Premium
Do Consumers Care about Ethics? Willingness to Pay for Fair‐Trade Coffee
Author(s) -
DE PELSMACKER PATRICK,
DRIESEN LIESBETH,
RAYP GLENN
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6606.2005.00019.x
Subject(s) - fair trade , willingness to pay , sample (material) , economics , marketing , business , advertising , psychology , international trade , microeconomics , chromatography , chemistry
Consumers’ buying behavior is not consistent with their positive attitude toward ethical products. In a survey of 808 Belgian respondents, the actual willingness to pay for fair‐trade coffee was measured. It was found that the average price premium that the consumers were willing to pay for a fair‐trade label was 10%. Ten percent of the sample was prepared to pay the current price premium of 27% in Belgium. Fair‐trade lovers (11%) were more idealistic, aged between 31 and 44 years and less “conventional.” Fair‐trade likers (40%) were more idealistic but sociodemographically not significantly different from the average consumer.