Communication on a Confusing Consumer Market: An Empirical Study of Perceived Misleading of Food Products

Abstract

The marketplace for food in Denmark has over the years, seen an increase in the number of labels on food products. This project focusses on the label called Varefakta, which takes pride on providing the Danish consumers with accurate statutory declarations. Furthermore, Varefakta has a mission of making sure that the Danish consumers can make safe and well-informed choices when they buy consumer products. However, The Fair Speak Group from Copenhagen Business School did an analysis of 821 authentic cases registered by Danish food authorities that concerned misrepresentation of food products. Based on this, there are grounds to believe that, despite applicable legislation, the misleading of food products through packaging design still occurs. Therefore, this project seeks to investigate if the misleading of food products through packaging design still occurs and, in connection, how Varefakta can create added value for Danish consumers, which will reduce the risk of misleading packaging designs. The paper starts by conducting a limited internal and external analysis of Varefakta. A review of Varefakta’s Value Proposition highlighted that Varefakta reduces uncertainty through their accurate statutory declarations. Also, that they create added safety by generating additional standards for products that go beyond current legislation. The three Es showed that Varefakta makes use of education when communicating about their Value Proposition. Moreover, that Varefakta draws on engineering by creating their own added standards for products that go beyond the standards of current legislation. The PESTEL-analysis found that Danish consumers place a high value on labels. However, they find it difficult to navigate around the many different types of labels. The PESTEL-analysis also showed that there are grounds to believe that misleading products still occurs. A study was conducted to determine if misleading of food product still occurs. Furthermore, to determine how the misleading of food products occurs. The study concluded that misleading of products does still occur, despite current legislation. The reasons that people felt that thy were misled through packaging design were based on confusing declarations of origin and that products mistakenly seemed, based on the packaging design, to be natural products. Furthermore, they felt misled by packaging design that resemble a better quality than the products actually were, and that products had misleading pictures. In order to create a complete understanding of why consumers feel misled by these elements, in-depth interviews were conducted. The interviews supported the conclusions found in the first study. Moreover, it was found that pictures often were the common denominator in relation with being misled by package design. The project proposes a solution, that Varefakta should develop their own standards in relation to how pictures are used in connection to package design. This is based on the fact, that the current legislation has no in-depth regulations concerning pictures on package design. Therefore, the current legislation leaves room for a grey area, where the basic rule is the consumers may not be misled. Varefakta can take advantages of The Fair Speak Group’s Fairness-principles - that are tested in connection with conflict scenarios that were found in complaints, as well as results from other research – when developing new standards regarding pictures. Varefakta should create awareness about the development of their standards. In this way Varefakta can also create attention to the Varefakta label. When communication about their new developments, Varefakta should use a transmedie approach. Furthermore, the communications products should emphasize the use of The Picture Superiority Effect, visual attention, linguistic instruments – such as framing, auto communication, ambition speak, and competitive market signals – and cognitive dissonance theory.