Review article
https://doi.org/10.18045/zbefri.2022.1.225
Naturally traditional or traditionally natural – exploring the concepts natural and traditional in marketing research
Ivana First Komen
orcid.org/0000-0001-5312-6158
Nina Grgurić Čop
orcid.org/0000-0002-6190-4033
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to understand how current marketing research
conceptualises natural and traditional products – products that strongly attract
consumer attention and capture large and growing market shares yet remain vague
and weakly defined by a regulatory framework. The analysis is conducted on
systematically selected research articles published in relevant journals over the
past two decades. The results show that the natural products are mostly defined by
the way they are produced and the ingredients they do not contain, while no
consensus was reached for the traditional products. Furthermore, not only is the
concept of traditional defined by an unusually large number of themes, but the
themes also vary considerably depending on stakeholder group from which they
originate, indicating an inevitable communication problem between these groups.
The results also show that despite attempts by marketers to link the meanings of
the two types of products, the themes in the definitions of natural and traditional
products are different and overlap only sporadically. These findings serve as a step
toward creating better academic conceptualizations and a more specific regulatory
framework for natural and traditional products that will reduce the likelihood of
misleading business practises and confusion among consumers and researchers.
Keywords
natural products; traditional products; ingredients; production; origin
Hrčak ID:
279914
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2022.
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