Влияние КСО мероприятий ритейлера на формирование лояльности к органической продукции под собственной торговой маркой

These days the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility activities is becoming quite huge in all sectors of the economy. Retailers in this case are not the exception since they also devote part of their routine to the social and environmental activities. Moreover, more and more retailers start to offer not only economy private labels but also smart private labels that could have the same or even higher quality than national brands. Organic private label could be attributed to smart private label since they provide exertional quality for the consumer due to the process of their production. That is why this paper is dedicated to the study of the impact of the Corporate Social Responsibility activities and loyalty to the organic products under the private label. The issue will be studied on VkusVill example since its 95% of its assortment consist consists of private labels. Moreover, the retailer is involved into various CSR events such as environmental and social activities that would be mentioned later on. Besides, the company introduced its new private label named «Ugleche pole» that is 100% organic by all means. Hence, all of these points make VkusVill retailer a perfect example for the study of chosen phenomenon.
Fair to mention that this paper was done with the collaboration with professor of the Department of the Marketing in GSOM SPbU. The results of the work will be published in the Scientific Journal «Marketing and Marketing Research». There will be two articles sue to the volume of the research that was in the process during the whole year from September 2020 to May 2021. The author has a contribution in this work as well as the other participant. Moreover, the work is supported by the expert opinion that is grocery director of VkusVill retailer.
The paper covers several fields of study such as Branding, Consumer Behavior and CSR. that why the work could be called interdisciplinary study. The object of the study are consumers of organic private labels. The subject of the study is formation of loyalty through the trust to organic products under private label via SCR activities. The scope of the food categories are dairy and meat products. In order to have a focus in the research, it will cover only the market of Russian Federation since in different countries the labeling procedures could vary.
This paper covers a research gap that implies several dimensions. First of all, the market of the organic food has just started to develop with introduction of the law in 2020 according to what all the organic product should have a certification. Now the industry is regulated but not developed well enough compared to the western counterparts. Besides, there is lack of Russia producers that have organic certification now due to high cost of initial investments and lack of support from the government. Hence, there is still high price for organics and little amount of them in the market. Moreover, the is lack of knowledge between sustainable labeling such as eco, bio, organic, fresh, natural since some of them are not regulated by the Russian law. The majority perceive them as synonyms. Hence, the trust and loyalty that could be built via social and
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environmental events could be quite weak sine organic food especially under the private label are considered to be credence goods. Finally, the chosen model will not work on all the population of the Russian people because of different mentality compared to European and American consumers. Hence, special segments need to be identified to prove the link between loyalty and CSR activities.
The main goal of this paper is to find out whether there is connection between CSR activities and consumer loyalty to organic products under private label. In order to achieve the research goal, it is necessary to tackle the following objectives such as:
1. Analyze and highlight the main trends of organic food market in Russia
2. Test the validity of a model that links the loyalty to organic food under private label
and CSR activities of retailer
3. Identify consumer segments of organic food under private label
4. Develop recommendations on 4P to retailers that sell or have an intention to sell organic
private labels and involved into the SCR activities
5. Develop recommendations to the retailers about communication with the segments of
consumers of organic food products under private label
This research has several limitations. First of all, socio-demographic limitations. Basically,
the model would work only based on the certain consumer segments. Secondly, the phenomenon of loyalty toward organic food under private label studied based only on one retailer that is called VkusVill. Thirdly, in this research only two food categories will be used to test the model. Finally, employee dimension was not included to the social SCR in this research.
The work has theoretical as well as practical value. Speaking about theoretical value, there will be chosen, modified and tested the model and the hypothesis about the link between CSR activities and formation of loyalty to organic food under private label via trust. The model will show whether practices of SCR could have a positive impact in Russian market or it is still not ready for it. To support the model, main consumer segments will be revealed since the model will only work correctly on certain customer groups. The portraits of consumers could be also compared with the profiles of the western consumers. Considering practical value, some managerial implication could be developed for retailers that are involved into CRS events and provide organic products under their private labels. Moreover, particular recommendations could be formed for consumer segments of organic food that could be used by all retailers that offer organic goods under their private labels. Better targeting could be developed as well as the positioning of the store based on the data of this study.
In the paper several methods will be utilized to achieve stated goal and objectives. There will be a combination of qualitative and quotative methods. Firstly, 24 in-depth interviews will be
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held in order to obtain consumer insights about their attitude to the organic food under private labels. Later on, to structure information, buyer personas would be used in order to create preliminary segments of the consumers. Interview data would be the basis for the quantitative method such as online survey. The survey will be dedicated to get about 300 respondents in order to provide statistically significant results. Collected data will be processed with Exploratory factor analysis (later EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (later CFA) and Cluster analysis. EFA will be used to test chosen factors while CFA will be utilized to verify chosen model. Finally, Cluster analysis will help to highlight main consumer segments of organic food that could be targeted by retailers.
During the working on this paper, the author will rely on some primary and secondary data. Primary data refers to the interview, personas and survey results. This data will be used to check stated hypothesis. Based on primary data, all calculation will be executed and main recommendations and managerial implications will be developed. The secondary data will include international and Russian academic and non-academic articles. Academic articles will be included in the literature review while non-academic will form practical background for the study. Finally, company website will also include to the list of secondary data for better analysis of the studied problem.
In the first chapter of this study, there will provided theoretical and practical background of the topic. After the literature review, analysis of the market and VkusVill company the author will turn to the chapter two. In the second chapter there will be shown explanation of the chosen model and methods of the research as well as the main findings from qualitative and quantitative methods. Finally, the last chapter will cover some managerial implications of the chosen model and consumer segments of the organic food. The third chapter will also include limitations of the study and needed development in the further research.