Conscious food choices – differences between perceived benefits and willingness to pay for different product types

Purpose: Consumers increasingly make conscious choices when it comes to food and choose healthy products that protect the natural environment and preserve traditional habits and communities. This study investigates the differences between perceived benefits and willingness to pay for products making different marketing claims yet all suggesting producers’ dedication to protect the health of consumers as well as natural and traditional resources. Methodology: First, focus groups were conducted to identify food marketing claims (i.e., product types) that are relevant to consumers and empirically validate the relevance of the perceived benefits identified in previous research. Second, questionnaires were distributed to consumers to analyse the differences in perceived benefits and willingness to pay between the identified product types. Results: The focus groups revealed that apart from natural and traditional products, handmade, homemade, and autochthonous products represent important marketing claims. They also proved that most benefits identified in literature resonate well with consumers of the studied cultural context. Results of the questionnaire show that emotional benefits are not perceived differently for different product types, functional benefits are perceived higher for natural and handmade products than for traditional ones, while convenience is perceived as higher only for handmade products. Willingness to pay is not different for different product types nor benefits. Conclusion: Since some product types are perceived as providing more benefits than others, small food producers should focus on marketing their products as handmade and natural, rather than traditional. Furthermore, marketing efforts should be directed towards identifying the right consumer segments as those inclined to the protection of traditional resources perceive higher benefits regardless of the product type.