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How fair-trade claims and emotional empathy affect the consumer’s propensity to buy fair chocolate?

How fair-trade claims and emotional empathy affect the consumer’s propensity to buy fair chocolate? Concerns related to the ethical issues are evident in the increasingly socially conscious marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of fair-trade communication activities in the buying decision-making process of chocolate. The role of emotional empathy in influencing the willingness to pay and the purchase intention was also explored.Design/methodology/approachA mail survey with a sample of 199 Italian chocolate consumers was conducted. Respondents were equally and randomly distributed among the four print advertising stimuli: conventional brand with conventional campaign; conventional brand with pro-social campaign; pro-social brand with conventional campaign; and pro-social brand with pro-social campaign. A between-subjects factorial design was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsResults showed the effectiveness of pro-social marketing campaigns in increasing consumers’ willingness to pay and purchase intention for fair-trade chocolate. Contextually, consumers with a high level of emotional empathy showed a greater purchase intention as opposed to those with a low level.Research limitations/implicationsAs the ethical nature of the product should be communicated in several ways, the effect of different types of textual information on the dependent variables should be considered.Originality/valueThe study enriches the literature on ethical consumption and provides some guidance to manufacturers and product managers for understanding the role of pro-social marketing communication in influencing consumer behaviour. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png British Food Journal Emerald Publishing

How fair-trade claims and emotional empathy affect the consumer’s propensity to buy fair chocolate?

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0007-070X
DOI
10.1108/bfj-07-2018-0417
Publisher site
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Abstract

Concerns related to the ethical issues are evident in the increasingly socially conscious marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of fair-trade communication activities in the buying decision-making process of chocolate. The role of emotional empathy in influencing the willingness to pay and the purchase intention was also explored.Design/methodology/approachA mail survey with a sample of 199 Italian chocolate consumers was conducted. Respondents were equally and randomly distributed among the four print advertising stimuli: conventional brand with conventional campaign; conventional brand with pro-social campaign; pro-social brand with conventional campaign; and pro-social brand with pro-social campaign. A between-subjects factorial design was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsResults showed the effectiveness of pro-social marketing campaigns in increasing consumers’ willingness to pay and purchase intention for fair-trade chocolate. Contextually, consumers with a high level of emotional empathy showed a greater purchase intention as opposed to those with a low level.Research limitations/implicationsAs the ethical nature of the product should be communicated in several ways, the effect of different types of textual information on the dependent variables should be considered.Originality/valueThe study enriches the literature on ethical consumption and provides some guidance to manufacturers and product managers for understanding the role of pro-social marketing communication in influencing consumer behaviour.

Journal

British Food Journal – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jun 12, 2019

Keywords: Willingness to pay; Empathy; Purchase intention; Ethical product; Fair-trade; Pro-social campaigns

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