A Means-End Chain Approach to Investigate Consumer Motives for the Choice of Bread Made from Heritage Cereals

ABSTRACT

Intensive agricultural production methods are one of the main reasons for the loss of agrobiodiversity. To reduce this loss, one option is the on-farm preservation of genetic resources. For on-farm preservation to be successful, the cultivation of heritage cereals has to be made attractive for farmers. While there are some studies exploring the perception of heritage cereals, endangered species and heirloom vegetable varieties, there is still a lack of research on consumers’ purchase motives. To close this gap, we combined soft and hard laddering and focused on bread made from heritage cereal varieties. First, we carried out 42 laddering interviews with consumers in four German cities, and second, we conducted a Germany-wide online survey including a hard laddering with 1200 consumers. We found that the psychosocial consequences health and naturalness dominate when purchasing bread made from heritage cereals and could be relevant elements of marketing communication strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Agrobiodiversity
• heritage cereal varieties
• bread
• means-end chain analysis
• soft and hard laddering

Introduction

In times of crises, discussions about food security and local resilience of production systems are intensifying, now also appearing on the agenda of high-income countries. The consequences of geopolitical conflicts as well as natural disasters, which are to a large extent related to climate change, make us aware of our food system’s vulnerability. Owing to these circumstances, a growing effort has been made to produce a greater diversity of grains that are resilient to shocks and stresses, including sustainable grains that are well adapted to local conditions (Braun, 2022). Agrobiodiversity is the generic term for this approach. It is defined as “the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture, including crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries” (Dulloo, 2019). Agrobiodiversity contributes to food security and resilience because it can, for example, improve pollination, soil formation and maintenance, carbon sequestration, and the provision of habitat for other beneficial species. Hence, it is responsible for many essential ecosystem services and thereby for the sustainable development of the food system (FAO, 2019).

However, biodiversity for food and agriculture has been declining at genetic, species and ecosystem levels. As of 2014, approximately 6000 plant species have been cultivated for food, out of which fewer than 200 species had significant production levels globally, and only nine of these species account for more than 66% of all crop production by weight (FAO, 2019). Agriculture is the most frequently reported driver for biodiversity loss within the EU and also one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss worldwide (CISL The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Biodiversify, 2021). Intensive production methods have led to reduced numbers of species, breeds and varieties through agricultural expansion and pollution (FAO, 2019). In addition, climate change will be responsible for further biodiversity loss in the future (Díaz et al., 2019) and will most likely become one of the most significant drivers in the 21^st century, as it affects habitat suitability and dispersion patterns of many species (Brodie & Watson, 2023). In the Global Risks Report, presenting the results of the Global Risks Perception Survey 2022–23, “biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse” is ranked among the top-5 global risks in the long term (World Economic Forum, 2023). According to a recent survey in Germany, 73% of the participants believe that humankind threatens its own livelihood through the damage of biodiversity, only 11% of the respondents have never heard about biodiversity before (BMUV Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz, 2023).

Currently cultivated (modern) crops may be limited in their resilience to changing climates, compared to wild relative populations (Pironon et al., 2019). Many wild relatives of domesticated crops, however, are under threat or lack formal protection, although they possess the genetic diversity needed to develop resilient crop varieties (Castañeda-Álvarez et al., 2016). Hence, a large pool of genetic variation is at risk (Díaz et al., 2019). The preservation of breeding germplasm diversity would allow for crop improvement through selection for specific traits in the future. However, breeding programs involving wild relatives often require large investments, while the adoption by farmers and consumers is not to be guaranteed (Pironon et al., 2019). An alternative option to improve agrobiodiversity is to conserve genetic resources in-situ or on-farm, but there is a general lack of information on characteristics of species and varieties that are not widely used commercially according to the FAO (2019), making their cultivation challenging. In any case, it is essential to make the production of endangered and heritage varieties more attractive. To establish supply chains and to create demand for products made from endangered and heritage varieties, it is important to raise awareness about their benefits (Lauterbach & Bantle, 2022).

Consumers’ food choices have the potential to positively influence the use of endangered and heritage breeds and varieties, which eventually leads to the preservation of biodiversity in food and agriculture (Mattas et al., 2023). However, consumers are mostly unaware of the influence they can exert on these practices through their consumption behavior, although research shows that dietary change can help to safeguard biodiversity (Henry et al., 2019).

This study will investigate consumers’ perception of heritage cereals, and their purchase motives in the context of bread. The ultimate goal is to derive appropriate communication contents. We followed a means-end chain approach with a combination of soft and hard laddering. At first, we conducted in-depth laddering interviews to examine the perception of heritage cereals in a more open and flexible way than this is possible in hard laddering. Secondly, we carried out an online survey with a hard laddering approach structured by the results of the first phase, to identify possible purchase motives and communication contents for heritage cereals. We chose bread as stimulus in both studies, because it is the most consumed grain product in Germany (Statista, 2022) and because 97.6% of private households purchased bread at least once in 2021 (Rösch et al., 2023).

In this paper, we use the term heritage cereals (or varieties) to clearly distinguish them from modern cereals. Another appropriate term would be landraces, which are defined as “a dynamic population of a cultivated plant that has historical origin, distinct identity and lacks formal crop improvement, as well as often being genetically diverse, locally adapted and associated with traditional farming systems” (Villa et al., 2005). However, the term landrace is less common in normal usage, especially among consumers.

Literature review and conceptual background

Heritage cereals have recently gained more attention in research. They are, for example, increasingly being studied for nutritional benefits and better tolerance (Zamaratskaia et al., 2021), which might be relevant for health-conscious consumers or people with wheat sensitivity. Although the reason for the increasing number of people suffering from wheat sensitivity has not yet been identified, modern wheat processing techniques may have resulted in increased exposure of consumers to immunoreactive compounds (Kissing Kucek et al., 2015). A recent study by Geisslitz et al. (2023), however, revealed that the content of amylase/trypsin-inhibitors (ATIs), which are suspected to trigger wheat sensitivity, are not significantly larger in modern as compared to very old wheat varieties. According to the authors, further research is needed to shed more light on the role of food processing, sourdough fermentation and brewing on ATI contents. In addition, Longin and Würschum (2016) indicate that ancient crop species can satisfy the emotionally driven trends for regional production, novel and interesting tastes as well as health-promoting ingredients in developed countries. At the same time, the cultivation and use of these varieties can provide small farmers, millers, traders, and bakers with unique market positions and can strengthen local food chains (Longin & Würschum, 2016). Hence, appropriate communication contents are necessary to increase awareness. These should extend beyond the ecological benefits and also focus on aspects like the local origin, traditional and artisan production, naturalness, taste, support of short supply chains, and health or personal well-being to target different consumer segments (Longin & Würschum, 2016).

Studies on communication contents and strategies have already been conducted regarding agrobiodiversity in general (Bantle & Hamm, 2014), endangered livestock breeds (Menger & Hamm, 2021) and heirloom vegetable varieties in Germany (Lauterbach & Bantle, 2022). Overall, consumers reveal only limited understanding of agrobiodiversity and heritage varieties and breeds. The often communicated concept of preservation through consumption is difficult to grasp and frequently misunderstood and therefore needs to be better exemplified (Bantle & Hamm, 2014). The communication contents should focus on positive messages and low-threshold options for action. Taste should be especially emphasized, as this was an often mentioned purchase motive (Bantle & Hamm, 2014). On the same lines, Menger and Hamm (2021) recommend to focus on the exceptional taste of heritage breeds to promote their sales, while endangerment and low population figures should not be emphasized due to a lack of understanding of the association between preservation and consumption. Similarly, Lauterbach and Bantle (2022) revealed that communication approaches should not only focus on altruistic purchasing motives but also on egoistic and hedonic ones.

Considering the purchase of bread, the most important characteristics driving consumers’ choices were taste/flavor, freshness, and texture (Wendin et al., 2020). Likewise, Teuber et al. (2016) concluded that bread with special properties will only be accepted by consumers, if the taste expectations are met, indicating that taste is overall more important than health benefits. The ancient grain variety bread in their study was especially valued among consumers, who favor traditional production methods, and those who regularly eat whole grain bread. They stated that the perceived taste experience might be increased through extrinsic information. Despite these different studies, which all highlight the strong relevance of taste, the factors driving consumers’ choices have not been fully explored, although this would be essential to develop targeted communication strategies and thereby increase the demand for heritage cereals in the future.

To close this gap, this study employs a means-end chain (MEC) approach, because the MEC approach is suitable to uncover what motivates a consumer to purchase a specific product (Grunert, 2010). Consumers rarely purchase a product only because of its functional aspects, but rather because they hope to get some greater benefit from the purchase (Kahle & Kennedy, 1988). MECs actually represent subjective links between the attributes of a product, the consequences of these attributes for the respective consumer, and the values that are relevant to the consumer. The attributes represent the lowest level of the chain and are the means. These are preferred due to their specific benefits which are expressed by the consequences. The consequences serve to fulfill individually important values. The latter are the most abstract ones and represent the ends (Gutman, 1982). In this study, the consequences were distinguished into functional and psychosocial ones. Functional consequences are the subjective benefits which result directly from the presence of a preferred attribute (Walker & Olson, 1991). The functional consequences are followed by the psychosocial consequences. The latter are more related to the emotions of the person and fulfill a psychological and/or social purpose (Brümmer & Zander, 2020). When developing a communication strategy, the psychosocial consequences determine the basic orientation of the communication (Kliebisch, 2000). The MEC (or ladders) bridge the gap between concrete preferences for product attributes and values, because values, known for motivating all kinds of everyday choice situations, appear to be only weakly related to the attributes. Nevertheless, values are important from a marketing perspective, as the association of a specific product or a service with a rather abstract value increases the ease of storing it in memory and remembering it. Thereby, it enables marketers to enhance the value of their product or service (Kahle & Kennedy, 1988). According to Scholderer and Grunert (2004) the MEC approach has been implemented for three different purposes. It has been used for measuring consumers’ subjective MEC, for measuring associations descriptively and for deriving market communication strategies and new product concepts. MEC are interpreted by researchers, amongst others, as a model of cognitive structure, because it deals with how people link cognitive categories (Grunert & Grunert, 1995) or as a model of motivation, as it gives insights into what motivates their preferences for particular product attributes (Cohen & Warlop, 2001). According to Gutman (1997), the MEC model is based on the expectancy-value theory. This theory implies that motivation for a given behavior or action is determined by expectancy (i.e., the likeliness that a wanted outcome is achieved through this behavior or action) and value (i.e., how important the desired outcome is to the individual). Motivation can be expressed as the product of expectancy and value; it is large when both expectancy and value are high (Studer & Knecht, 2016). Based on an extension of the original model by Atkinson (1957), value is determined by the degree to which an outcome is believed to attain more abstract needs, such as security, esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization (Lawler & Porter, 1967). Against this background, Gutman’s reasoning is that consumers learn to think about products in terms of their attributes, the consequences that arise from usage, and how those translate into achieving important personal values (Gutman, 1997).

To elicit MECs, a combination of soft or hard laddering is used (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). In the soft laddering approach, respondents are not restricted in their answers and have the chance to express their own beliefs and perceptions. As a result, the in-depth interviews yield a broad set of purchase motives for bread and thereby provide relevant content for the quantitative survey. The hard laddering approach yields results, which are more reflective of the general population and as such build a strong basis for the development of target-specific communication campaigns. Study 1 describes the soft laddering approach and study 2 the hard laddering approach. Both studies are presented in detail in the following sections and should be seen as complementing each other.

Study 1: soft laddering

Data collection

We first carried out personal in-depth interviews following the guideline by Reynolds and Gutman (1988). The laddering technique was used to determine the linkages between the preferred attributes of the product, the consequences and the values. We conducted 42 interviews from the end of October 2021 to the end of November 2021 in four German cities. A market research agency recruited the participants. Screening criteria were (1) above 18 years, (2) at least equally responsible for food purchases in the household as other members, (3) buying bread at least once a month, (4) no gluten intolerance and (5) achieving a minimum of 11 points on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Do not agree at all, 5 = Fully agree) for each of the two queried constructs from the Consciousness for Sustainable Consumption Scale (Balderjahn et al., 2013). Each construct consisted of three items. The higher the score, the higher is the consciousness for sustainable consumption. Table 1 shows an overview of the sample.

Table 1. Sample description – soft laddering (study 1).

		N = 42	Percentage
Interview location	Münster (west)	11	26.2%
	Hamburg (north)	11	26.2%
	Munich (south)	11	26.2%
	Leipzig (east)	9	21.4%
Age	18–35 years	13	31.0%
	36–54 years	18	42.9%
	≥55 years	11	26.2%
Gender	female	22	52.4%
	male	20	47.6%
Education	Secondary school/ middle school/_high school	23	54.8%
	University degree/ vocational training	19	45.3%
Grocery purchase	Only me	23	54.8%
	Mainly me	12	28.6%
	Equal parts me with someone else	7	16.7%
Bread purchase	Daily	2	4.8%
	Two to three times a week	28	66.7%
	Once a week	12	28.6%

The main part of the interviews was the soft laddering. We selected the method triadic sorting among several others to identify relevant attributes (Bech-Larsen & Nielsen, 1999). Therefore, we presented pictures of three different kinds of bread including price, weight, and name to the participants. Further distinguishing features were whether the bread was organic, bread type, shape, whole grain and bread surface (e.g., crust, sprinkles). We created all product pictures ourselves. The names of the different breads with short descriptions are displayed in the appendix (Appendix A). To elicit the attributes relevant to the participants, they were asked in which way two of the three products are the same and thereby different from the third. Two of the three breads could be identified as “made from heritage cereal varieties” based on their product names. The preferred attribute was the starting point for the subsequent laddering process. In the laddering process, different versions of the question “Why is that important for you?” were asked repeatedly to uncover the individual consequences and values (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). After this process, the interviewer summarized the laddering part for the respondent so that a correction or an addition by the respondent was possible. In addition, questions about the participant’s general purchase behavior, awareness of heritage cereal varieties and preferences regarding products made from these cereals were asked. All interviews were audio-taped.

Data analysis

All interviews were manually transcribed. The laddering part was coded separately in MAXQDA. Every interview was coded by two coders independently based on a codebook which was created in an iterative process. To derive the MEC, we allocated each summary code to one of the four MEC components, namely attributes, functional consequences, psychosocial consequences, and values. The codebook consisted of (1) a description of the MEC components, (2) a description of the coding approach, (3) an overview of all 74 main codes and related subcodes and (4) a more detailed description of every main code with at least one anchor example from the interviews (e.g., main code good for the body consisted of the three subcodes good for the digestion, no intolerance and allergies and to have energy). The values were classified mainly according to Schwartz (1994).

Not only the content analysis was conducted by two people but also the subsequent formation of all individual ladders. Two researchers independently coded three to four interviews and created the ladders in an Excel sheet accordingly. After that, all ladders were compared and differences discussed. The decision for the final ladders was made based on the criteria that were previously specified in the code book. If an issue was not yet mentioned in the code book, it was added. This approach was selected instead of measuring the intercoder reliability, as the intercoder reliability varied a lot between the individual interviews. Some statements could be ambiguous, especially when the content was related to higher levels of the means-end chain.

ID numbers for all codes were used for further analysis. According to Kilwinger and van Dam (2021), we used the number-of-respondents-based aggregation and summed up direct linkages between two elements for each person once to create the Implication Matrix (IM). This means, each link as well as each element in a person’s laddering interview was counted only once, regardless of the number of times it was repeated by that person. The IM summarizes the frequencies of all linkages between the same two elements from all respondents. Those linkages are no longer called ladders but chains. The IM was used to develop the Hierarchical Value Map (HVM), which is the main outcome from a means-end chain analysis (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988).

The HVM of the soft laddering was constructed with the focus on heritage cereals as the perception of those was the target concept of this study. Therefore, we did not use a uniform cutoff level for all elements. Instead, we went through the following steps. First, we used a cutoff level of 2 for the attribute heritage cereals. In consequence, the HVM shows the two linkages from heritage cereals to preservation of heritage cereals and to variety & diversity. The linkages mentioned only once are not shown in the HVM. Those deleted linkages refer to the two attributes no residues & additives and production method, to the three functional consequences good taste, good for the body and support & preservation of certain businesses/handcraft and to the value stimulation. In total, this concerns six linkages. The implication matrix is shown in the appendix (Appendix C).

Second, for every following element starting from the three attributes heritage cereals, no residues & additives and production method, only the most frequently mentioned elements are depicted in the HVM, up to four linkages for each element. The number of elements was determined based on the clearness of the map, as it is important to guarantee a clear overview in the HVM (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). We therefore decided to delete the two linkages from the functional consequence preservation of heritage cereals to diversity & variety and to preservation of local (food) culture. This resulted in the deletion of the element preservation of local (food) culture and its linkage to diversity & variety. Those three linkages were mentioned only once and eventually lead to diversity & variety, the relevance of which is already covered by the direct linkage from heritage cereals to diversity & variety. Furthermore, the psychosocial consequence preservation of local (food) culture was only mentioned by one person in total.

Results

Among the 42 respondents, heritage cereals were only mentioned by five respondents as a relevant attribute of bread. The in-depth interviews produced 540 ladders in total. The HVM in Figure 1 shows the most important elements for the respondents, which are good taste, health, and security. The strongest linkage leads from good taste to emotional wellbeing. The attribute heritage cereals has only weak linkages and is, according to the interviews, most likely associated with the psychosocial consequences environmental protection and variety & diversity.

Figure 1. Hierarchical value map soft laddering (study 1).

Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate how many times an element was mentioned across all interviews. The elements were only counted once person regardless of the number of repetitions.

Study 2: hard laddering

Data collection

The second step of our study was a Germany-wide online survey. The online survey was conducted from mid to the end of November 2022 in collaboration with a market research agency. Participants were included, if they (1) were within the age range of 18–70 years, (2) were responsible for household grocery shopping at least occasionally, (3) did not have an autoimmune disease or allergy related to grain consumption, (4) consumed bread at least once per month, (5) did not make bread only by themselves and (6) did not buy bread solely in supermarkets or discounters. Besides questions on participants’ socio-demographics, purchase and consumption behavior with regard to grain products and a Discrete Choice Experiment, a hard laddering approach with the focus on bread made from heritage cereals was applied. Results from the soft laddering fed into the development of the hard laddering.

Respondents who indicated that they would be willing to (re-)purchase a bread made from heritage cereal varieties were asked to participate in the hard laddering. In total, 1082 from 1200 participants stated they would be willing to (re-)purchase bread made from heritage cereal varieties and, therefore, answered the hard laddering section of the survey. We excluded three respondents due to their repetitive response patterns. So, the final analyses were conducted with data from 1079 participants. The sample is comparable to the German population with regard to gender, age and residence(Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung, 2020-2022; Statistisches Bundesamt, 2022b, 2022a). However, it consists of more people with higher education in comparison to the German population (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2022b). An excerpt of the sample description is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Sample description (excerpt) – hard laddering (study 2).

	n = 1079	Percentage (n = 1079)	Percentage n = 1200	German population (%)
Age
18–29	186	17%	19%	19%
30–39	205	19%	19%	19%
40–49	227	21%	21%	18%
50–59	291	27%	26%	23%
60–70	170	16%	16%	21%
Gender
Female	585	54%	54%	51%
Male	491	46%	46%	49%
Divers	3	0%	0%	-
Education
Without school education/others	8	0%	1%	8%
Secondary school/Middle school/High school	337	31%	32%	n.c.*
Vocational training	400	37%	37%	55%
University degree	334	31%	30%	19%
Residence
Rural community (<5.000 citizens)	188	17%	17%	11%**
Small town (5.000–20.000 citizens)	245	23%	23%	29%**
Medium City (20.000–100.000 citizens)	244	23%	24%	28%**
Big City (>100.000 citizens)	402	37%	36%	32%**

*n.c.=not comparable. **estimation from a bar graph.

For conducting the hard laddering, we developed three lists of functional consequences, psychosocial consequences, and values, respectively. The attribute heritage cereals was the starting point in the hard laddering process. The lists consisted of elements from the soft laddering codebook and the elements were presented in randomized order for each step of the ladder. First, we included all elements of the HVM from the interviews, except the attributes and the value life satisfaction. We excluded the value life satisfaction, because it is, on the one hand, not one of the Human Values by Schwartz (1994) and, on the other hand, considered as a superordinate element which arises from fulfilling every desired element, including the values by Schwartz. Second, we added one to five further elements to the lists of consequences and values as we considered them as potentially relevant in the context of heritage cereals. We added good product quality and regionality and short transportation to the list of functional consequences, naturalness, preservation of local food culture, healthy and attractive appearance, treating oneself and role model for children to the list of psychosocial consequences, and tradition to the list of values. Those elements were part of the soft laddering codebook. In addition, we slightly adapted some of the elements from the soft laddering for better understanding. A list of all elements of the hard laddering and their origin is displayed in the appendix (Appendix B).

Respondents were introduced to the hard laddering with a short statement, reminding them that they have previously stated their willingness to (re-)purchase bread made from heritage cereals, (“repurchase” for those respondents, who indicated that they had already purchased it at least once in their life). Above the list of functional consequences, the sentence “I would (re-)purchase bread made from heritage cereal varieties, because …” was written. The items in the list were formulated as the second part of the sentence (e.g., … it tastes good.). Respondents had the possibility to select up to three functional consequences or to select none of the items. If none of the items were selected for the functional consequences, the list with the psychosocial consequences was introduced with the sentence “I would (re-)purchase bread made from heritage cereal varieties, because …”. If a functional consequence was selected in the previous statement, the list of psychosocial consequences was introduced with “… And this is important for me, because …”. The respondents could select up to two psychosocial consequences for each functional one, and they had also the opportunity to choose none of the psychosocial consequences. The list of values started with the sentence “I would (re-)purchase bread made from heritage cereal varieties, because …” if none of the functional and psychosocial consequences were selected. Otherwise, it was introduced with “… And this is important for me, because …”. Respondents had to select either one value for every functional or for every psychosocial consequence as the last step of the laddering, because the opt-out-option was not given for the values. For constructing the value items, we used an adaptation of Boer (2013) and the codebook of the soft laddering.

Data analysis

We analyzed the hard laddering data with SPSS and Excel. All direct linkages between the elements were counted and summarized in an Implication Matrix. For the hard laddering, we used a frequency-based instead of a number-of-respondents-based aggregation for constructing the HVM (Kilwinger & van Dam, 2021). The Hierarchical Value Map was created with a cutoff level of 100. Therefore, all linkages mentioned less than 100 times do not appear in the summary of the results. Six psychosocial consequences (good working conditions, emotional wellbeing, feeling of doing something good, preserving local food culture, healthy and attractive appearance, role model for children) and two values (stimulation, self-direction), which were offered for selection, are not shown in the HVM due to the cutoff level of 100. In addition to enumerating linkages, we counted the total frequency of each element. The Implication Matrix is presented in the appendix (Appendix D).

Results

From the 1079 participants 600 people indicated that they had bought a bread made from heritage cereal varieties before. The remainder stated they did not know or had not bought it before. Eight people chose the opt-out option for both, the functional and psychosocial consequences. Since both groups, the consumers who have bought a bread made of heritage cereals before and those who have not, are considered one target group for the communication contents, the data was analyzed, presented and interpreted in one HVM. Figure 2 shows all linkages that were mentioned at least 100 times depicted as arrows and the frequencies of selecting an element in parentheses.

Figure 2. Hierarchical value map of hard laddering with cut off level of 100 (study 2).

Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate how many times an element was selected across all survey participants.

The HVM of the hard laddering indicates that consumers would (re-)purchase bread made from heritage cereals because of good taste (533), supporting small businesses and handcraft (431) and for a healthy and conscious diet (403). Good taste has the strongest linkage to the psychosocial consequence pleasure and pleasure to the value hedonism. A healthy and conscious diet was mostly associated with the psychosocial consequence health (746) and health with the value universalism (1167). The support of small businesses and handcraft leads most often to the psychosocial consequence maintain/create jobs in the region (534) and the latter to the value universalism. The HVM shows that many psychosocial consequences lead to the value universalism, which includes appreciation, tolerance and wellbeing protection of all people and nature as sub-elements. The two strongest linkages are from the psychosocial consequences naturalness (707) with a linkage frequency of 297 and environmental protection (481) of 280 (Figure 2). The functional consequence of regionality and short transportation most often leads to environmental protection. Naturalness is mostly connected with the functional consequence preservation of heritage cereals.

In conclusion, the hard laddering reveals that the three functional consequences good taste, support small businesses and handcraft and following a healthy and conscious diet are especially relevant for consumers when purchasing bread made from heritage cereals. To communicate those benefits, the strongest linkage to the respective psychosocial consequence can be used.

Discussion & conclusions

We conducted in-depth interviews following the soft laddering approach in four cities in different regions of Germany followed by a Germany-wide online survey including a hard laddering approach. The main aim of our research was to examine the perception of heritage cereals and the purchase motives for bread made from heritage cereals among consumers in Germany. The overall objective was to get a better understanding of purchase motives and to derive communication contents from the psychosocial consequences.

The role of heritage cereals in the purchase of bread

The interviews revealed that the attribute heritage cereals played only a minor role in the context of bread purchases. In addition, Oehen et al. (2015) concluded from their project that products made from minor cereals (rye, oats, spelt, emmer, einkorn) are only relevant for niche markets implying that, overall, there is a low top of the mind recall for the majority of consumers. Hence, we assumed that the majority of respondents in the quantitative study would most likely not consider heritage cereals as more relevant than other attributes. Consequently, we adapted the hard laddering approach, following Russell et al. (2004), and used the question whether the respondents would (re-)purchase a bread made from heritage cereals instead of offering to select a personally relevant attribute as the starting point. With this adjustment, respondents were forced to choose the attribute heritage cereals as an important one, even if there were other, more important attributes determining the choice of bread. This approach was successful as 90% of the total sample participated in the hard laddering, even if only 56% of the 1079 participants stated to have purchased a bread made from heritage cereals before. In the hard laddering process, respondents specified, why they would (re-)purchase a bread made from heritage cereals. We did not differentiate between consumers, who reported that they previously purchased bread made from heritage varieties and those who did not, because both consumer groups are considered as one single target group in our study. The communication contents generated in this study are meant to target all consumers, who are generally willing to purchase bread made from heritage cereals. The communication contents will eventually result in communication material, such as posters, post cards, or social media posts, which can be distributed in bakeries as well as in relevant social media networks.

Discussion of the results from soft and hard laddering

The HVMs from the soft and hard laddering show that the functional consequence good taste and the psychosocial consequence health play central roles when purchasing bread (made from heritage cereals). Other studies about bread also discovered the importance of good taste (Teuber et al., 2016; Wendin et al., 2020). Teuber et al. (2016) even concluded that consumers would not compromise on a good taste experience for health benefits. Findings from studies on heritage varieties and breeds also suggested to focus on taste, when designing communication strategies for these products (Bantle & Hamm, 2014; Lauterbach & Bantle, 2022; Menger & Hamm, 2021). Furthermore, Oehen et al. (2015) stated that products made from minor cereals might be successful on the market, in case they fulfill the demand for good taste and health. Interestingly, the psychosocial consequence emotional wellbeing was not mentioned often enough to appear in the HVM of the hard laddering even though it was relatively important in the in-depth interviews, especially in connection with good taste. An explanation might be that the main code emotional wellbeing consists of nine subcodes for the analysis of the interviews, and the other psychosocial consequences did not have so many subcodes. Therefore, the condensation for emotional wellbeing might have been stronger than for the other consequences. According to Kilwinger and van Dam (2021) results of the soft laddering can vary depending on the level of information condensation. With 74 codes in total, the interviews were analyzed with relatively many codes in comparison to other soft laddering studies, for example by Brümmer and Zander (2020), and suggestions in the literature (Costa et al., 2004). In addition, the HVM of the soft laddering shows that emotional wellbeing is somehow connected with the psychosocial consequences health and pleasure. This probably had an effect on the decision between these three psychosocial consequences in the hard laddering approach.

The HVM of the hard laddering shows a stronger linkage from health to universalism rather than to security as it is the case for the soft laddering. An explanation might be that the qualitative interviews were mainly conducted in November 2021 when the COVID pandemic was still very present in everyday life in Germany. Furthermore, the element universalism might be seen as a socially desirable construct which might result in many selections. Naturalness was one of the most mentioned psychosocial consequences in the hard laddering even if it was not depicted in the HVM of the soft laddering. A comparison to other MEC studies is difficult due to different coding, condensation and aggregation approaches (Kilwinger & van Dam, 2021). Especially, the attribute heritage cereals would most likely be assigned to a more general code (e.g., grain type) in other studies. This difficulty of comparison applies also for the comparison of the soft and hard laddering in this study. The results should be interpreted as complementing each other.

Translation of findings into communication materials

In general, communication materials should contain a low amount of text with visually appealing content and no detailed terminology (Bantle & Hamm, 2014). When using results of a means-end chain analysis Reynolds et al. (2001) recommend to advertise familiar products with a focus on the psychosocial consequences and related emotions. The values of the means-end chain explain what kind of end-level motivation determines the behavior and are usually not used directly in the communication, but they help develop the executional framework for the advertisement. For activating the values, the right atmosphere has to be created.

In this research, “heritage cereals” is given as the only product attribute. As preservation of heritage cereals is likely to be an exclusive functional consequence for heritage cereals and is linked to the most mentioned psychosocial consequence naturalness, this means-end chain is recommended to be used for developing a communication strategy. Consumers might not fully understand the concept of preservation through consumption because preservation is mostly associated with stopping consuming something (Bantle & Hamm, 2014). Hence, adding a subtle information on how the purchase of a bread made of heritage cereals can preserve those could be beneficial. Therefore, a statement from the farmer where s/he gives gratitude could be used. Applying suitable pictures which visualize naturalness is recommended (e.g. farmer in a grain field). These associations are essential to provoke, regardless of the marketing material, in order to address a universalist. The advertisement has to convey a positive atmosphere. Also, Lauterbach and Bantle (2022) suggested using positive messages for advertising heirloom vegetable varieties. However, they propose to focus on hedonic and egoistic motives for developing communication content. If applying their suggestion on this research, the functional consequences good taste and healthy and conscious diet, which were mentioned considerably often in both the hard and soft laddering, and the respective psychosocial consequences pleasure and health could be interesting as communication content. However, the term heritage cereals consists of various cereals with different nutritional profiles. Thus, it is impossible to generalize health benefits for heritage cereals even if there are already confirmed health claims.

The German bakery Veit in Bempflingen has already successfully implemented bread made of heritage cereals in its product portfolio (Bäckerhaus Veit, 2023). It uses video graphic materials and pictures of grain fields on their website. In addition, there are banderoles applied on some products to inform the consumers at home and highlight the product at the counter. Further possible communication materials could be posters behind the counter and a corresponding highlight next to or around the price tag on the shelf. While ads are more effective when they only tell a single story, developing a campaign with more than one communication material can touch different aspects related to one topic (Reynolds et al., 2001). Therefore, it can be concluded that developing, for example, three different ads for consumers who value universalism could consist of the first story about preservation of heritage cereals and naturalness, the second story about the support of small businesses and handcraft and the maintaining/creation of jobs in the region and the third story about regionality and short transportation and environmental protection.

Limitations of the soft and hard laddering approach

Besides some similarities, the HVMs of the soft and hard laddering show differences because different laddering techniques lead to different results (Russell et al., 2004). Compared to the soft laddering approach, the hard laddering technique forces the respondents to produce ladders according to the MEC levels (Grunert et al., 2001). There might also be differences in the meaning that was assigned to words, when the interviews were coded, and how the laddering elements were interpreted by the respondents in the online survey. Furthermore, the type of aggregation chosen for the coding might have influenced the outcome (Kilwinger & van Dam, 2021). In addition, the respondents did not have the opportunity to go backwards and forwards between the levels in the hard laddering, while they could jump back-and-forth between thoughts during the soft laddering and readjust their initial ideas (Russell et al., 2004). The apparently most important differences between the hard and the soft laddering in this study are that the response options were presented in a closed-ended format and that the attribute heritage cereals was the fixed starting point in the hard laddering approach. Thereby, the hard laddering approach has the advantage of generating MEC data in a time- and cost-efficient way, but the disadvantage of obtaining superficial responses because participants only “recognize” reasons for purchasing bread made from heritage cereals (Phillips & Reynolds, 2009; Russell et al., 2004). This low involvement in answering rather complex questions has to be kept in mind when interpreting the results of the hard laddering. To minimize this effect both results of the soft and hard laddering should be considered when explaining purchase motives of bread made from heritage cereals and interpreting communication content for those.

Contribution of this study

This study adds to the literature, in that it reveals purchase motives for bread made from heritage cereals. The results of the hard laddering can further be used for developing communication strategies (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). Hence, the results provide a basis for marketing managers and agencies to develop creative communication materials. The combination of qualitative and quantitative research, respectively soft and hard laddering, allows for revealing unrestricted, in-depth answers and broader, more representative findings at the same time. Thereby, our study provides valuable input for the development of communication contents, which are essential for increasing consumer demand and facilitating in-situ preservation of heritage cereals.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung [2819OE135].

Appendix A

The different breads used for the triadic sorting:

Münster (Western Germany):

1. Organic rye mixed bread (consists of at least 50% and not more than 90% rye – no heritage variety; in German: Bio-Roggenmischbrot)

2. Bread made of North German Champagne rye (“champagne rye” is a heritage variety, which is grown in Northern Germany; in German: Norddeutsches Champagnerroggenbrot)

3. Whole-grain spelt bread (consists of at least 90% heritage spelt. variety is unspecified; in German: Urdinkel-Vollkornbrot)

Hamburg (Northern Germany):

1. Organic rye mixed bread (consists of at least 50% and not more than 90% rye – no heritage variety; in German: Bio-Roggenmischbrot)

2. Bread made of North German Champagne rye (“champagne rye” is a heritage variety, which is grown in Northern Germany; in German: Norddeutsches Champagnerroggenbrot)

3. Whole-grain spelt bread (consists of at least 90% heritage spelt. variety is unspecified; in German: Urdinkel-Vollkornbrot)

Munich (Southern Germany):

1. Organic wheat mixed bread (consists of at least 50% and not more than 90% wheat – no heritage variety; in German: Bio-Weizenmischbrot)

2. Crusty bread made of Laufener Landweizen (“Laufener Landweizen” is a heritage wheat variety in Southern Germany; in German: Laufener Landweizenkruste)

3. Whole-grain spelt bread (consists of at least 90% heritage spelt. variety is unspecified; in German: Urdinkel-Vollkornbrot)

Leipzig (Eastern Germany):

1. Organic wheat mixed bread (consists of at least 50% and not more than 90% wheat – no heritage variety; in German: Bio-Weizenmischbrot)

2. rusty bread made of Laufener Landweizen (“Laufener Landweizen” is a heritage wheat variety in Southern Germany; in German: Laufener Landweizenkruste)

3. Whole-grain spelt bread (consists of at least 90% heritage spelt. variety is unspecified; in German: Urdinkel-Vollkornbrot)

Appendix B

The elements used in the hard laddering and their origin.

Table

	Hard laddering – items included in survey	Items taken from the HVM of the soft laddering	Additional items added from the soft laddering codebook	Hard laddering – items appearing in final HVM (cut off level 100)
Functional consequences	Good taste	x		Good taste
	Good product quality		x	Good product quality
	Preservation of heritage cereals	x		Preservation of heritage cereals
	Good for the digestion	Good for the body		Good for the digestion
	Healthy and conscious diet	x		Healthy and conscious diet
	Support small business and handcraft	x		Support small business and handcraft
	Regionality and short transportation		x	Regionality and short transportation
	Biodiversity and species protection	x		Biodiversity and species protection
Psychosocial consequences	Treating oneself		x	Treating oneself
	Pleasure	x		Pleasure
	Variety and diversity	x		Variety and diversity
	Naturalness		x	Naturalness
	Health	x		Health
	Maintain/create jobs	x		Maintain/create jobs
	Environmental protection	x		Environmental protection
	Good working conditions for producers	x
	Emotional well-being	x
	Local food culture		x
	Healthy and attractive appearance		x
	Doing something good	x
	Role model for children		x
Values	Hedonism	x		Hedonism
	Tradition		x	Tradition
	Universalism	x		Universalism
	Security	x		Security
	Benevolence	x		Benevolence
	Stimulation	x
	Self-determination	x

Appendix C

Implication Matrix of the soft laddering for HVM.

Appendix D

Implication Matrix of the hard laddering for HVM (cut off level 100).