Requirements on Consumer Information about Product ... - ANEC

Consumer Information about PCF
5 Identification and prioritisation of consumer information
5.1 General needs of consumers concerning information on Product Carbon
Footprint (PCF)
There is consensus among experts that consumers should consider a huge amount of
information in order to make an optimal purchase decision. In addition to this objective need
of information further information should be taken into account by the consumer in order to
realise a sustainable consumption. But: Is the consumer willing and able to use this
additional information? After all, a general information overload can be observed. Therefore it
must be asked, in which way and by which approach the information should be delivered.
Priority must be set on clarity, comparability and credibility of information. Against this
background vzbv (2004) used the differentiation into search goods, experience goods and
credence goods for a telephone survey among consumers on the purchase of five different
goods (textiles, food, cars, electricity and investments). It must be pointed out that the terms
“search goods” etc. are technical terms from economics. The term “goods” is thereby used in
the same way as the term products in this text: both encompass as well products as
services. In the following chapter the technical terms “search goods” etc. are used in
combination with the term “products”.
A search good is a product with features and characteristics easily evaluated before
purchase. An experience good is a product where product characteristics such as quality or
price are difficult to observe in advance, but these characteristics can be ascertained upon
consumption. A credence good is a product whose utility impact is difficult or impossible for
the consumer to ascertain. In contrast to experience goods, the utility gain or loss of
credence goods is difficult to measure after consumption as well. The seller of the good
knows the utility impact of the good, creating a situation of asymmetric information.
A product usually possesses features belonging to all three above mentioned categories. For
example a cars’ size and colour (search good), its fuel consumption (experience good) and
its pollutant emission (credence good) may be relevant for consumers purchase decision.
Information on the environmental impact of a product usually belongs to the categories
experience good (e.g. consumption of fuel, electricity, water) and credence good (e.g.
environmentally friendly production, content of hazardous substances; see also DIN
Consumer Council 2008).
PCF in specific belongs to the category credence good which makes it all the more important
that the delivered information on PCF is credible and plausible (relevance of third party
certification) and displayed in a standardised, comparable way.
Although the survey showed that consumers do not read all the information available e.g. on
the packages of food, they are not willing to do without. At least they want to have access to
information. It was interesting that consumers were more content with the available
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