Winning ugly: Profit maximizing marketing strategies for ugly foods

Ugly foods meet nutritional and safety benchmarks but deviate from cosmetic size standards. The marketability of ugly food is a major factor that frustrates field-level rescue efforts. We investigate opportunities to promote in way converts uniform negative preferences towards more diverse horizontally differentiated where some consumers prefer standard offerings pay premium. conduct an online discrete choice experiment find portfolio marketing strategies significantly enhance respondent willingness for carrots. Dual messages simultaneously (1) link the purchase reductions waste (2) suggest natural authentic improve pay. also respondents tolerate level mixing with most profitable strategy form bunches include 40% 60% carrots sell green leaves attached at farmers markets receive dual messages. Profit simulations confirm that, absence such strategies, rationally create by discontinuing harvest when percentage remaining are high.