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Jordan, Helen Labun

Community Development and Applied Economics

2006

MS

Food consumers choose products based on a variety of concerns. One recent addition to the list of attributes considered by the average food purchaser is point of origin. The place of local foods in our diet has progressed, broadly, from a necessity to a novelty as changing technology and land use patterns shifted U.S. agriculture to a highly concentrated food system. Recently, consumers have begun to advocate for greater local foods availability. This demand is complicated including multiple definitions for "local" food along with multiple, sometimes conflicting, benefits sought from a local purchase. A further complication is the transition of local foods from availability in "altemative" markets (e.g. farmstands, farmers' markets) to "conventional" markets (e.g. supermarkets, food service providers). This thesis focuses on the question of local foods in a conventional market, a venue that has received less attention than the alternative outlets that have dominated local foods sales. The following chapters develop a model for understanding consumer demand for local foods in a conventional outlet that both identifies potential customers and identifies messages most likely to appeal to these customers. To create this model, we draw on established theories in marketing research, particularly market segmentation strategies and the importance of attitude cues in establishing attitude-behavior links. We utilize attitude hierarchies, similar to the hierarchy of values techniques employed in many marketing models, as the basis for customer profiles used for the segmentation analysis. The need for both developing an attitude hierarchy and interpreting the position of a single value (here, local foods) in that hierarchy presents data collection challenges. The methods most commonly used to rank variables return reliable overall systems but have low reliabilities for single values. Some proposed solutions, such as paired comparisons, require either short variable lists or time-intensive studies. To avoid these challenges, we test an alternate option, Best Worst Scaling, for our survey. We administered our survey at a northeastern university in May, 2005, and received 493 valid responses. Respondents fell into 4 overall customer types: Undifferentiated, Politically Involved, Most for the Money, and Deal Seekers. Every type included some individuals highly interested in local foods when presented with a menu of possible improvements to dining services. Customers also articulated 3 separate types of benefits sought from local foods purchasing: Environmental, Menu Quality, and Human-scale Agriculture. Through analysis of these consumer types and other indicators of local foods interest, we determine that to expand the number of individuals purchasing local foods, the university should promote local foods that speak to better taste and supporting small-scale, independent farmers.