Consumer willingness to pay for cue attribute: the value beyond its own.

摘要

Typically when eliciting consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for food quality attributes, the attributes of interest are isolated or partially isolated from other attributes that are not of interest. As a result, surveys regarding consumer preferences for food attributes create an information environment, which assumes that full information about the product available in the market is included in the survey. This study investigated whether this assumption, if incorrect, could influence the revealed WTP. 2 sets of surveys were used to determine consumer WTP for 12 oz beef strip loin steak attributes. In 1 set of surveys, country-of-origin labelling (i.e. US certified product) information was provided, but in the other, it was not. Information regarding the tenderness, leanness and freshness of the product was always provided. Consumer preferences for some steak attributes were significantly affected by US certified product labelling. Total WTP increased significantly in the presence of this label, indicating that country-of-origin labelling may influence consumer evaluation of beef steak. US certified product labelling served as a substitute for guaranteed tender and a complement for guaranteed lean information. It is suggested that these results may have important implications for policymakers and food companies interested in food labelling programmes in the presence of cue attributes such as US product certification. The substitute effects of a cue attribute on other product attributes may contribute to deteriorating product quality, whilst the complement effects of a cue attribute could improve product quality in the market.