El marketing responsable en el etiquetado tipo semáforo de productos alimenticios en Ecuador: caso de estudio, la percepción en los consumidores de Cuenca

Abstract

Responsible marketing is used in companies whose activities are socially responsible, and can be adjusted to public policies that provide a positive impact on society; for example, front nutritional labeling. Ecuador was a pioneer in Latin America in the mandatory implementation of the traffic light nutrition labeling (NTLL), to provide consumers with reliable information to counteract the generation of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) due to poor nutrition caused by the consumption of processed foods. For this reason, the purpose of this research was to analyze responsible marketing in the nutritional traffic light labeling (NTLL) of food products, from the perception of consumers in Cuenca, Ecuador. It was a cross-sectional research. The sample consisted of 384 surveys, determined by stratified random sampling. The Chi-square test (ꭓ 2) was performed, which showed the relationship between the variables knowledge of responsible marketing, with age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, income, expenses, understanding and use of the NTLL. On the other hand, the Ordinal Logit Model (OLM) was performed, which revealed that the variables that contribute to people's likelihood of a level of understanding of the NTLL, were education, labeling knowledge and marketing knowledge. Finally, the Binomial Logit Model (BLM) revealed that, the variables income level, knowledge of the ESN, diseases, trust in the NTLL, influence of COVID-19 on eating habits and marketing knowledge were variables that influenced people to have higher probabilities of using the NTLL. It is concluded that responsible marketing is present in the NTLL through the clear and understandable dissemination of information. However, it still needs to be consolidated towards more effective practices that guarantee the intake of healthy and quality products