The role of brands on consumers’ purchase decisions: the milk industry

This study attempts to understand how consumers consider, evaluate and behave when making purchase decisions in the milk category as well as how it is influenced by branding. Thus, results have shown that brand awareness is a commonly used heuristic on consumers’ choices, although other product-related attributes such as price, flavour and quality are also considered. Milk brands present different associations on consumers’ minds but, in some cases, they are not distinctive enough among each other. In terms of the decision-making process, consumers have several brands on their consideration set but they do not actively evaluate them, buying mainly for habit or driven by promotional campaigns as well as family or specialists’ recommendations