INFORMATION TOUCHPOINTS AND CONSUMER SHARING INTENTION OF HERBAL HEALTH DRINKS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS BASED ON CONJOINT ANALYSIS AND SEM

Abstract

Against the trend of light health consumption among Generation Z, herbal drinks with medicinal-edible homology have gradually become popular campus consumer goods. To reveal the information communication logic and internal psychological mechanism of college students' consumption decision, this paper takes undergraduates from five universities in Ningxia as research objects. A mixed research method combining questionnaire survey, semi-structured interview, choice-based conjoint analysis and structural equation model (SEM) is adopted. This study constructs a mediating framework of "information touchpoint-trust/risk perception-sharing intention". The results show that peer recommendation is the primary information access channel (30.6%). Trust perception plays a significant positive mediating role, while risk perception inhibits consumers' sharing behavior. Among all product attributes, information transparency (product traceability and test reports) has the highest weight of 28.4%, and consumers are willing to pay an extra premium of 2.7–3.2 yuan for transparent labeling. Group robustness test verifies the stability of the theoretical model. This research supplements the empirical evidence of touchpoint theory in youth health consumption and provides targeted marketing strategies for herbal beverage brands targeting campus markets.