Sustainable Products and Consumers’ Brand Choice

Abstract

Within this study selected empirical results out of a 3 year project concerning the analysis of Austrian panel data are presented. Raw data coming from the most important Austrian consumer tracking panel was analyzed with respect to consumers’ variety seeking and brand choice behavior. It is analyzed if consumers tend to switch to “sustainable” (here: organic) products and brands more frequently compared to brand switches between conventional products and brands (significant interrelation between sustainability and consumers’ brand choice). After a brief introduction into a specific variety seeking model operationalizing consumers’ brand switching tendency, a descriptive analysis of the analyzed data set, and analytical outcomes concerning “sustainability” and “brand switching” are presented.