Unveiling the heuristic influence: how certifications shape consumer perceptions and inferences in the agri-food market

Purpose To differentiate themselves in the marketplace, many agri-food companies use official certifications. Given the proliferation of certifications in the market and consumers’ lack of knowledge about their meanings and the official bodies that issue them, this paper explores how certification logos on product packaging function as heuristics to simplify information processing in consumers’ product evaluations. Design/methodology/approach An experiment with 3,200 European consumers across four countries (Denmark, Germany, Spain and the UK) was conducted in 2019. In each country, an Online-CAWI survey was administered to 800 randomly selected members of consumer panels. In the survey, subjects were presented with one of several different combinations of certifications displayed alongside a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. Subsequently, they were asked to make inferences regarding various product attributes. Findings Results showed that the quantity of certification logos displayed and their recognizability improve consumers’ overall perception of the product and the inferences they draw about some of its attributes. Practical implications Results allow us to offer management suggestions for agri-food and certifying companies and establish research questions to guide academic research related to food certifications. Originality/value The “certification logo effect” is studied for the first time under a heuristic information processing approach.