Consumption of farm-raised catfish in the United States has increased over the last few decades. However, consumers usually prefer it as a deepried product, especially in the southern United States. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the acceptability of lowat baked catfish using a Central Location Test. Subjects (n=137) tasted, compared, and evaluated samples of lowat baked catfish and deepried catfish. Results indicated that the fried product was favored (p <0.05) over the baked product. The majority of subjects (93.4%) identified the baked product as the healthier choice. Most subjects (85.7%) indicated that catfish was an overall healthy food choice. Reasons for consuming catfish included taste (75.6%), convenience (15.1%), health reasons (7.6%), and cost (1.7%). The majority of subjects (63.8%) indicated that they normally consumed catfish as a deepried product, but 91.9% indicated that they would be willing to consume catfish prepared in a lowat manner.

Yes / Objective: To develop a model of the psychological factors which predict people’s intention to adopt personalised nutrition. Potential determinants of adoption included perceived risk and benefit, perceived self-efficacy, internal locus of control and health commitment. Methods: A questionnaire, developed from exploratory study data and the existing theoretical literature, and including validated psychological scales was administered to N = 9381 participants from 9 European countries (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Norway). Results: Structural equation modelling indicated that the greater participants’ perceived benefits to be associated with personalised nutrition, the more positive their attitudes were towards personalised nutrition, and the greater their intention to adopt it. Higher levels of nutrition self-efficacy were related to more positive attitudes towards, and a greater expressed intention to adopt, personalised nutrition. Other constructs positively impacting attitudes towards personalised nutrition included more positive perceptions of the efficacy of regulatory control to protect consumers (e.g. in relation to personal data protection), higher self-reported internal health locus of control, and health commitment. Although higher perceived risk had a negative relationship with attitude and an inverse relationship with perceived benefit, its effects on attitude and intention to adopt personalised nutrition was less influential than perceived benefit. The model was stable across the different European countries, suggesting that psychological factors determining adoption of personalised nutrition have generic applicability across different European countries. Conclusion: The results suggest that transparent provision of information about potential benefits, and protection of consumers’ personal data is important for adoption, delivery of public health benefits, and commercialisation of personalised nutrition. / This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n u 265494 (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html). Food4Me is the acronym of the project ‘‘Personalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges’’ (http://www.food4me.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

During the last few decades the interest and demand for both healthy food and different beverages has increased the interest for healthy food and it is expected to continue increasing in the future. A strong reason for this is the desire among more and more people to live healthy and long lives. Because of this, the recent industry of functional foods has become increasingly popular as marketers aim to sell food products that can benefit a consumer’s health beyond a healthy or organic food products ability. “A functional food is, or appears similar to, a conventional food. It is part of a standard diet and is consumed on a regular basis, in normal quantities. It has proven health benefits…beyond its basic nutritional functions.” (Doyon and Labrecque 2008 pp.1147) In order for marketers to make the right marketing actions, a better understanding of consumer behaviour and attitudes towards functional food is needed. Without this information marketers will not be able to create effective marketing campaigns for functional food products. Consumer attitudes towards functional foods were looked at in four different factors/dimensions, reward, necessity, confidence and safety, and then each factors impact on consumer willingness to consume was measured.Purpose - The purpose of the study was to investigate consumer’s attitudes on functional foods and their willingness to consume functional foods.Method/Approach - A questionnaire was developed from a previous study (Lähteenmäki and Urala 2007) on consumer attitudes and their willingness to consume functional foods, using a combination of convenience sampling and judgment sampling.Findings- The data confirmed the results from previous studies that consumer attitudes play a role in impacting consumer willingness to consume functional foods, but also that the results cannot be generalized on all functional food groups or types.Conclusions – Each functional food category should be approached in a different way, from a marketing or advertising point of view and when marketing each functional food product. Different aspects e.g. Reward, necessity, confidence and safety should be highlighted for each individual food category in the packaging or advertisement to give the marketing strategy an advantage to increase consumer willingness to use that product. The study was found to collaborate with the previous studies conducted by Lähteenmäki and Urala (2007).Key Words – Attitudes, Consumer attitudes, Functional foods, Consumer behaviour

Humans have an innate need to evaluate themselves and their progress toward life goals and they fulfill this need by comparing themselves to others. One way in which individuals conduct social comparisons is by comparing their possessions with the possessions of others. Prior literature suggests that consumers purchase and conspicuously use brands, not only for their functional benefits, but also for their psychological benefits. These psychological benefits can include reaffirmation of one’s status or group membership and increased self-esteem. Although previous research shows that social comparisons can influence consumer attitudes and behavior, it has focused primarily on the negative consequences of upward comparisons and the positive consequences of downward comparisons in the pre-purchase context. Because consumers do not stop conducting social comparisons once they purchase a brand, it is important to understand how social comparisons affect consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions in a post-purchase context. Additionally, little research has addressed how factors such as a brand’s concept and whether the brand will be used in public (vs. private) affect the relationship between the direction of social comparisons and consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions. This dissertation is focused on filling these gaps by looking at the potentially negative effects of downward comparisons and potentially positive effects of upward comparisons on consumer post-purchase attitudes and behavioral intentions. Specifically, this dissertation examines how observing an unsuccessful (successful) other using the same brand affects consumer attitudes toward the brand, preferences for conspicuous consumption, and repurchase intentions. This dissertation also examines how a brand’s concept and whether the brand is used primarily in public vs. private moderates this relationship. Unlike previous research that shows social comparisons can influence people’s preferences in a pre-purchase context, this research investigated how social comparisons influence people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions in the post-purchase context. Specifically, I examined how people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions towards brands they already own can differ based upon the direction of social comparisons. An examination of social comparison’s effects in the post-purchase context is important given the benefits that repeat and loyal customers provide firms. Results indicate that consumer post-purchase brand attitudes, repurchase intentions, and preferences for conspicuous consumption differ based upon the direction of social comparison. This indicates that attitudes and behavioral intentions can change based upon the direction of the comparison. Results also indicate that the effects of social comparisons on consumer attitudes and behavior are significant for symbolic brands but not for functional brands. Results also indicate that the effects of social comparisons on consumer attitudes and behavior are significant for public brands but not private brands. Finally, results indicate that perceived similarity between a consumer and comparison target mediates the relationship between social comparison and consumer attitudes and behavior. Theoretically, this research adds to the social comparison literature by showing the potentially negative consequences of downward comparisons on consumer attitudes and behavioral attitudes in the post-purchase context. It is also among the first to examine how a brand's concept interacts with the direction of a social comparison. Managerially, this research draws managers' attention to the importance of keeping brand concepts consistent.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / John A. Fox / We designed a mail survey to investigate consumer choices between whole-grain and regular grain products. Consumption of whole-grain foods has been linked to numerous health benefits including reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The prevalence of obesity has increased in recent decades and has been shown to be negatively correlated with education levels and income. Data from the survey are used to investigate correlations between the likelihood of choosing whole-grain alternatives and various demographic and behavioral characteristics including an individual's Body Mass Index (BMI). We also investigate the impact on consumer choices of providing information about the health benefits of whole-grain foods. Results indicate that education level and the use of food labels are both positively correlated with the likelihood of choosing whole-grain foods. Provision of information about health benefits also had a positive impact on the likelihood of choosing a whole-grain over a conventional grain product, but given a low sample size in this study the effect was not statistically significant. Choices were found to be largely insensitive to changes in relative prices, and no correlation was found between BMI and the likelihood of choosing a whole-grain product.

A survey of 360 respondents in metropolitan Salt Lake City was made to determine their attitudes about fluid milk products and the affect of these attitudes on consumption levels. The fluid milk products studied were regular whole milk, two percent milk, skim milk, and nonfat dry (powdered) milk. The respondents had the most positive attitudes about regular whole milk. Their attitudes about the other three products were highest for those which most nearly resembled regular whole milk . The consumption levels of the four products followed the same pattern. The respondents' attitudes about four attitude parameters affected their consumption levels. Those respondents with positive attitudes about these parameters consumed more than those with neutral or negative attitudes. The four parameters were taste-refreshment, nutritionvitality, appropriateness, and convenience.

The aim of this study is to find coherence between the theory of consumers‟ attitudes and the challenge of product acceptance. The relationship between consumer attitudes and product acceptance will be explored using the example of the Electric Vehicle (EV), an innovative and much debated product, in China. This study will analyze the attitudes of the Chinese consumers toward the EV and how these attitudes might affect the acceptance of this particular product. The reason China was chosen as the target market was because that country seems to be a non-researched area. 1 This study will shed some light on the mentioned concepts and offer findings from the Asian continent. These findings will be crucially important for the academic world, as they will be a solid base for future research. More importantly, this research can be used by marketers for their strategies in regards to EV sales in China.

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In the era of globalization electronic marketing is a great revolution.  Over the last decade maximum business organizations are running with technological change.  Online shopping or marketing is the use of technology (i.e., computer) for better marketing performance. And retailers are devising strategies to meet the demand of online shoppers; they are busy in studying consumer behavior in the field of online shopping, to see the consumer attitudes towards online shopping. Therefore we have also decided to study consumer’s attitudes towards online shopping and specifically studying the factors influencing consumers to shop online. The population selected for the research is Gotland, and narrowed down to Gotland University students, University cafeteria and Gotland Public library, the sample size selected for this research is 100 and we have used convenience sampling technique. Our findings indicated that among the four factors selected for this research the most attractive and influencing factor for online shoppers in Gotland is Website Design/Features, following convenience the second most influencing and thirdly time saving. Results have also showed that security is of important concern among online shoppers in Gotland. The research has also found that there are some other factors which influence online shoppers including, less price, discount, feedback from previous customers and quality of product. For the second research question i.e. who are online shoppers in term of demography: the correlation results for the age and attitudes towards online shopping has showed that elderly people are not so keen to shop online. Whereas for education it is concluded that higher education makes online shopping less attractive, for the income the correlation results are so weak hence we could not conclude anything out of it. It is expected that this study will not only help retailers in Gotland to devise successful strategies for online shoppers but it will also provide a base for similar studies in the felid of consumer attitudes towards online shopping.

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.