Building a competent brand personality trough product co-creation

: the raw potential of the vegan food market

Abstract

Alongside the exponential growth of vegan food products’ demand, came a substantial adjustment of companies’ portfolios to include these conscious alternatives. Nonetheless, consumers claim to be unsatisfied with the provided offerings, creating the urgent need for investment in innovative product development processes. The following dissertation aimed to explore co-creation’s potential as an enhancer of brand perceptions, and consequent product attractiveness. Two experimental studies tested whether the involvement of consumers in the new product development process influenced consumers’ purchase intentions, brand personality perceptions, and the importance of the communicating source. The findings indicate that co-created vegan products are preferred over similar non-co-created alternatives, by individuals that already purchase vegan products, regardless of their dietary choices or experienced product involvement. Additionally, companies engaging in co-creation were perceived to detain a more competent brand personality, which promotes trust and sequentially mediates purchase intentions. Lastly, the findings revealed that the perceived competence of the communicating agent directly impacts brand competence, and indirectly influences trust and purchase behaviors. Nonetheless, co-creators’ performance in this task was not sturdy enough to be considered a significantly beneficial strategy. Hereby, the uncovered findings not only provide firms the evidence that co-creation is a valuable approach for new product development on a continuously growing market, but also expand existing knowledge on the topic of co-creation, brand personality perceptions, and vegan innovation.

Date of Award	28 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Cláudia Isabel de Sousa Costa (Supervisor)