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Using a nationwide survey, we characterize the ways in which U.S. households spent their economic impact payments (EIPs) and investigate changes in household food purchasing in response to COVID-19. Most consumers allocated a significant fraction of their EIPs to food, with an increase in spending on canned food, dry goods, and snacks.

Presentation ID 15502

The technological shock from the methyl bromide phase-out and the intense competition from Mexico have posed serious threats and challenges to the Florida tomato industry. This paper provides the struggling US tomato industry with marketing information to understand consumer demand and willingness to pay for local (Florida/US) tomatoes versus non-local (Mexico) tomatoes. In addition, the effect of three market strategies on consumer preferences for Florida/US versus Mexico tomatoes is also studied. A mall intercept survey experiment using the contingent valuation method to interview 632 participants was conducted to determine US consumer’s perception about country of origin labeling, consumption pattern, demand, and willingness to pay for Florida/US and Mexico tomatoes.

Impulsive purchase is defined as a consumer’s unplanned buying behavior, which is of significance in marketing and consumer behavior. They usually occur when consumers experience a sudden urge to purchase something immediately without additional substantive evaluation, and execute based upon that urge. This study exams the influence of shopping companions upon consumers, with a particular focus on impulsive behavior. Previous literature has indicated a significant correlation between emotion and consumer final purchase decisions. However, few researchers before conducted the study studied the influence of various companions and their influence on consumers impulsive purchasing. Around 2,400 participants joined in this survey, gave their responses of most frequent grocery shopping companions and usual responses to the suggestions from these companions. In addition, participants’ impulsiveness, emotion, and emotional level were tested and corresponding index was created. Results indicate that dad/mom and wife/husband were the two most frequent and influential grocery shopping companions. Participants were very likely to accept the impulsive suggestions from these two groups. As for the regression, multiple factors were found significant, while the results diverse when applying to different shopping companion groups.

This study exams consumers’ Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for eco-labeled fresh produce under the influence of emotion. Previous literature has indicated a significant correlation between emotion and consumer final purchase decisions. However, few researchers conducted the study within the context of eco-labeled products. In this paper, about 2,500 participants were asked to evaluate four different types of eco-labeled fresh strawberries in terms of WTP. Respondents’ emotion and changes in emotion after a stimulus were measured. Contingent valuation method was used to estimate consumers’ WTP. Multivariate tobit model and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) were used to estimate the effect of emotion on consumers’ WTP for eco-labeled products. Results show that emotion has a significant positive effect on consumers’ WTP for GMO-free, organic and natural products. Meanwhile, it also has a significant positive impact on the WTP premium for these three products and locally produced products as well, using conventional counterpart as the base.

In recent years more attention has been placed to the use of “geographical origin” labels by regulators, marketers, and consumers for food products, largely due to increased incidences of food related scares and the shift of traditional agricultural price-support programs to promotion of value-added and high quality products via labels and certifications (Unterschultz 1998; Gilmore 2002; Clemens and Babcock 2004; Menapace et. al, 2011). The underline economic motivation of product labeling is to facilitate the resolution of market failures associated with high-quality product under asymmetric information (Akelof, 1970). Because geography is often correlated with a product’s overall quality, “geographical origin” labels is perceived by consumer as a signal of quality, especially under situations of lacking prior consumption experience or the quality of the product is not easily observable. Market failures due to asymmetric information are often seen when high-quality products enter into “new markets” where recognition rates among consumers are low. As western countries remain mired post financial turmoil, the continuous economic growth in emerging markets have made emerging markets increasingly relevant to international producers and marketers. One significant challenge in these “new markets” is that many of the renowned national or regional brands are new to consumers. Under this situation, the use of “geographical origin” labels for new comers to overcome asymmetric information problem in emerging markets plays an important role. The European Union has long policy tradition to support “geographical origin” labels of member and finance product promotions to third countries. Over the past fifteen years, around €50 million was provided by the European commission annually in terms of co-financing of promotional programs, 10% of which has been used for supporting “geographical origin” labels. China, the world’s largest economy and the most populous nation, holds significant opportunities for international producers and exporters. However, with intense competitions from both domestic and international players, promoting international products in China is no easy task. One recent promotional program carried out by the European Commission was the launch of a ‘Tastes of Europe’ campaign in China in May 2015. The campaign aims to create awareness among the Chinese consumers about the characteristics and benefits of Geographical Indications for food products as a guarantee of authenticity, quality and safety, and ultimately to drive consumer purchase of these products. Yet in order to gain broader consumer recognition, an “umbrella” message, i.e., “Taste of Europe”, was used to carry a generic geographical origin message to reach consumers (EU Commission, 2015) . There are a few key questions to ask under this situation: For policy makers, whether such generic origin message can carry sufficient value to promote member country products, which essentially validate the effectiveness of the policy. For producers and marketers in member countries, what are the advantages and disadvantages to be associated with the European umbrella message, and whether the use of generic regional labeling compliments or compromises country specific labeling? Answers to the above questions rely on the evaluation of consumer response to the product quality signals associated with different geographical origin messages. A consumer survey on geographic labeling for imported dairy products was carried out in Beijing, China in May 2015 to tackle above-mentioned questions. We chose dairy research product for this study for several considerations: the strategic importance of dairy products to EU exporters and policy makers; the unsettled debate on mandatory COO labeling for dairy products; the leading role of China as a key emerging market for global dairy exporters; and the increased opportunity for international dairy exporters to use COO labels as quality signals in China market. One contribution of the paper is the comparison of the COO effect between generic regional label and country specific origin label. Under the “products of EU” range, we used “product of Ireland” as a case study for the country specific origin label. Information on consumer demographic, dairy consumption, safety perceptions, knowledge on Ireland and Irish products, as well as willingness to pay (WTP) for different geographic labeling and product attributes were collected through 307 face-to-face interviews. WTP was elicited using double-bounded contingent valuation method, and estimated with maximum log-likelihood function. Our study showed slightly higher consumer WTP for “product of EU” label compared to “product of Ireland” label, which seems to suggest the use of EU label as quality signal adds value to Irish products. But we also found that consumers have much higher WTP for grass-fed and sustainable dairy production, compared to product of EU labeling. Grass-fed dairy production and agricultural sustainability are two main characteristics of Irish dairy industry, yet such characteristics of Irish dairy are not registered in Chinese consumers’ minds. Using EU label may have an immediate value to promote Irish products, however our study suggested that promoting country specific origin labeling with product differentiation and brand establishment can be more beneficial in the long run. Although the study uses only one country as an example to evaluate and compare the generic origin labeling and country specific labeling, the study holds broader implication for many other countries, products, and marketers facing similar challenges.

Food consumption has significant impact on sodium intake, with which overconsumption will result in negative healthy impact on individuals. Using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2010 and regression analyses, we examined the effect of consumption of various food groups on the sodium intake of American adults (19 years of age or older) and changes in the impacts of various food consumption on sodium intake over the study period. The impact of respondents’ demographics are also considered. Results demonstrate that per calorie consumption of oils, fruits, fruit juices, fruit products, sugars and sweets, deep-yellow vegetables and beverages and water have no significant impact on individuals’ sodium intake. Milk and milk products and cakes contain less sodium per calorie, while fish, tomatoes, other types of meat products, dark-green vegetables, crackers and cheese contain higher sodium per calorie. The contribution of almost half of the food groups to individuals’ sodium intake remain unchanged over years.

Concerns about environmental degeneration due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have grown as farmers have increased reliance on these chemicals to maintain or increase crop yields. Although there are a variety of governmental programs that encourage farmers to adopt practices using less fertilizers and pesticides, many growers continue using conventional production methods in part because the economic benefits of using more environmentally sensitive techniques remains unproven or elusive for farmers. Exploring consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for fresh produce carrying labels describing various environmental benefits is one important aspect in assessing the potential that growers will adopt environmentally sound production techniques. Given that sustainable production practices may have different environmental benefits, differentiating consumer WTP for specific benefits may provide critical information for developing more effective labels and help growers more appropriately label products produced with environmental friendly techniques.

Willingness to pay (WTP) has been one of the most widely used methodologies to reveal consumer preference. In this study, we assess the consumer's preference for several types of fresh strawberry, including organic, locally produced, naturally grown, GMO-free, and estimate the corresponding WTP through the method of open-ended contingent valuation (CV). Results showed that although consumers generally preferred locally produced and naturally grown over organic, however, WTP for organic was oppositely higher than locally produced and naturally grown. Furthermore, this disparity was indicated not to be homogenous across all regions based on our national survey.

While federal rules require specific meat and poultry products to carry nutrition information labeling, these rules do not extend to fresh seafood products. This paper focuses on the extent to which the provision of nutrition information could impact consumer demand for seafood, with a special focus on parents with children, who influence the food preferences of future generations. Using a choice experiment, we found that providing nutrition information similar to the nutrition facts panel increased the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for all types of seafood studied; whereas information on the health benefit of Omega-3 fatty acids increased the MWTP for some types of seafood. This finding can inform the industry and policy-makers on the potential impact of introducing nutrition labels for raw seafood.

It is increasingly recognized that respondents use simple heuristics such as attribute non-attendance to make decisions in the discrete choice experiments. This paper use the latent class model to investigate different choice strategies and explore robust welfare estimates under varying attribute information load. We find that respondents are more likely to rely on simple heuristics to make choices when information load increases. Reinforcing previous findings, we also observe that willingness-to-pay estimates decrease, with and without accounting for attribute non-attendance.

This article examines consumers’ preference for three types of orange juice in China. Two non-hypothetical experiments, Real Choice Experiments and Experimental Auctions were used in the study. We found that WTP estimates from real choice experiment are significantly higher than auction bids, which is consistent with what Lusk and Schroeder (2006) and Gracia, Loureiro, and Nayga (2011) found in their paper. In addition, we found that purchase intention only has significantly effects on consumers’ behavior in Experimental Auction, but not in Real Choice Experiments, and this purchase intention only has effects on non-novel food, but not novel food.

Few studies have been performed to use the detailed healthy eating index (HEI) to estimate consumer demand for diet quality. In this article, we apply household production theory to systematically estimate consumer demand for diet quality using the HEI developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The results show that consumers have insufficient consumption of food containing dark green and orange vegetables, legumes and whole grains. Age and education have a significant impact on consumer demand for diet quality, but income does not. The own-price elasticities of demand for diet quality are inelastic. Simulation of tax scenarios indicates that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverage may be more efficient than a tax on fats, oils and salad dressing in improving consumer diet quality. This information is critical for policies and programs that are designed to improve healthy food choices, thereby reducing the social cost of public health.

The rapid income per capita of Chinese consumers and increasing demand for nearly all agricultural products have attracted western food industries to focus on this booming and huge market. This research investigated the perspectives of western food products in China's market, with focus on one representative western food-orange juice, by studying the Chinese consumer knowledge, perceptions, and willingness to pay (WTP) for different types of orange juice products. Though the Chinese consumers' willingness to pay for 100 % juice exceeded the 10% juice as expected, it would not have been persuasive to conclude meaningful to develop the 100 % juice market in China unless the WTP is around the actual market price.

A survey with validation question was delivered to 3475 respondents to study the impact of using validation question to improve data quality. Results show that The respondents who passed the validation question had significantly older ages, higher median incomes and higher education levels. The WTP estimates with and without the respondents who fails the validation question differ significantly.

In this study, we conduct a series of BDM auctions at multiple marketing outlets to elicit consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic and local blueberries. We find that consumers’ attitudes and their reported valuation of organic and local production of blueberries vary across different types of marketing outlets. Participants’ purchase intentions are controlled in the auction process to see how participants’ purchase intentions for the auctioned product affect their partial bids (WTP for an additional attribute) as well as full bids (WTP for the auctioned product). The results suggest that purchase intention affects full bids, but not partial bids.

Rapid growth has been observed in the fresh blueberry market since 2000, but at the same time, there is no obvious consumption increase in the market for frozen blueberries. In this study, we analyze the different consumer structures in the fresh and frozen blueberry markets by classifying consumers into “buyers”, “potential buyers” and “non-buyers” of blueberries. A double hurdle count data model is used. The results show that while the fresh blueberry market is mainly composed of buyers, most of the consumers in the frozen blueberry market are non-buyers. The difference in growth trends may be due to the fact that it is more difficult to convert non-buyers to buyers than to increase consumption of buyers., Replaced with revised version of paper 07/14/11.

Another version will replace the current draft

A stated preference experiment is conducted to elicit consumer WTPs for various blueberry attributes. The mixed logit model is employed to account for consumer heterogeneity. The model is set up in the WTP space where the distributions of WTPs are directly specified. Considering the high diversity of consumer perception and the remarkable benefits from differential marketing, we apply the hierarchical Bayesian approach and the discussion is based on the individual level WTP estimates. The results show that “local produced” attribute is preferred over simply “produced in the U.S.” by most respondents. By contrast, less than 50% of the respondents are willing to pay premium for organic blueberries. In addition, hardly any relationship between demographics and WTPs is detected. Demographic information seems to have little explanation power for consumer perception in small purchases like fruits or vegetables. In this light, the hierarchical Bayesian approach is critical to the practice of differential marketing strategies.

In the last twenty years, trends within fresh fruit consumption have shifted from consumption of fresh citrus to non-citrus fresh fruit. Within citrus, consumers are switching from the traditionally dominant fruit, oranges, to tangerines. Using survey results from three cities in the U.S. on consumer preferences for fresh citrus products, we demonstrate that freshness, flavor and appearance are the most important attributes of fresh citrus. Heterogeneous preferences exist among consumers and both demographic and behavioral variables have significant impacts on preferences. Results indicate there are no dominant best predictors of consumer preferences. However, it appears there is potential to develop specific marketing strategies based on demographics., www.ifama.org

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/20/10.

In the main approaches used to elicit consumer preference for food attributes, only limited attribute information are present. Though useful for ranking and revealing consumer preferences, these methods are not appropriate when results may be dependent upon the information set presented in the surveys. Studies have found out that additional quality information in surveys significantly affected respondents’ attitudes to or WTP for a specific product attributes. By using cluster analysis we are able to classify respondents into different consumer groups and investigate the difference in responses to new attribute information across consumer groups. Results show that different types of consumer’s WTP for beef steak attributes varies significantly and their responses to new attribute information are different, if a specific attribute is studied. Over all, there was no significant difference between the responses to new information between consumer groups. However, in the case where cue attributes existed, consumers with small family size, less children, lower income, are single and younger, respond significantly intensive to the new information than other consumers.