Understanding Consumers and Their Preferences Purchasing Food with Product Quality Labels: Insights from the Czech Market

Companies with product quality labels, often micro-companies or solo entrepreneurs, do not have the marketing know-how of retail chains and are being outpaced in communication in the fast current online environment, especially on social media platforms. Current literature does not provide this specific knowledge, such as what are the important product quality characteristics which should be talked about in marketing campaigns and how these should campaigns be targeted. Thus, the aim of this article is to examine the product quality characteristics important for Czech consumers purchasing food products with a quality label and find suitable consumer characteristics for better targeting of marketing campaigns. The data were gathered using a questionnaire survey by the professional marketing agency Ipsos. The sample of 1,050 Czech consumers was filtered for consumers purchasing regional products or other products with a product quality label. The main statistical method used is the Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn's test with Bonferroni correction as a post-hoc test. The product quality characteristics are divided into 7 categories and sorted by their importance. The significance of third-party information being the most positively evaluated product quality characteristic suggests a shift in consumer trust. The study identifies demographic variations in quality perception, with older consumers (ages 54-65 and 36-44) valuing brand, composition and price, while younger consumers (ages 18-26) prioritise electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and online availability. Higher education levels correlate with a greater focus on price and communication as quality indicators, while gender differences reveal distinct preferences, such as women favouring traditional packaging and environmental friendliness and men prioritising eWOM and quality processing. Also, the archaic nature of quality labels in the Czech Republic is highlighted. Implications for Central European audience: The results of this study reveal the most important food product quality characteristics for Czech consumers and might be applicable to neighbouring countries with high preferences for quality labels, such as Poland and Slovakia. This study also provides consumer characteristics usable in targeting of marketing campaigns, usable as a premise for further research in Central European countries.