MARKETING RESEARCH FOR FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS: CONSUMER TASTES AND PREFERENCES

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1002794
• Project Start Date: Mar 31, 2014
• Project End Date: Mar 15, 2019
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611

Performing Department
Food and Resource Economics

Non Technical Summary
Understanding more about the factors that influence consumers' subjective perceptions about food consumption will allow agribusinesses, agricultural producers, and policy makers to respond more effectively to consumer concerns. This project is designed to improve our understanding of the effects of consumer tastes and preferences, including food safety, on Florida agriculture.

Animal Health Component

50%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

40%

Applied

50%

Developmental

10%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
604	0999	3010	60%
607	0810	3010	30%
703	1129	3010	10%

Knowledge Area
703 - Nutrition Education and Behavior; 607 - Consumer Economics; 604 - Marketing and Distribution Practices;

Subject Of Investigation
0810 - Finfish; 1129 - Berries and cane fruits, general/other; 0999 - Citrus, general/other;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;

Keywords

consumer preferences

consumer attitudes

florida

focus groups

surveys

Goals / Objectives
The proposed research is designed to improve our understanding of the effects of consumer attitudes and preferences on Florida agriculture through the analysis of consumer attitudes, preferences, knowledge, networks, and culture. Example commodities to be studied include citrus, other fruits, and seafood. Other commodities produced by Florida growers could also be considered. This information will be used to: 1) analyze consumer attitudes towards characteristics of Florida agricultural products; 2) examine potential for growth of Florida agriculture due to changes in tastes and preferences; 3) examine the impact of health and nutrition perceptions and knowledge on Florida agriculture; 4) examine the impact of social networks on demand for agricultural products; 5) develop an understanding of consumers for marketing and management purposes; 6) investigate the use and quality of survey research data; and 7) to evaluate the impacts of potential and existing government food and nutrition policy on consumers and producers.

Project Methods
The primary purpose of this work is to gather information needed to understand the dynamic nature of consumer attitudes and preferences. These objectives will likely involve consumer focus groups, surveys, and experimental auctions for data collection. Information collected from consumers, as well as other information that may be collected from producers will be used to address many questions, such as: what drives consumers to make their purchase decisions; what affect does publicity on food issues (i.e. obesity and biotechnology) have on consumption; how do consumers select new food products; and what effect producers and agribusinesses can have on consumer attitudes. Information will be collected through a variety of methods. Contingent valuation surveys are often used to collect information on willingness to pay for products. The specific configuration of surveys will often be developed through exploratory research based focus groups (Krueger and Casey, 2008; Mitchell and Carson, 1989). Focus groups are a reasonably efficient qualitative market research technique in which a group of eight to ten participants of common demographics, attitude or purchase pattern, are led through a discussion of a particular topic within a specified period of time (usually one to two hours) by a skilled moderator. The moderator will be guided by a formal, written moderator guide, which outlines the general path of the discussion. Experimental methods can also be used to determine the value consumers place on these types of products. Experimental methods have advantages over typical survey methods (Fox et al., 1995) when attempting to elicit willingness to pay measures. With experimental methods, as opposed to survey techniques, the incentive structure is designed such that participants will reveal their true valuation of a good (Shogren et al., 1994). Online surveying will also be used to gather information from consumers. Online surveys hosted by panel companies have become more popular due to their low cost of administration, and their ability to reach a significant percent of the U.S. population. Traditionally, phone surveys were used to reach random samples of the U.S. population. However, recent studies indicate that more than one-third of households rely completely on wireless phones, which are typically excluded from phone sample frames (Blumberg and Luke, 2012). One drawback of using internet panels is the volunteer nature of recruiting panelists, allowing no basis to calculate sampling error. Instead, a completion rate is typically calculated based on those that enter the first question of the survey compared to those that complete the survey.Depending on the data collected, an appropriate econometric modeling technique will be applied to analyze the data and draw conclusions from the research. Often, a Cragg double-hurdle model is used in these types of analyses as this model can address a two-part decision (Haines et al. 1988). Most consumer surveys and experimental auctions will involve questions that examine why a consumer will choose whether or not to purchase a good, as well as if they do purchase the good, what affects the quantity they choose to consume. Because of this dual-level decision, a model such as the Cragg double-hurdle is often the appropriate method for analyzing consumer data. Other research involves the use of choice experiments and most often is analyzed with multinomial logit methods. Appropriate methods, and examination and comparison of these methods will be used based on the type of data collected.

Progress 03/31/14 to 03/15/19

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes Florida agriculture producers and processors. In addition, academic audiences in agricultural economics and related fields are included. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In all stages, graduate students and/or post-docs were involved in data collection, analysis, writing, and presenting. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results were presented at grower meetings, academic meetings, and through refereed journal articles and extension documents. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Throughout the project, we conducted multiple research studies investigating consumer preferences and opinions for food and agricultural products, especially those produced in the US. In addition, we investigated ways to improve the quality of data collected for these studies.

Publications

Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes Florida agriculture producers and processors, specifically the citrus, fruit, and seafood industries. In addition, academic audiences in agricultural economics and related fields are included. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate students and post-docs have been involved in all stages of research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations have been given at both professional meetings and meetings with producers and interested parties. Publications have been placed in academic journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I plan to continue research on topics related to Florida products and consumer perceptions. In particular, we will focus on consumer opinion and willingness to pay for agricultural products given different production technologies.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research during this period focused on consumer perception of citrus and consumer perception of production methods. In one study, we exasmined the market for orange juice through a case study analysis, in another, we examined how trade agreements impact US exports of orange juice. These studies, among others, propvide information to the industry that aids in future marketing decisions.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Trejo-Pech, C., T. Spreen, and L. House (2018). Floridas Natural and the Supply of Florida Oranges. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 21(3):437-454.

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes Florida agriculture producers and processors, specifically the citrus, fruit, and seafood industries. In addition, academic audiences in agricultural economics and related fields are included Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate students and post-docs have been involved in all stages of research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations have been given at both professional meetings and meetings with producers and interested parties. Publications have been placed in academic journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I plan to continue research on topics related to Florida products and consumer perceptions. In particular, we will focus on consumer opinion and willingness to pay for state-labeled products, as well as continue to focus on consumer perception of technology in agricultural production.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research during this period focused on consumer perception of blueberries, orange juice, and seafood, as well as continuing to focus on the impact of data quality in online surveys. In one study,we investigated how consumers would react to nutritional information on fresh seafood products. We focused on parents of young children as they set tastes and preferences for future consumers. We found that providing nutritional information similar to the nutrition facts panel increased marginal willingness to pay for all types of seafood studied. Information provided about health benefits of seafood only was effective for certain types of seafood.?

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Bi, X., L. House, and Z. Gao (2016) Impacts of Nutrition Information on Choices of Fresh Seafood Among Parents Marine Resource Economics, 31(3):355-372.

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes Florida agriculture producers and processors, specifically the citrus, fruit, and seafood industries. In addition, academic audiences in agricultural economics and related fields are included. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate students and post-doctoral associates have been involved in all stages of this research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations have been given at both professional meetings and meetings with producers and interested parties. Publications have been placed in academic journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I plan to continue research on topics related to Florida products and consumer perceptions. In particular, we will focus on consumer opinion and willingness to pay for state-labeled products, as well as continue to focus on consumer perception of technology in agricultural production.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research during this period focused on consumer perception of blueberries, orange juice, and seafood, as well as continuing to focus on the impact of data quality in online surveys. In one study, we investigated how location of data collection impactwillingness to pay for organic or local blueberries. In this study, data was collected via an experimental auction held at different types of locations (i.e. high-end grocery stores, grocery stores focused on price competition, and farmers markets) to examine how bids for organic and local products differed based on the location of data collection. Not surprisingly, participants at farmers markets were willing to pay more for local products over organic or non-local products, participants at the price conscious store were less willing to pay for organic or local attributes, and participants at the high-end grocery store were more willing to pay for organic blueberries. This focuses the importance of location selection when collecting data in person for auctions. In another piece, we examined how data quality in online surveys can differ in different countries, leading to difficulty comparing willingness to pay amounts across countries for research conducted in multiple locations. Our findings suggest the need for data quality procedures to remove participants that are not fully participating in the online studies to make a more even comparison across countries. This research is important to other researchers and those in industry to increase the accuracy of their estimates by improving data quality in online and in-person surveys.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Gao, Z., L. House, and J. Xie (2016). Online Survey Data Quality and Its Implication for Willingness-to-Pay: A Cross-Country Comparison. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 64(2):199-221.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Shi, L., Z. Gao, L. House, and Y. Heng (2015). Willingness-to-Pay for Organic and Local Blueberries: A Multi-Store BDM Auction. Journal of Food Distribution Research, 46(3):153-162.

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes Florida agriculture producers and processors, specifically the citrus, other fruit, and seafood industries. In addition, academic audiences in agricultural economics and related fields are included. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Graduate students and post-doctoral associates have been involved in all stages of this research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations have been given at both professional meetings and meetings with producers and interested parties. Publications have been placed in academic journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I plan to continue research on topics related to Florida products and consumer perceptions. In particular, we will focus on consumer opiion and willingness to pay for state-labeled products, as well as continue to focus on consumer perception of technology in agricultural production.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research during this period focused on consumer percpetion of orange juice and on improving data quality for online surveys used to measure consumer preferences. In one study, we investigated the extent to which sensory attributes influence consumer's marginal willingness to pay for organic food. A blind sensory evaluation of two orange juices was conducted followed by a discrete choice expeirment to determine the extent to which consumer's stated preference for orange juice labelled organic is affected by sensory experience. Results indicated that the effet of sensory attributes differed between organic and conventional juice. This research emphasizes the value of incorporating sensory evaluation in consumer studies as sensory differences detected by respondents influenced their willingness to pay bids. Results showed heterogeneity in preferences for organic food, even after controlling for taste preferences. Specifically, one segment of the respondents were willing to "trade" taste to achieve the production method of their choice (organic). In another piece, we focused on the impact of respondent attention on data qualtiy in online surveys. As online surveys are used frequently to study the impacts of policies, marketing tactics, and numerous issues, the question of data quality is critical to understand. Our findings suggest the use of low-probabiltity filters as qualifiers and strategic placement of trap questions just before cruicial parts of the survey (such as choice experiments) to increase data quality. Respondents who failed these metrics were significantly more likely to fail axioms of revealed preference in a standard choice experiment, indicating a lower quality of data was likely present. Removing respondents who fail these metrics can increase data quality. This research is important to other researchers and those in industry to increase the accuracy of their estimates by improving data quality in online surveys.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Bi, X; Z. Gao. L. House, and D. Hausmann (2015). Tradeoffs between Sensory Attributes and Organic Labels: the Case of Orange Juice. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 39(2):162-171.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Jones, M., L. House, and Z. Gao (2015). Respondent Screening and SARP: Testing Quarantining Methods for Better Data Quality in Web Panel Surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 79(3):687-709.

Progress 03/31/14 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project includes Florida agriculture producers and processors, specifically the citrus, other fruit, and seafood industries. In addition, academic audiences in agricultural economics and related fields are included Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Graduate students and post-doctoral associates have been involved in all stages of this research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Presentations have been given both at professional meetings and meetings with producers, other agency members, and interested parties. Publications have been placed in academic journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Continue research on topics related to Florida products and consumer perceptions. In particular, we are focusing on consumer opinion and willingness to pay for State-labeled or identified products (such as strawberries and tomatoes) over Country-labeled or identified products.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Research during this period focused on consumer percpetion of sugars in juice, with a specific focus on the impact of perceptions on 100% juices like orange juice. For example,Key recommendations in the2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americansand US Department of Agriculture's MyPlate are to reduce the intake of added sugars, particularly from sugar-sweetened beverages, and drink water instead of "sugary" beverages. However, little is known about consumer knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors regarding sugars in beverages. An online survey completed by 3361 adults indicated that participants primarily associated the term "sugary" with beverages containing added sugars; however, almost 40% identified 100% fruit juice as sugary. Some participants misidentified the types of sugars in beverages, particularly with respect to milk and 100% fruit juices. Generally, beverage choices were consistent with stated concerns about total, added, or natural sugars; however, less than 40% of participants identified added sugars as a primary concern when choosing beverages despite public health recommendations to reduce the intake of added sugars and sugar-sweetened beverages. Results suggest that there may be a considerable level of consumer misunderstanding or confusion about the types of sugars in beverages. This research is important both for the orange juice industry, which needs to understand how their product is viewed by consumers, as well as policy makers who are recommending certain food choices that may not be fully understood by the public. ?

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Kim, H. and L. House. 2014. Linking Consumer Health Perception to Consumption of Non-Alcoholic Beverages. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 43(1):1-16.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Rampersaud, G. C., H. Kim, Z. Gao, L. A. House. (2014) Knowledge, Perceptions, and Behaviors of Adults Concerning Non-Alcoholic Beverages Suggest Some Lack Of Comprehension Related to Sugars. Nutrition Research, 34(2):134-142.