent brand equity and product benefit story to the consumer trough help of colour use (Talhammer, 2007). If the packaging colour, brand name and product has a harmonious feel, consumer is more willing to accept its organic claims. Moreover, since organic non-edible FMCG are relatively young category, no clear prototypes can truly be recognized and, thus, copycat approach is arguably invalid in this particular research. Additionally, in colour selection so called cheap image colours were not selected and, thus, this colour use approach is also invalid. Consequently, it is argued that in order to deliver consistent organic message low brand equity brand should use light saturated colours and high brand equity brands – dark saturated colours. The expected relationship between organic perception and the brightness level for brand equity are shown in the figure 1a,b below.

Figure1a,b: Colour Type-Organic Perception relationship for low/high Brand Equity brand

Dark Light _{Dark Light}

42 The following hypothesis is proposed:

H3b: Brand equity moderates the positive colour type (dark, light) has on organic

perception

Van Doorn and Verhoef (2011) research about vice and virtue products is one of the ground-breaking scientific works, opening research windows for this and other papers. The authors have found that for food and beverage industry an organic claim can hinder product’s acceptance and, thus, consumer quality perceptions, willingness to pay and even purchase intentions. To be more exact, van Doorn and Verhoef (2011) found that high hedonic products suffer from negative quality perceptions. Unfortunately, it was not possible to generalize about organic claim influence on low hedonic organic products. The author findings applied in this research would allow concluding that it is expected that high hedonic products will receive lower organic perception than low hedonic product. As this is the only academic research which examines the organic and hedonic products relationship, no other literature can be used to argue or confirm van Doorn and Verhoef’s (2011) findings. Consequently, their research is used as the grounding for the following hypothesis:

H4a: There is a negative relationship between hedonic level and perceived product

organicness

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Emotions connected to the low hedonic product can best described with dark colours. However, utilitarian products with their packaging colour have to allow performing the task of product/brand identification in fast and efficiently manner (Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010; Underwood et al., 2001). Therefore, it can be argued that also light colour can deliver considerably strong organic message as long as the rest of packaging elements allow fulfilling the basic task. Hence, the expected relationship between organic perception and colours for low hedonic product is in 30 degree angle. The predicted relationship between organic perception and brightness levels for high and low hedonic levels are illustrated in figure 2a,b

Consequently, it is hypothesized that:

H4b: Hedonic level moderates the effect colour type (dark. light) has on organic

perception

3. Research Method

In order to collect primary data, that allows examining the stated hypotheses and relationships a survey was created and distributed. The questions were mainly structured as multiple-choice, where attitudes and beliefs were measured with seven-point Likert scale. This scale varied from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The questionnaire included socio-demographic questions, control questions (organic attitudes, organic purchase behaviour, brand knowledge and others) and questions aimed to answer the stated hypothesis. This is done so, to measure the individual factor constructs (Hair et al., 2006) that can be easily processed through multiple regression analysis and one way between-groups multivariate analysis.

Figure2a,b: Colour Type-Organic Perception relationship for high/low Hedonic level

Dark Light

Colour Type

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These two types of statistical analysis are chosen as the most suitable data processing approach for this research due to their ability to determine presence or lack of relationship between variables. Moreover, they are capable of identifying the strength and form of these relationships (Malhotra, 2007).

4. Experimental Design

This section discusses the variables used and their dimensions. Moreover, aspects of their measurement approach are also explained.

4.1. IV

The core independent variable in this research is termed as colour. Nevertheless, as the literature review has shown there is more than one colour and colour variations. The colours chosen for this research are green and blue. Fuller and Carasco (2006) argue that in order to gain highest level of attention colour has to be at standard saturation levels. Therefore, the green and blue hues are chosen based on Fuller and Carasco’s research and can be defined as standard saturated (in text referred as saturated). Another important aspect of colour is level of brightness. Following Ampuera and Vila (2006) research, two colour aspects are applied and shown to respondents – light and dark colour versions of green and blue. Each respondent is randomly exposed to two out of 4 colours. Moreover, one colour is shown in form of facial cream packaging colour and the other in form of toothpaste packaging colour. The colours and their classification can be seen in table 1.

Colour Type Light Colour Dark Colour

Green Blue

Table 1: Colour Brightness illustration

4.2. Moderators

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Secondly, the chosen representatives of hedonic level products were matched with the most representative high brand equity national brand and private label brand. This also was done with a help of a pre-test. Consequently, each respondent was at random exposed to one facial cream and one toothpaste. The overall matrix of products and brands used is shown in table 2.

Utilitarian Hedonic H igh B rand E qu it y

Tooth Paste – Oral B Facial Cream - L’Oreal

L ow B rand E qu it y

Tooth Paste – Kruidvat Facial Cream – Etos Table 2: Brand Name/Product Category Matrix

4.3. Products developed for researched

Based on discussions above about colour, product hedonic value and brand equity in total 16 products were created for visual stimuli; 4 Oral B toothpastes, 4 Kruidvat toothpastes, 4 L’Oreal facial creams and 4 Etos facial creams. Each of these 4 products has all 4 colour variations.

Moreover, previous research has showed that environmental logo is highly important to consumers. Therefore a ‘mock’ third-party environmental seal also was created. The seal is a mix of the most known and strict eco-logos (See chapter 1.3.) using most repeated elements – word ‘organic’, word ‘association’ and origin identification. As the previous research showed that consumers do not fully know the logos, but believe that their presence gives credibility to the claims, it is believed that use of ‘mock’

eco-logo will allow gaining necessary organic believability while avoiding subjective perceptions

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of specific third-party organic seal. Several examples of mock products are shown, while the rest can be seen in Appendix F.

5. Measurement

This research measures the value of the two moderators, namely, brand equity and hedonic level, level of perceived product organicness and three dependent variables, defined as perceived quality, willingness to pay premium and purchase intentions. Measurements of these variables are discussed in the following chapters. The questionnaire can be seen in Appendix A.

5.1. Brand Equity measurement