nep-mkt New Economics Papers
on Marketing
Issue of 2011‒04‒16
eight papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon

  1. Consumers' Perception of Sustainably Produced Food: The case of local and organic production technologies By Whorton, Carly S.; Amanor-Boadu, Vincent
  2. The Role of Specialty Food Stores and Farmers' Markets in the Procurement of Local Foods By Wixson, Sarah E.; Katchova, Ani L.; Woods, Timothy A.; Hu, Wuyang
  3. Promoting a local brand: Assessing the Economic Benefits of the Texas Superstar® and Earth-Kind® Promotion on Place (POP) Program By Collart, Alba J.; Palma, Marco A.; Carpio, Carlos E.
  4. Retail Competition in the Milk Market in a U.S. Midwestern City By Hovhannisyan, Vardges; Gould, Brian W.
  5. Analysis of Texas Winery Visitor Spending and GOTEXAN Efforts to Promote Winery Tourism By Hanagriff, Roger; Murova, Olga I.
  6. Factors Impacting Participation In and Purchases Made by Members of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative By Holcomb, Rodney B.; Kenkel, Philip L.
  7. Got (Safe) Milk? Chinese Consumersâ Valuation for Select Food Safety Attributes By Ortega, David L.; Wang, H. Holly; Wu, Laping; Bai, Junfei; Olynk, Nicole J.
  8. Searching for the Golden Grail: An Optimal Soybean Marketing Frequency Strategy By Stark, C. Robert Jr.; Bryant, Kelly J.; Francis, Paul B.

  1. By: Whorton, Carly S.; Amanor-Boadu, Vincent
    Keywords: consumer preferences, sustainability, organic, local, willingness to value, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:99738&r=mkt
  2. By: Wixson, Sarah E.; Katchova, Ani L.; Woods, Timothy A.; Hu, Wuyang
    Abstract: The demand for locally produced foods has been increasing. Concurrently, specialty food stores focusing on specific food attributes have also grown in popularity along with farmersâ markets. This study examines how the importance that consumers place on whether specific foods are locally produced affects the likelihood to shop at specialty food stores and farmersâ markets. The major findings indicate that consumers who value locally produced fruits and vegetables are more likely to shop at these markets. Therefore, these markets are well positioned within local food networks to take advantage of the increasing demand for local foods, particularly for fresh products.
    Keywords: Food Stores, Farmers Markets, Local Foods, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing, Q13,
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:97969&r=mkt
  3. By: Collart, Alba J.; Palma, Marco A.; Carpio, Carlos E.
    Abstract: This paper aims to evaluate consumerâs awareness and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for two ornamental brands in Texas: Texas Superstar® and Earth-Kind®, after a Promotion on Place (POP) Program was developed by the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). Consumerâs characteristics that are more likely to influence brand awareness and WTP are identified.
    Keywords: Brand recognition, Willingness to pay, Consumer preferences, Ornamentals, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing,
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:98796&r=mkt
  4. By: Hovhannisyan, Vardges; Gould, Brian W.
    Abstract: The main goal of this manuscript is to explore the retailer conduct in the milk market in a U.S. Midwestern city, based upon a structural estimation of consumer milk demand and retailer optimality conditions. To model milk demand we rely upon the Almost Ideal Demand System, while allowing the retailer optimality conditions to cover a range of competitive scenarios from perfect competition to horizontal cartel. We employ a conjectural variation approach in the spirit of Newly Empirical Industrial Organization to study the competitive environment on the retail landscape. We find that the retail market in question is far from being competitive, with the two major retailers being engaged in an oligopolistic competition. Furthermore, the private label milk seems an important tool for some big players to extract rents from their competitors. The current study offers an idea of the competitive atmosphere in the retail sector of food marketing system. While we do not target direct estimates of retailer market power, this might serve an important first step to understand the nature of competition in a given market with only aggregate purchase quantity and price data.
    Keywords: AIDS demand, conjectural variation, market power, oligopolistic competition., Demand and Price Analysis, Industrial Organization, D11, D12, D43, L13,
    Date: 2011–01–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:99281&r=mkt
  5. By: Hanagriff, Roger; Murova, Olga I.
    Abstract: Swinburne University (Langworthy, Howard, Fiona & Mawson, 2006), agri-tourism is a growing phenomenon in Australia, often most strongly associated with wine regions. Recommendations to improve include creation of tourism regions & cooperatives, cooperation between sectors (CVBs, restaurants), infrastructure development and model development to measurable factors. South African wineries Bruwer, 2003 identified factors that were helpful in developing a wine tourism market of South African wineries. Regarding South Africa wine tourism, areas of winery business that promote tourism include both service provision and destination marketing, development of wine routes forms an integral part of the wine tourism industry, estates sell more wine through the cellar-door and tourism industry needs well-developed infrastructure. To complete this analysis for Texas, an online survey was sent to over 9,000 wine consumers. Preliminary results of this study found that Texas winery travelers spend over $400 per winery visit. Winery tourism outspend typical tourist in Texas with 24% of their spending related to accommodations spending. Wineries involved in promoting tourism visitations have significantly higher sales and winery visitation than those not focusing on tourism as part of the marketing promotions (p<.05). A secondary aspect of this study is to survey Texas wineries and measure their involvement and satisfaction with TDA wine support efforts. The results illustrate that wineries involved in TDA wine promotional programs report higher increases in sales, winery visitations and attribute increases in sales to TDA marketing efforts over those less involved wineries.
    Keywords: Texas Wine, TDA Wine Marketing, State Value of Wine Marketing, Wine Tourism, Rural Tourism, Tourism, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Marketing,
    Date: 2011–02–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:98793&r=mkt
  6. By: Holcomb, Rodney B.; Kenkel, Philip L.
    Abstract: The Oklahoma Food Cooperative (OFC) facilitates transactions between producers and consumers of locally-grown food items. Even with more than 3,000 members and roughly $1M in annual sales, the OFC still needs to establish its long-term sustainability. Both customer-members and supplier-members of the OFC were surveyed to determine the factors driving their current and continued participation in the cooperative.
    Keywords: cooperative, local food movement, member communications, business sustainability, strategic planning, Agribusiness, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing,
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:98816&r=mkt
  7. By: Ortega, David L.; Wang, H. Holly; Wu, Laping; Bai, Junfei; Olynk, Nicole J.
    Abstract: Food safety issues often arise from problems of asymmetric information between consumers and suppliers of food with regards to product-specific attributes or characteristics. Food safety concerns in China are having a drastic impact on consumer behavior, commodity markets, international trade and food security. An additional challenge to the problem of asymmetric information lies in the inherent structure of the governing bodies which oversee food safety and quality. Unlike the United States and other developed countries, Chinaâs food safety is regulated by several government entities with different and sometimes overlapping responsibilities. As a result consumers donât have a comprehensive food safety and quality system on which to base their economic decisions. In an effort to maintain the food supply of the worldâs largest economy safe, Chinaâs government has approved a series of tougher food safety laws and regulations. Although publicized as a tough approach to food safety, it is unclear whether this latest effort will make Chinaâs food safer to eat and improve the countryâs image to its agricultural trading partners. While much attention has focused on the problems plaguing Chinaâs food inspection system, little research has been dedicated to analyze consumersâ concerns over food safety. In this paper we measure consumer preferences for select food safety attributes in milk. More specifically we estimate consumerâs willingness to pay for government certification, an independent (third party) certification program, national brand, and a productâs shelf-life using a choice experiment approach. We compare and contrast several modeling strategies to capture heterogeneity of consumer preferences. The data used in this study was collected from a choice experiment administered in seven major metropolitan cities in China, yielding a statistical sample of 6,720 observations. Our results suggest that Chinese consumers have the highest willingness-to-pay for a government certification program, followed by national brand, private certification, and longer shelf-life products. We find that Chinese consumers are very concerned about the safety of the milk they purchase and are willing to pay a high premium to assure that their food is safe. The high level of concern regarding milk safety is linked to recent food safety incidents involving dairy products, most notably the Melamine-adulterated milk products. Heterogeneity of consumer preferences and willingness to pay for the select food safety attributes was found by implementing a latent class logit model based on attitudinal responses as well as a mixed logit model. Although it might appear that Chinese consumersâ confidence on the government is eroding, as reported in the wake of recent food safety scandals, our research found that consumers were less confident on non-government food safety control measures. This result indicates that there is a strong need for the Chinese government to provide adequate food safety and quality control. Our findings call upon the direct involvement of the Chinese government in the food safety system. A more strict monitoring system via certification is necessary. If realized, such government efforts will provide higher welfare to consumers in the short-run and will restore consumersâ trust increasing social welfare in the long run. Policy implications of our results are discussed with particular attention given to food safety and security issues.
    Keywords: China, Choice experiment, Mixed logit, Latent class logit, Food safety, Preference heterogeneity, Willingness-to-pay, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Q11, Q18,
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:98723&r=mkt
  8. By: Stark, C. Robert Jr.; Bryant, Kelly J.; Francis, Paul B.
    Abstract: Gross revenue from marketing frequency strategies varies with average soybean prices across time periods. A study examined statistical differences among trading days using a four-year database of cash prices. Results applied to a hypothetical Arkansas soybean farm using four strategies over four years revealed the optimal gross revenue marketing strategy.
    Keywords: Grains, marketing strategies, soybean, cash prices, Agribusiness, Farm Management, Marketing, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea11:98753&r=mkt

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