Bakgrund: De senaste 20 åren har varit händelserika år för detaljhandeln då kraftig tillväxt, tydlig expansion och en strukturomvandling har skett. Varukategorierna har växt och lågprisprodukter har tagits fram och en billighetstrend har skapats. Billighetstrenden ihop med strukturförändringarna är bidragande faktorer till framtagningen av egna märkesvaror (EMV). Till en början kopplades EMV samman med lågprisprodukter men den ständiga utvecklingen av dessa gör att kvalitetsnivån har ökat. EMV har blivit unika produkter som konsumenten bara kan hitta i kedjans butiker. Vi intresserar oss i att kolla på vad som gör att EMV köps och hur kunderna resonerar kring sina val. Forskningsfråga: Vilka faktorer förklarar kundens val av EMV? Syftet: Uppsatsens syfte är att skapa en förståelse och insikt för vilka bakomliggande faktorer som leder till att konsumenterna väljer ICAs EMV. Detta gör vi genom att förstå:Delsyfte 1: Syftet är att kartlägga vilka grundläggande faktorer som gör att kunderna väljer ICAs EMVDelsyfte 2: Syftet är att identifiera vilka funktioner ICAs olika EMV fyller vid kundens köpbeslut Metod: Vi har arbetat utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där våra primära källor var baserade på kvalitativa intervjuer med sexton personer. Utav dessa var åtta kunder och åtta från företaget ICA. Vi har även arbetat med en kvantitativ forskningsmetod för att få en bättre överblick över hur det ser ut hos fler kunder. Arbetet har präglats av en blandning mellan ett deduktiv och induktiv ansats vilket resulterar i en abduktiv ansats. Slutsatser: Vi har funnit två grundläggande och väsentliga faktorer som bidrar till att kunder väljer ICAs EMV, tilliten till ICA som varumärke samt märkeskännedom. Vi har även identifierat två viktiga funktioner som det enskilda EMV-märket uppfyller vid kundens köpbeslut. Den första funktionen är märkets roll för att underlätta beslutsprocesser vid valet av produkter, men också i valet inom en viss varukategori. En annan viktig funktion är att EMV-märket är bidragande till ett brett sortiment för ICA i sin helhet. / The purpose of this study has been to examine the underlying factors that lead to consumers’ purchase of private labels. Our aim has been to investigate what influences consumers purchase of private labels. We chose to work side by side with a company named ICA that is Sweden's largest supermarket. This company has the highest proportion of private labels in the Swedish retail market, and this is why we found it important to examine this company. Our research question for this study is as follows; What factors explain customers’ purchases of private label products? The method we used as a work process in this thesis is both a quantitative approach, as we have done a survey, as well as a qualitative approach with qualitative interviews conducted with members of the company ICA and with customers. The most vital part of this study was done by the qualitative approach, to get a deeper understanding of the subject. We have found two basic and essential factors that contribute customers to choose ICA´s private label products. The first one is customers trust in ICA as a brand and the second one is brand awareness. We have also identified two important functions that the privet label fulfill in the customer´s buying decision. The first is to facilitate customers buying decision process and the second one is to contribute to a wide range of products.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-229).

Recently the question of eco-labelling has become increasingly important, especially when used as a green marketing tool. Surprisingly, the marketing placebo effect of eco-labelling and the influence it has on the performance of a product has received little attention. The purpose of this study is to explain the placebo effect of eco-labelling on consumer attitudes. Fishbein’s model of attitudes is implemented whereby a focus group is used as a basis to create a questionnaire and a tasting experiment. The findings of the study provide an explanation and evidence of the placebo effect of eco-labelling. The product with an environmental label is perceived as tastier, healthier and of higher quality than the same product without ecological label.

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A global trend of decreased Willingness to pay(WTP) price premiums for national brands prevails.In this paper, the authors shed light on how national brands(NBs) can best defend their pricepremiums towards Private labels(PLs). This is done through studying what factors drives the WTPprice premiums for national brands and what attributes are important when consumers buy meatproducts.With inputs from the literature and conducted focus groups, a questionnaire testing our constructedhypothesis and the importance of attributes were collected from 163 respondents. A connection ismade to the theory of positioning using a customer-based brand equity concept.The results show that the WTP is driven by high perceived risk, perceived quality gap between NBsand PLs, is moderated by consumer involvement and mediated through PL experience. Swedishmeat, good animal husbandry, supporting farmers and locally produced meat were all importantattributes national brands should associate with their brands.

Obesity is a serious health concern in Canada. Thirty-seven percent of the population are overweight and approximately 25% are obese. Increased energy intake from eating outside the home has contributed to the rise in obesity. Approximately one quarter of all Canadians consume food in a quick-service restaurant on a given day. Although not all food consumed outside the home is of poor nutritional quality, restaurants generally offer foods that have larger portions, and are higher in calories and fat. Menu labelling has the potential to promote healthier eating by informing consumers about the calorie content of meals. Currently, there is little or no research on possible unintended effects of displaying calorie information at restaurants and quick-service establishments. In particular, it is unclear how such information would affect individuals with clinical eating disorders, or those with eating disturbances. In the current study, 325 female undergraduate students over the age of 16 took part in a 10-minute paper-based survey after meal consumption in a cafeteria on the University of Waterloo campus. The study employed a pre-post design, with data collection occurring in paired and unpaired samples one month before calorie information was added to menu boards, and one week after. In the 299 participants with usable data the prevalence of eating disturbances (EAT-26 > 20) was 10.4%. Calorie consumption decreased from baseline (mean=678.2 kcal) to follow-up (mean=602.3 kcal; p=0.049). There were no statistically significant changes in any of the other outcomes from baseline to follow-up, including body image satisfaction, anxiety, mood, and frequency of engaging in unhealthy behaviours. Additionally, there were no interactions between eating disturbance level and time, which suggests that calorie labels did not differentially affect those in this high-risk population. Overall, no adverse outcomes related to eating disturbances were associated with the implementation of calorie labels in this at-risk population. The results have potential implications for menu labelling regulations.

This thesis consists of four essays. The first essay looks at pollution taxation under capital mobility, and analyzes the role of pre-commitment by countries to their pollution tax rate. A polluting firm sells its product in two countries, and can locate and produce in a single country or in both countries. Due to the discrete-choice nature of the firm's location problem, the countries' welfare functions are discontinuous in their pollution tax rate. We show that when the countries cannot pre-commit to their pollution tax, the firm can still engender tax competition between them by strategically locating in both the countries. Moreover, pre-commitment pollution taxation may not be welfare improving for the countries, although it always makes the firm better off. / The second essay studies the effect of liberalization on corruption. Corruptible inspectors enforce an environmental regulation on firms, and are monitored by an honest regulator. Liberalization not only increases the variety of goods and the marginal utility of accepting a bribe, but also puts pressure on the regulator to curb corruption. The interaction of these two effects can cause corruption to initially increase with liberalization, and then decrease beyond a threshold. Moreover, equilibrium corruption is lower when the regulator is able to pre-commit to her monitoring frequency. / The third essay analyzes optimal labeling (information revelation) procedures for hidden attributes of credence goods. Consumers are heterogeneous in their preference for the hidden attribute, and producers can either self-label their products, or have them certified by a third party. The government can impose self or third-party labeling requirements on either the "green" or the "brown" producers. When corrupt producers can affix spurious labels, the government needs to monitor them. A mandatory self-labeling policy is shown to generally dominate mandatory third-party labeling. / The fourth essay develops formulas for computing the economy-wide energy intensity decline rate by aggregating sectoral energy efficiency improvements, and sectoral shifts in economic activities. The formulas are used to (i) construct plausible scenarios for the global rate of energy intensity decline, and (ii) show the restraining role of the "electricity generation" sector on the energy intensity decline rate.

The use of cyanine dyes in bioanalytical applications has become a widely explored topic of interest in chemistry. Their ability to absorb and fluoresce in the UV-visible and near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum benefits their use as imaging probes and fluorescent labels due to the reduced auto-fluorescence from biological molecules. The behavior of these dyes lies in their structure which consists of two nitrogen containing heterocycles joined by an electron deficient polymethine bridge that allows specific energy transitions to occur. The first portion of this work aims to explore dye functionality for analytical applications regarding the non-covalent labeling of bovine serum albumin. The second portion of the work explores dye interactions with human serum albumin in biological membrane mimetic environments using the ternary system of sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (AOT) in water and n-heptane.

In a time during which the consumer has the choice of many similar products (Burnett, 2007), retailers seek business growth and competiveness, for example through the introduction of their own private label (Pepe, 2008). Thus the interest and relevance of private labels has increased in recent years (Nielsen, 2014; Gázquez-Abad et al., 2014). As studies have shown, the consumers’ perception and loyalty towards brands and private labels can vary across countries leading to the topic of the study, namely a comparison of the consumers’ loyalty and perception of private labels in Greece and Germany. Thus, the relationship between the cultures and the consumers’ behaviour is evaluated towards possible differences. Using the quantitative research approach, a self-completion questionnaire was answered by both 140 German and 140 Greek consumers. Through analysing the data, the validity of six hypotheses was measured. This way, the question regarding possible differences in consumers’ loyalty and perception of private labels in Greece and Germany could be answered. As a result to this question, the main differences refer to the Greeks’ high loyalty towards manufacturer brands and the low perceived quality of private labels in comparison with German consumers. Thus, most importantly, Greek consumers have to be convinced of the good quality of private labels in order to lower their perceived risk, try the products and be less loyal to manufacturer brands.

Low-literate consumers display distinctive behaviour in the marketplace, and in the first phase of a mixed method study, the aim was to explore the challenges and coping strategies of low-literate clothing consumers. Due to fairly high levels of low-literacy in South Africa and limited research, this research was undertaken to better understand the behaviour of low-literate clothing consumers in the marketplace. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data, and through inductive, interpretative data analysis three broad themes were identified, namely personal (cognitive, social, financial and affective), product (types and format of product information, evaluative criteria) and store-related (store assistants’ behaviour, store selection and in-store information) challenges and associated coping strategies. The results of this study can be used to advise marketers regarding the needs of these consumers, and were also used to develop a quantitative measuring instrument to investigate low-literate consumers’ use of clothing labels in the retail setting. In the second quantitative phase of the study, the use of clothing label information amidst low-literate respondents’ personal- (reading and numeracy skills, concrete and pictographic thinking) and product-related challenges (the format of labels, care-label knowledge and evaluating clothing products’ quality) were investigated. The study sample consisted of 450 black female consumers with literacy levels between Grades 5 and 8, residing in the Emfuleni Local Municipality area, in the southern part of Gauteng, South Africa. Interviewer administered questionnaires were filled out, and it was examined for validity and reliability. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and correlations were drawn between reliable factors, and practical significant correlations were reported. ANOVA’s indicated statistically significant differences with mostly medium effect sizes between the occupation of respondents and selected factors. Respondents indicated that they do read and understand clothing labels, but results revealed that they did experience problems when using information on labels. Their numeracy skills were average, and abstract thinking related to numeracy, were fair. Pictographic thinking was evident in their preference for symbolic and graphic presentation of size format, but not when they were presented altered store logos. Care label knowledge was poor, and clothing products were evaluated concretely. Some of the respondents, especially the older respondents were inclined to follow the peripheral route of elaboration when reading clothing label information. / Thesis (PhD (Consumer Sciences))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.