Brands, Labels, and Product Longevity: The Case of Salmon in UK Grocery Retailing

Abstract

In recent years, the number of ecolabels and country-of-origin labels has grown substantially in seafood markets globally. This makes it more difficult for retailers and producers to communicate and demonstrate their differentiating claims to consumers. In addition, it has recently been suggested that there are both costs and supply chain benefits associated with labeling. This paper uses duration analysis to investigate factors that influence product longevity for salmon in grocery retailing. Product longevity influences cost as a prolonged product lifetime reduces costs related to product development and marketing. As has been found for wild-caught whitefish, different retail chains appear to vary in their product labeling strategies. However, in contrast to wild fish, farmed salmon with ecolabels or domestic country-of-origin labels appear to have shorter product life cycles compared to products without ecolabels or with foreign country-of-origin labeling. This is most likely due to the higher control of the production process found in aquaculture.

The value of responsibly farmed fish: A hedonic price study of ASC-certified whitefish

“…In the UK, premiums for MSC-labeled fish were found to be highest for discount retailers, while no premium was identified for ecolabeled fish sold at high-end retailers (e.g., Marks & Spencer, Waitrose) (Asche et al, 2015). Moreover, different chains have been shown to employ diverse strategies with respect to how ecolabels are used (Sogn-Grundvåg et al, 2019;Asche et al, 2021). To account for this, we also estimate the model with interaction terms between retailer and the ASC label.…”

Analysing the marketing strategies that fish farming businesses in the UK can use to gain a competitive advantage

“…Therefore, wild and farmed fish brands competed fairly in the market. In contrast, Asche et al (2021) showed that farmed salmon products with local country of origin labels and ecolabels indicated a shorter life cycle than those with foreign origin labels. The difference between these findings can be attributed to the fact that different retail chains vary in labelling brands.…”