Vilken funktion fyller ICA I Iove eco? - En studie av hur en miljömärkning kan användas och påverka sin omgivning i en livsmedelsbutik.

Sammanfattning: The choices costumers make in the supermarket can influence to what extent food production is sustainable. There is also a growing pressure on retailers to step up and enable and encourage sustainable choices for the costumer. The purpose of the study is twofold: first, to understand the function(s) the brand ‘ICA I love eco’ fills in by looking into how this brand is used in a supermarket in order to understand the retailers’ motivations, and more generally, second, to understand better what role green food labels may play in society. The study has the following research questions: (i) what function does Ica I love eco fulfill for the supermarket? and (ii) how can green marketing and green labelling like the brand ICA I Love eco contribute to a more sustainable food consumption in Sweden? The brand is studied through interviews and observations, and a review of previous literature on the subject. This study shows that the brand has a role to play in the supermarket. It is used to display a wide and diversified assortment, it satisfies the demand for organic food made by costumers and it is also used as an attempt to make organic food more cost effective. This study also shows that there is a discrepancy between the expressed will of consumers, to be more environmentally friendly, and their actual behavior in the store, not buying environmentally friendly food. A brand like I love eco, that is relatively easy to market and simple for the consumer to understand, could help with this problem. The risk is though, that it instead leads to choice overload.