Mara Bellati

Over the past few years, many studies have shown how territoriality can be considered a driver for purchasing agri-food products. Products with certification of origin are perceived as more sustainable, safer and of better quality. At the same time, producers of traditional products often belong to small entities that struggle to compete with large multinational food corporations, having less budget to allocate to product promotion. In this study, we propose a neuromarketing approach, showing how the use of these techniques can help in choosing the most effective commercial in terms of likeability and ability to activate mnemonic processes. Two commercials were filmed for the purpose of this study. They differed from each other in terms of emotional sequence. The first aimed primarily at eliciting positive emotions derived from the product description. The second aimed to generate negative emotions during the early stages, highlighting the negative consequences of humans’ loss of contact with nature and tradition and then eliciting positive emotions by presenting cheese production using traditional techniques as a solution to the problem. Based on the literature on the emotional sequences in social advertising, we hypothesised that the second commercial would generate an overall better emotional reaction and activate mnemonic processes to a greater extent. Our results partially support the research hypotheses, providing useful insights both to marketers and for future research on the topic.

Over the years, the territorial origins of agri-food products have become a consolidated marketing model which stand as an alternative to mass production. References to territory, whether on packaging or in advertising, have become an increasingly popular way for marketers to differentiate products, by attributing specific characteristics to them, derived from specific cultural identities and traditions. The aim of this study is to capture the possible differences between two groups, Italian and French, in the perception and intention to buy products with certification marks. We tested a multi-group structural equations model, assessing the mediation of the Perceived Product Safety (PPS) between Packaging with reference to Territoriality (PT) and Intention to Buy (IB). Our findings show that in both groups PT has a positive association with IB and PPS and that PPS has a positive association with IB. The difference is the mediation of PPS, present only in the Italian group. This opens important considerations on the role of the perception of safety, particularly in the pandemic period, in the presentation of products, particularly in products with certification marks linked to sustainability and territoriality.