Consumer Trust and Ethical Marketing Claims in Alliance-Branded Products: A Study of Nigerian Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Manufacturing Companies

Abstract

This research is to investigate the impact of ethical marketing claims on consumer trust in alliance-branded products in Nigerian Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) manufacturing companies. The growing usage of alliance branding and ethical marketing is increasing the demand to examine if ethical claims really affect consumers’ trust in alliance brands. The research was quantitative and cross-sectional surveys were used. This study used primary data obtained by way of structured questionnaires administered to consumers of alliance branded FMCG products in selected commercial cities in Nigeria applying the multistage sampling technique. A total of 274 valid responses were retrieved and analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 29 from the 385 questionnaires distributed. A simple linear regression analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis at 5% level of significance. Results: The result showed no statistically significant relationship between ethical marketing claims and consumer trust (R = 0.020, R² = 0.000, F = 0.106, p = 0.745), signifying those ethical claims did not significantly affect consumers' trust in decisions alone. It is the Nigerian consumers who are now holding the view that they are looking for genuine, clear and verifiable ethical actions and not just about promotional ethical messages. It should be suggested for the FMCG companies to increase transparency through third-party certification, sustainability reporting based on evidence, adherence to regulations and ethical actions on a compliance to improve the credibility of alliance-branded product and to sustainable trust of consumer. The study adds to ethical marketing and alliance branding literature by showing that trust derived from credibility and observable ethical actions, rather than ethical claims, is a more powerful influencer of consumer trust in the context of emerging markets.