How does animal welfare taste? Combining sensory and choice experiments to evaluate willingness to pay for animal welfare pork

Although consumers show considerable interest in higher animal welfare, the market share for such products remains low. To provide consumers with a choice regarding different levels of animal welfare, animal welfare labels have been developed. Such product options are intended to serve as intermediate products between conventional products and more expensive organic options that are often associated with high animal welfare standards. This study aims to evaluate whether information about animal welfare practices affects consumers’ liking and willingness to pay (WTP) for a pork product. Using a within-subject design with three evaluation rounds (blind, expectation, and full information) we combine hedonic liking where subjects rate four different types of ham with a choice experiment. Hams differ in the animal husbandry conditions during the rearing and fattening process: conventional rearing, a specific treatment of mother sows, a general animal welfare label, and organic production. Results show an effect of information on consumers’ sensory evaluation of the different products, although products were evaluated to be similar in the blind condition. Consumers rated the organic product higher than those with animal welfare labels while the conventional option had the lowest liking scores. Results from the choice experiment concur with the hedonic rating. Estimates indicate that consumers are willing to pay more for ham bearing a general animal welfare or organic label in the expectation and full information condition. Consequently, information regarding animal welfare affects both consumers’ hedonic liking and WTP for ham.     

Are ethical consumption and charitable giving substitutes or not? Insights into consumers’ coffee choice

While charitable giving stagnates, Fair Trade and organic labelling as well as Cause-related Marketing campaigns are on the rise in Germany. The question as to whether the efficiency of the different systems is of relevance for consumers has received little attention in the literature so far. A latent class model for discrete choice analysis reveals five consumer segments with well distinguished preferences and willingness to pay measures for the modes of ethical consumption as well as for different donation amounts. For 27% of the 484 respondents ethical consumption occurs at the expense of other forms of ethical behaviour such as charitable giving.     

It’s not queasy being green: The role of disgust in willingness-to-pay for more sustainable product alternatives

Scholars differ in the extent to which they regard the “yuck factor” as an important predictor of sustainable consumption decisions. In the present decision experiment we tested whether people’s disgust traits predicted relative willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainable product alternatives, including atypically-shaped fruit and vegetables; insect-based food products; and medicines/drinks with reclaimed ingredients from sewage. In a community sample of 510 participants (255 women), using path analyses we examined the extent to which effects of disgust traits on WTP were mediated by cognitive appraisals of perceived taste, health risk, naturalness, visual appeal, and nutritional/medicinal value. Further, we assessed whether these effects were moderated by the tendency to regulate disgust using reappraisal and suppression techniques. Across all product categories, when controlling for important covariates such as pro-environmental attitudes, we found a significant negative effect of trait disgust propensity on WTP. In total, a 1 SD increase in participants’ disgust propensity scores predicted between 6% and 11% decrease in WTP. Appraisals of perceived naturalness, taste, health risk, and visual appeal significantly mediated these effects, differing in importance across the product categories, and explaining approximately half of the total effect of disgust propensity on WTP. Little-to-no support was found for moderation of effects by trait reappraisal or suppression. Individual differences in disgust are likely to be a barrier for certain viable sustainable alternatives to prototypical products. Marketing interventions targeting consumer appraisals, including in particular the perceived naturalness and taste, of these kinds of products may be effective.     

Role of sustainability attributes and occasion matters in determining consumers’ beef choice

This study aims to evaluate the influence of socio-environmental attributes on the purchase intention of and the willingness to pay for beef, based on data from Brazilian consumers, using a discrete choice analysis model. Different consumption situations were analysed to check the influence of functional versus recreational/hedonic beef choice. Sixteen (16) hypothetical products were generated in eight (8) scenarios regarding the different socio-environmental attributes of beef. The findings confirm the importance of animal welfare and traceability in the decision-making process for beef purchase. The frequency of consumption, gender, and the presence of a known/familiar brand also influence the beef choice when making a functional (day-to-day) purchase, compared to a recreational/hedonic (barbecue) purchase. The study suggests that the beef industry and retailers should better explore various aspects of greenhouse gas emissions and animal welfare and highlight them in their communication strategies. Investigating the trade-offs between socio-environmental attributes allows a more in-depth evaluation of these attributes and contributes to the literature.     

A stated preference analysis comparing the Analytical Hierarchy Process versus Choice Experiments

Our paper compares individual preferences for attributes and levels of an agro-food product using two different methodologies. A key question is whether different results are obtained when asking consumers what they “prefer” versus what they would “buy”. Within this context, we compare empirical results obtained from Choice Experiments (CE) versus the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) due to their capacity to simulate the “purchasing” and “theoretical” stated preferences, respectively. We utilize a survey of restaurateurs’ stated preferences to include rabbit meat in their menus in Catalonia (Spain) in this exploratory study. Results demonstrate similarities and differences in the stated preferences for attributes and attribute levels with a 55.6% coincidence in their ranking between methods. Utility variation between levels in both approaches follows a similar shape for two of the three analyzed attributes.     

Socio-economic factors affecting consumer behaviour for United States and Spanish beef under different information scenarios

This study analyzes the results of taste tests on US and Spanish-produced beef conducted with a Spanish consumer panel. The objective is to explore variation in the sensory and market evaluations of the beef products in relation to a series of socio-economic factors. The tasters are assigned to one of three different experimental scenarios based on the amount of product information disclosed. The results show that consumers’ evaluations differ according to the degree of product information provided and that the socio-economic factors with most effect on consumers’ evaluations were gender, age, and education level. Thus, the higher educated, higher income consumers reveal a preference for intrinsic attributes and for the US beef, as long as they are unaware of its foreign origin.     

Extrinsic and intrinsic quality cues in Chinese consumers’ purchase of pork ribs

Due to the ongoing changes from traditional open markets to Western style supermarkets in China, Chinese consumers have the opportunity to base their decisions increasingly on extrinsic quality cues like brand, safety certification and origin, in addition to the traditional intrinsic quality cues like color and fat. This study investigates choice of fresh pork by Chinese consumers employing a pairwise choice methodology. Latent class analysis shows that for the majority of consumers intrinsic cues are still dominating the choice, and only for a small segment did information on brand, origin and quality certification have a major role. Also, there was a segment of consumers that did seem to make random choices. The results indicate that Chinese consumers are still in a transitory phase, where they are building up competencies in handling product information while the sector struggles to build credibility and trust.     

Examining heterogeneity in elderly consumers’ acceptance of carriers for protein-enriched food: A segmentation study

Elderly face an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies due to reduced appetites and increased nutritional needs. The development of appealing enriched functional foods holds a great potential for improving the nutritional status of this group of consumers. However, the elderly population is strongly heterogeneous, which poses a challenge to fulfilling their nutritional needs. Therefore, this study aimed to illustrate and examine the heterogeneity in elderly consumers’ acceptance of carriers for enrichment. In an online survey, respondents (N = 303, M_age = 66.9) were asked to rate their willingness to trial purchase a set of carriers enriched with protein, that varied systematically in terms of healthiness (healthy vs. unhealthy), novelty (novel vs. traditional), and meal type (meal component vs. snack). Overall, respondents reported low willingness to purchase protein-enriched foods and indicated that they preferred to consume more protein-rich conventional foods, should they need to increase their protein intake. The identification of heterogeneity in carrier acceptance, especially regarding product novelty and meal type, suggested that there was room for improvement in product acceptance. Indeed, willingness to trial and repeat purchase protein-enriched carriers were considerably higher for product formats that were tailored to six subgroup of respondents. These findings underline the merits of taking heterogeneity into account when commercialising functional foods among elderly. Future studies may want to look into additional ways to reduce scepticism among elderly regarding the use of enriched food.     

Personality traits and preferences for production method labeling – A latent class approach

Consumers are increasingly concerned about food production methods. In this research, we focus on GMO-free and pesticide-free labeling for Medjool dates, a fruit that has recently received more attention due to its nutritious properties. In addition to accounting for preferences, we choose a latent class approach to explain choice behavior among different consumer segments. We focus on personality traits because personality can explain preference heterogeneity, and can be utilized for marketing activities. Findings indicate that consumer preferences are different across segments and can be described with personality traits. Openness, neuroticism and agency are associated with a preference for production method labeling, but not region of origin. Extraversion fosters preferences for more labels, while conscientiousness leads to a restricted choice pattern. Agreeableness did not discriminate choice behavior. Marketers and policy makers can use these insights to design activities in alignment with the target segments’ prevalent personality traits.     

Consumer willingness to pay for quality attributes of fresh seafood: A labeled latent class model

We applied a labeled choice experiment (LCE) to investigate consumer demand and choice behavior for fresh seafood in a retail market. The LCE was conducted for a large number of seafood alternatives (i.e., seafood species) labeled by the respective seafood name (e.g., cod, salmon, mussels). Consumer heterogeneity in preference was expressed by estimating a labeled latent class model with alternative-specific effects, which varies choice probability and model parameters over seafood alternatives and across classes. The willingness to pay (WTP) for extrinsic attributes (e.g., product form, production method, and country of origin), and the rank ordered-intrinsic value were estimated for each seafood alternative within classes and the entire market. The WTP estimate in our study is expected to be more accurate than those derived from studies based on single product alternatives because the LCE allows respondents to evaluate choice alternatives through both attribute judgment and alternative comparison. Exploring a variety of product alternatives is also meaningful to firms with multiple products (e.g., fresh seafood retailers) or firms with many direct competitors.     

Do health claims add value to nutritional claims? Evidence from a close-to-real experiment on breakfast biscuits

Nutritional claims (NCs) and health claims (HCs) on food products have been introduced as interpretative aids to simplify the information provided on food labelling. However, HCs have been criticised for being unappealing and an information overload on food packages. We aimed to explore whether adding a HC to the associated NC is a good strategy or information overload in a close-to-real non-hypothetical choice experiment with real products and real payments. Consumers’ valuation of two NCs and HCs in breakfast biscuits is measured in two treatments. Treatment A communicates NCs and tests for the external ecological validity of the experiment, while treatment B communicates both, the NC and the associated HC. Results from the willingness to pay estimates showed that consumers are willing to pay premiums for the fat-related HC in addition to the NC while not for the claims related to the fibre content.     

Food choices: What do we learn from combining sensory and economic experiments?

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how sensory and experimental economics techniques can be combined in protocols for investigating the influence of food product characteristics and information on consumers’ preferences. Preferences are measured through willingness to pay (WTP) which is elicited by means of incentive mechanisms including real sales of the tested products. After a quick review of incentive mechanisms used in experimental economics, the protocol is described and illustrated by examples from different studies on WTP for wines.