Consumer attitude towards purchasing intent for ready to drink orange juice and nectar Alessandra Ferrarezi Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Sa ˜ o Paulo State University-UNESP, Araraquara, Brazil Vale ´ria Paula Minim Department of Food Technology, Federal University of Vic ¸osa, Vic ¸osa, Brazil Karina Maria dos Santos Embrapa – Goats and Sheep, Sobral, Brazil, and Magali Monteiro Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Sa ˜ o Paulo State University-UNESP, Araraquara, Brazil Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the impact of some labeling aspects on the consumer intent to purchase ready to drink orange juice and nectar. Design/methodology/approach – The influence of label information on the consumer intent to purchase was evaluated by conjoint analysis using a convenience sample (n ¼ 149). A factorial design with four characteristics, price, brand, information about the product and kind of beverage, was used. Three levels were established for brand and product information, and two for price and kind of beverage. Findings – Low price, product information and market leading brand had positive impact. “No preservatives/natural” was the information that most influenced consumer’s purchase intent. The ideal label showed the leading brand, low price and information “no preservatives/natural”. These results could be useful for strategic planning of consumer instruction and have important implications for Brazilian orange juice manufactures. Originality/value – Although the most widely consumed beverages in Brazil are ready to drink orange juice and nectar, it was unexpected that consumers did not know the differences between them and that kind of beverage was not an important factor for the purchase decision. Keywords Consumer attitude, Intent to purchase, Label information, Conjoint analysis, Ready to drink orange juice, Orange nectar, Consumer behaviour, Labelling Paper type Research paper Introduction The consumption of ready to drink fruit juice follows the worldwide trend of consuming healthy food. This contributes to the expansion of the orange juice industry in many countries, particularly in Brazil where the most widely consumed beverages are ready to drink orange juice and nectar. According to the Brazilian legislation industrially produced orange juice is a drink that is either directly obtained from the fruit, or reconstituted from concentrated juice until reaching the soluble solids contents of the The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0034-6659.htm Nutrition & Food Science Vol. 43 No. 4, 2013 pp. 304-312 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0034-6659 DOI 10.1108/NFS-03-2012-0021 NFS 43,4 304