Information quality: meeting the needs of the consumer

Given the current needs of consumers for a guarantee of safety that brands and labelling do not necessarily give them, as well as the irrelevance of a great deal of the information that is given to them, good quality informat ion is becoming a necessary prerequisite for the setting-up of an active pa rtnership between supplier and consumer. An active partnership of this kind , based on joint production of quality information, can encourage mutual un derstanding and lead to the development of trust and of consumer loyalty. T he use of various quality symbols devised and conferred by a third-party or ganism may, in this case, help to reinforce a bond of trust that has alread y been established. However, trust can only develop in the course of a long -term relation, following on from a "learning process". In this case, quali ty information, co-produced jointly by the supplier and the consumer, makes for more efficient information, and leads to a better understanding and fu lfilment of consumer needs. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.