**3.1 Consumer research**

 There are many ways to approach consumers. Primary and secondary data and qualitative and quantitative research approaches are developed in order to deeply understand consumer thinking processes. Even the new area of the Marketing 4.0 studies focus on consumers by defining a new trip across five principal A's: aware, appeal, ask, act and advocate [4]. In various studies carried out by CoRFiLaC, one of the main objectives was to understand consumer awareness and knowledge to obtain relevant hints to affect the appealing process. In the aware phase, consumers know for what they have already experienced, listened, suggested and indirectly known through the word of mouth (WOM). In 2003 [1, 5], through a phone survey (933 Sicilian people), CoRFiLaC aimed to show the main criteria of consumer selection for *traditional Sicilian cheeses* and people personal definition of *traditional cheese*. The main criteria driving cheese consumers' decision-making resulted to be safety food (92.3%), natural raw ingredients in the method of production (82%), healthy properties (75%) and local product (73%) and then followed by product denomination of origin (PDO) brand of recognition (68%), artisanal products (67%) and typical flavour (66%). However, external cues that have been the focus of many marketing research and have been considered to be the most important criteria for consumer decision-making (i.e. price and brand), in this study, seemed to be less relevant according to participant claims. Through a factorial analysis, we detected two main factors according to the elbow plot which together explained 83.83% of the total information generated:



### **Table 1.**

*Principal component (PC) factor analysis criteria of selection.* 

Besides, participants considered that traditional cheese had a different flavour compared to industrial one. According to a PC factor analysis, two main factors explained consumer tendency for 90.69%. Among participants there were:


 This information was very important in building related strategies for Sicilian cheeses. In fact communication highlighted the importance of factors such as raw milk, tools, local method of production, product safety and better flavour. Similarly, in 2013 in an international project (T-Cheesimal), CoRFiLaC carried out a study that implied different steps: (a) consumer pilot study at the beginning (56 Maltese people) and (b) face-to-face survey with Maltese consumers (1194 people) and restaurants (131 restaurants) to support marketing strategies for a local cheese called Gbejna.

Through the pilot study, CoRFiLaC tried to withdraw information concerning Maltese consumers such as consumption habits, preferences, cheese awareness, traditional cheese definitions and attitude towards both Sicilian and local Maltese cheeses. Besides, typical average portion for packaged cheeses, types of cheeses present on the shelves, prices for both local cheeses and competitors and cheese merchandising were gathered in the pilot study. The first analysis showed that Italian cheeses were highly mentioned (more than 50% of people) either for the


### *Optimal Procedures to Valorize High-Quality Traditional Dairy Products DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86831*

**Table 2.** 

*Principal component (PC) factor analysis of traditional cheese.* 

 larger variety compared to other countries or for the territorial proximity. Maltese cheeses did not have a good recognition among dwellers: in fact people had a positive quality perception for imported rather than local cheeses. Maltese people, independently from the sex, defined a "traditional cheese" *as a fresh product with a different taste, made both with pasture locally produced goat milk and according to the tradition of the place,* and *a well-known product*. Therefore, from few data we found out that there was a general confusion. Italian cheeses, including Sicilian ones, due to the halo effect of the country of origin, Italy, [6] were considered per se good and identified as traditional. However, once we asked to describe what a traditional cheese meant for them, they overall indicated a fresh cheese, locally produced even if the perception about the local Gbejna was not so good. In comparison with other Sicilian products after a taste, the Gbejna was considered, on a nine-point Likert scale, appetizing, pleasant, satisfying, quite exciting as a product and not expensive and obtained a good overall evaluation. After the trial, the quality of the Gbejna was not considered so high and not so unique. The willingness to buy (WTB) was low compared to the others [7]. And people did not consider Gbejna "exactly for me" (**Figure 1**). The halo effect for Italian cheeses was still there. In fact, the pilot study showed that Maltese people tended to buy imported cheeses among which Italians were the preferred and often identified as traditional cheeses. The Gbejna was well known among dwellers. They used the cheese as part of their own culture but unconsciously preferred and considered imported cheeses as better products with higher quality. This implied a strategy to improve and fortify product intrinsic quality. Under a marketing point of view, it was necessary to raise product positive perception by highlighting good aspects of the product not only among dwellers but also focusing on tourists by pulling Gbejna use inside of the restaurants.

 To confirm pilot study indications and deeply understand both consumer habits on a large scale, two surveys were carried out with representative samples: one on consumer population over 15 years old and another one with restaurants. A part of both studies focused on criteria affecting quality cheese perception in terms of fortifying the image of the Gbejna. In both studies sampling was withdrawn proportionally to the actual composition of the targeted population [8, 9]. For consumers, a list of nine criteria on a nine-point Likert scale (1 = very unimportant; 9 = very important) was presented [10], and a PC analysis for consistency was performed taking into account age (15–24; 25–34; 50–64; over 64), sex (female, F; male, M) and area of residence in Malta (Southern Harbour, SH; Northern Harbour, NH; Souther Eastern, SE; Western District, WE; Northern District, ND).

**Figure 1.**  *Consumer attitude towards cheeses after tasting.* 

Two main components explained in the PCA are more than 65% of the variance. The main component was represented by intrinsic product qualities such as taste, pleasantness and high quality and, on the other side, perceived characteristics, such as superior quality, healthy, appetizing, uniqueness of the product and the product representing consumer personality. According to age, sex and area, the criteria worked in different ways affecting consumers (**Figure 2**).

In the PCA, the data showed that Gbejna was considered of a certain quality mainly from consumers between 35 and 64 years old. Women in the range 35–49 dwelling in the Western and Northern District and Southern Harbour considered the Gbejna as "A cheese for me", appetizing, unique and pleasant. Rather men in the western area focused on the flavour and on the pleasantness of the cheese, and similarly men in the Southern Harbour considered the quality a little bit superior. However, the main target for the cheese was people in the range 50–64 years old with no area distinction. In specific men of the southern area considered the Gbejna "A cheese for them" with a good flavour, pleasant, with a superior quality, and unique. In fact, from the survey these two targets of people represented the heavy Gbejna cheese consumers (35–49 daily consumers for 14%, 50–64 daily consumers 13%, over 64 daily consumers for 10%). Hence, these consumers represented the main targets to focus in order to push Gbejna quality awareness and perception. What was interesting was the range 15–24 years old that did not consider the Gbejna as "A cheese for them". Young people considered the product low in quality, with

**Figure 2.**  *Mean square PCA score per age, sex and area.* 

 an unpleasant flavour. Actually, the same target tended to identify the traditional cheese with a product they were used to since the childhood but did not represent actually a typical or local product tied with the territory. Very often the youngest tended to mention industrial imported cheeses [11].

Similarly to consumer survey, we tried to understand quality product perception under restaurants' point of view. Managers and owners were interviewed. To get information on criteria affecting overall cheese quality perception, we proposed once again on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = very unimportant, 7 = very important)

### **Figure 3.**

*Criteria affecting quality perception in restaurants.* 

 [10] nine criteria of course considering that the target was different (**Figure 3**): the importance of (1) knowing the producer, (2) PDO certification, (3) TV advertising, (4) industrial systems, (5) awareness of the place of production, (6) recommendation by sellers, (7) local origins, (8) artisanal systems and (9) traceability of the product was withdrawn by a face-to-face questionnaire (**Figure 3**).

 Data showed that restaurants are considered as main criteria for quality perception traceability, local origin, awareness of the producer, awareness of the place of production and PDO certification. TV advertisement was considered less important. Restaurants tended to look for information from producers, sellers and strongly trusted blogs and websites. A good strategy to affect their act of purchase was to propose trials and certified products (i.e. PDO). A quality cheese was identified with a traced product, a product with local origin or whose origins were easily recognizable, a PDO certified product and a well-known place of production. Besides, they required more frequent deliveries in order to have very fresh products [12]. All these aspects were relevant to generate an advantage for Gbejna cheese compared to the imported cheeses. Therefore, a suggested strategy was to cooperate and to set up activities in order to fortify the image of the product pushing on the origin, the place and the producers and setting up a process for obtaining the PDO certification, very important for restaurants as a consequence of the tourist targets. The relevance of a brand or recognition such as the PDO is attributable to the fact that in Malta region guests exceeded 1.5 million [13] and the main tourists come from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy. It is easy to get the need for restaurants to present certified products to these very high demanding customers especially for cheeses.

### **3.2 Packaging**

 In many of our project, CoRFiLaC supported local producers by realizing packaging prototypes to help small realities to better sell their products. In all studies there was a frequent problem: producers did not have time to dedicate for marketing activities. For this reason, in some projects a pack prototype was defined as an indicative way to communicate through product qualities. The prototype was generally the result of a multilevel analysis. Four levels are worth to be considered.

## *Optimal Procedures to Valorize High-Quality Traditional Dairy Products DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86831*

The first level included (1) definition of the objectives for the packaging, (2) analysis of the actual selling variety in the targeted channels and (3) analysis of the correlated communicative context by evaluating packaging dimensions, materials, merchandising, exhibition on shelves and counters and formats of all direct and indirect competitors. This approach is really powerful to define packaging strategy and to follow in order to create the right suit for the product under analysis able to communicate correctly to consumers [14].

The second level included the study of the most important elements (materials, shape, dimensions, colours, graphics elements, brand, labelling and slogan). Therefore, graphic elements and in turn brand and labelling along with slogan definitions are strongly related to consumer market analysis.

The third level was the conceptualization of the analysis in prototypes, subsequently subject to qualitative analysis, depending of course on money availability and time (focus groups, laddering interview, depth interview).

The fourth level was a first selection of prototypes based on the qualitative analysis and according to people actual message perception and selecting prototypes in line with the packaging communication objective. Then these prototypes were proposed to a larger number of final consumers, by gathering quantitative data, and the final packaging was chosen according to its ability to achieve the communication object with consumers.

In the T-Cheesimal project, the goal of the packaging was to communicate to consumers that the Gbejna:


 Once data were gathered from the pilot study and from the survey with consumers, a group of ten prototypes of packaging were set up with two different slogans. A focus group with experts and with students of the University of Malta was run. People attributed each prototype a vote from 1 (the most liked packaging) to 10 (the less liked packaging), after which discussion started in order to understand their motivations. On the external aspect, we realized that they appreciated red and green colours, shape and different appearances compared to what was already present on the market, and they liked very much a graphic element present on some of them: a wave. Besides, people tended to prefer the same slogan. Hence, among the 10 packagings, we selected 5 that were evaluated from 175 people. In a random way, packaging was presented in one exhibition in Malta, and we asked to choose two of them. Then, we gave two pieces of paper to put inside the corresponding bag under the package asking to write the motivation of their choice. The packaging was selected not just according to the most preferred but considering people perception from it. The one indicated in **Figure 4** was the most liked because:


**Figure 4.**  *Prototype defined from the analysis.* 


With this packaging we achieved the main goals, but not all of them. Of course for us it was a starting point to let producers raise the perception of higher-quality Gbejna cheese.
