Consumer Responses to New Food Quality Information: Are Some Consumers More Sensitive than Others

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.