Does product certification matter? A review of mechanism to influence customer loyalty in the poultry feed industry

Feed certification is released by authorized third parties as external cues indicating that products have met standard quality. However, farmers do not always take certification as the main consideration in product selection because of insufficient knowledge or they are skeptical about certification. This research aims to analyze the effect of feed certification, company image, opinion leader, perceived product quality, customer trust, and satisfaction to layer farmers’ customer loyalty. Respondents were selected by using purposive sampling with the criteria that respondents were layer farmers with experience for at least 1 year and customers of concentrate or ready-made feed. Data were collected by using questionnaire and analyzed with the partial least square. Results show that feed certification influenced perceived product quality with = 0.127 and ≤ 0.1; then, company image and opinion leader influenced perceived product quality with, = 0.690 and = 0.157 at ≤ 0.05. Perceived product quality affected customer trust ( = 0.699, ≤ 0.01) and customer satisfaction ( = 0.689, ≤ 0.05). Then, customer trust and customer satisfaction positively influenced customer loyalty with = 0.507, and = 0.414 at ≤ 0.01. Research findings indicated that feed certification was considered by layer farmers in feed purchasing behavior. However, company image was played as the most important factor among opinion leader and feed certification. These results implied that besides maintaining company image and the role of opinion leaders, feed mills and authorized institutions still urge to promote the importance of certification as product quality indicator.