Do Quality Systems Really Refer to Quality? Consumer Research on Consumer Reputation and Knowledge of Food Quality Systems in Hungary

Abstract

Nowadays trademarks and geographical indications are more and more important signs of quality for consumers and they play a major role in the quality policy of European Union as well. Geographical Indications are the most successful in the Mediterranean countries but we don’t have information about the reputation of quality systems in Hungary. With our questionnaire of 1020 participants I aimed to examine how much Hungarian consumers know and search for quality systems. I also examined how much consumers are conscious in their food consumption choices. I created three clusters to find out if there is a group of consumers who is more conscious and better aware of quality systems.

Our final conclusion is that main part of consumers don’t know designations of food quality system and they don’t even search for them. The most known ‘Hungarian Product’ trademark was mentioned only by the 14.5 % of the respondents. Consumers can’t distinguish the different trademarks and the extent to which a product with trademark offers a quality surplus is not obvious compared to products without trademarks. I suppose that low reputation derives from the large number of trademarks and their inadequate communication. On the other hand our cluster analysis showed that there is a small group of ‘highly conscious’ consumers who show high consciousness in their choices.