Tags:discrete choice experiment, organic food, strategic marketing and willingness to pay
Abstract:
This study contributes to research into consumer behavior in the food sector and examines the determinants of willingness to pay for organic products such as milk, meat, apples, potatoes and wine, which are permanently available on German markets for the fast-moving consumer goods sector. The aim of the study is to determine the willingness to pay and to show the influence of selected socio-economic variables on the preference structure. The authors conducted a discrete choice experiment to validly determine willingness to pay and socioeconomic determinants. 400 interviews were conducted with eight selection cards each, resulting in 3,200 data sets. The use of a multinomial and a latent class model provides information about the heterogeneity of variables within and between classes by creating classes based on statistically weighted sociodemographic characteristics. The results show significant influences of most attribute levels on the utility function in both models and a highly heterogeneous distribution of willingness to pay between the two classes. According to the authors' knowledge, the results provide information about the German market for intensively used organic products and can be used to optimize marketing concepts for grocery stores, especially on the German market.
Sustainable Consumer Behaviour in the Food Sector Using Germany as an Example