Information effect on consumer adoption for a new beef brand in the Vietnamese market: prior knowledge, appealing the brand distinction, differentiation and similarity

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of information on consumer adoption when introducing a new beef brand to the Vietnamese markets. Three variables proxy the impacts of information are prior knowledge, usage experience, and price. This study developed three pieces of advertised information and combined them with three levels of price to indicate the relevant information to diffuse at the introduction of a new brand. Three kinds of information include: (1) distinction information, which defines a new brand to be distinct from existing competitive brands; (2) differentiation information, which identifies a new brand to be different from one existing brand; (3) similarity information, which defines a new brand to be similar to one existing brand. The survey was conducted via direct interviews with 480 customers at the food outlets in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The ordered logit model was applied to examine the influence of each kind of information on consumer preferences for a new beef brand. The results indicated that (1) the effect of information on consumer adoption for a new brand at early stage depends on how that information defines the new brand in consumers’ perception; (2) the distinction information generates the highest economic added value; (3) the similarity information creates the information bias at introduction; (4) the usage experience can be diagnostic for the information bias.