Nutrition Information, Nutrition Knowledge and Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Pasture-Fed Beef: Empirical Evidence from In-Store Experiments

Consumer demand for beef has been changing and a diversification of the attributes is demanded. This trend has provided beef producer incentive to differentiate their products in the beef market. Pasture-fed beef (PFB) is one beef product that is raised so that it has a different taste and visual quality, as well as nutritional aspects such as lower fat and calories, and higher omega-3 and CLA. These differences could have a significant impact on consumers’ demand for PFB and their willingness to pay for it relative to their willingness to pay for conventional feedlot-produced beef. Despite its perceived potential, however, there has been limited marketing research on PFB so that we have little knowledge as to the extent to which the special attributes of PFB motivate consumer purchases and how consumers are influenced by the provision of information about these attributes. This article uses experimental economics techniques to examine the impact of nutritional information and sensory characteristics of PFB on consumer’s willingness to pay (WTP). Our analysis shows that consumers’ awareness of PFB products’ positive impact on human health, environment and animal welfare do not necessarily increase their WTP. Beef products’ palatability attributes play a central role in determining consumers’ preferences and WTP. This study also reveals that nutrition knowledge can significantly influence consumers’ WTP. With respect to the impact of consumers’ socio-demographic characteristics on their WTP for PFB, only consumers’ living status and household size have significant impact on consumers’ WTP, implying that socio-demographic variables play small role in explaining consumers’ food behavior. Our findings could serve as guidelines for PFB producers and marketers to promote the