Bruchhaus, Michael N.

Hinson, Roger A.

English

Research Papers in Economics

Louisiana Strawberries: Consumer Preferences and Retailer 
Advertising
Roger A. Hinson and Michael N. Bruchhaus
Strawberries have been a leading fruit in terms of 
growth in per-capita consumption. Between 1990 
and 2000, the total increase was about 38 percent, 
to 2.7 kilograms. Both fresh and processed product 
forms grew, but per-capita fresh product consump-
tion increased about 48%to 2.2 kg in 2000, while 
processed product consumption grew by 9% (Cook 
2002a). Of 46,100 acres of strawberries harvested 
in the U.S. in 2001, industry leader California har-
vested 26,400 acres, and Florida harvested 6,500 
acres (NASS 2003). Over the past ﬁ  ve seasons, 
Louisiana has averaged about 390 acres per year 
(Ag Summary 2004), with an average yield per acre 
of about 15,000 pounds. California and Florida have 
much higher yields, partly accounted for by long 
seasons and technology adoption.
Much of the crop is sold to the retail channel, and 
the remainder moves through foodservice distribu-
tors like Sysco and through direct markets (Cook 
2002b). California has an advantage because most 
consumers shop at retail grocery stores. Louisiana’s 
local markets are strong, but only about 40% is sold 
to grocery retailers. Supply-chain management is a 
major competitive factor in the grocery industry and 
has been identiﬁ  ed as an efﬁ  ciency/cost reduction 
area. The almost year-round shipping potential and 
large farm and supplier size in California is very 
attractive in terms of chain management.
A major focus of this project was to understand 
how consumers choose among strawberry product 
characteristics such as size, freshness, color, origin, 
pesticide-residue attributes, and price. Consumer 
preferences in the Louisiana market area have not 
been identiﬁ  ed, and the promotional efforts of retail-
ers (newspaper advertisements, point of purchase 
materials, and other store merchandising efforts) 
have not been documented.
Study Description and Methodology
A three-part study was conducted to understand con-
sumer behavior and preferences in the state market 
(Hinson and Bruchhaus 2004). The components 
were preferences for strawberry products, behav-
ior of retailers in terms of advertising strawberries, 
and beliefs and attitudes of grocery store produce 
managers. Information was collected from a mail 
household survey that covered all of Louisiana and 
portions of Mississippi and Alabama, collection and 
analysis of advertisements of Baton Rouge grocery 
stores, and a personal-interview survey of produce 
managers in Baton Rouge.
Respondents to the consumer-preferences com-
ponent were mostly female. Compared to state aver-
ages, respondents had more years of education, were 
older, had about the same rate of full-time employ-
ment, had higher levels of household income, had 
fewer children under 20, and had a smaller minority 
proportion. 
The Statistical Procedure: Conjoint Analysis
Conjoint Analysis (CA) is a multivariate model 
that helps to understand the structure of consumer 
preferences for products or services. Products have 
unique sets of attributes. Consumers evaluate those 
attributes and choose the product that best ﬁ  ts their 
needs. For CA, consumers rate or rank of a series of 
product “proﬁ  les,” and contributions of individual 
product attributes to consumer preferences are es-
timated. Four factors (attributes) were chosen to 
represent the strawberry products:
•  Container—the new clear plastic clamshell 
and the traditional plastic basket. 
•  Pesticide strategy—conventional, scheduled 
application strategy, and reduced-pesticide 
strategy (similar to Integrated Pest Manage-
ment). Pesticide residues are food-safety and 
health issues important to consumers. 
•  Price per pound—$1.99, $2.49, and $2.99. 
•  Origin/brand—California, Florida, and a 
“Louisiana produced” strawberry indicated 
by a sticker or logo.
Hinson is professor and Bruchhaus is a graduate student, 
Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, 
Louisiana State University AgCenter, Baton Rouge.Hinson and Bruchhaus Preferences for and Retailer Advertising of Louisiana Strawberries   87
These attributes and levels resulted in 36 pos-
sible product combinations (2 x 2 x 3 x 3). Using 
the fractional-factorial method, 11 product combi-
nations (2 holdouts were included for validation) 
were selected for rating and for estimation of utility 
values for all attributes and levels. 
Results
Consumer Purchase Patterns
About 82% of respondents reported they eat fresh 
strawberries at least occasionally. During the Loui-
siana production season, almost half the respondents 
who purchased fresh strawberries did so less than 
once per month, while about one-ﬁ  fth purchased 
more than once per week. During the rest of the 
year, more than 50% of respondents purchased 
fresh strawberries, indicating continuing demand 
for the product across the year. Almost two-thirds 
of respondents believed the strawberries they were 
purchasing came from Louisiana, while 22% were 
unaware of the origin of berries. We were inter-
ested in the outlets used by respondents to purchase 
strawberries. From the survey, about 64% purchased 
strawberries in grocery stores while 36% purchased 
from direct-marketing outlets. About 42% who 
purchased strawberries shopped at national gro-
cery chains (Wal-mart, Winn-Dixie, Albertson’s, 
and others), while about 22% purchased at local 
supermarkets. 
Willingness-to-Pay
Preferences for the Louisiana berry may be reﬂ  ected 
in a willingness to pay more for the Louisiana prod-
uct. About 76% of all respondents indicated they 
would pay more (Figure 1). When only those who 
responded they would pay more were considered, 
about 60% were willing to pay at least 20 cents 
more, and about 20% were willing to pay more 
than 60 cents more. These results seem consistent 
with other studies of willingness to pay for locally 
produced fruits and vegetables.
Average Ratings of Products
The 11 proﬁ  les (products) were described and in-
structions provided on the 1-to-7 rating scale used. 
Average product ratings ranged from 2.7 to 6.0. The 
product with attributes clamshell, “Louisiana pro-
duced” logo, reduced-pesticide strategy, and priced 
$1.99 received the highest average rating. Alterna-
tively, the product with attributes plastic basket, 
major California label, conventional-application 
strategy, and price $2.99 received the lowest aver-
age rating. None of the products was given a very 
low rating. Attributes describing the lowest-average 
rated products were California or Florida label, and 
conventional-application strategy. 
Overall Conjoint Analysis Results
Analysis of respondents’ ratings showed that the at-
tribute origin (“Louisiana produced” logo) was highest 
in relative importance with a value of 56.1. According 
to standard interpretations from CA, this value is the 
percentage that origin part-worths contribute to the 
sum of all factors’ part-worths. As a proportion, this 
is the relative importance of each factor in explaining 
respondent ratings. In order of importance, origin was 
highest, followed by price, container, and pesticide Journal of Food Distribution Research 36(1) 88   March 2005
strategy (Table 1). When combined or decomposed 
according to demographic segments, potential market-
ing opportunities may be identiﬁ  ed by searching for 
patterns of behavior that match expected outcomes. 
As an example, CA results are compared across 
household income levels. Origin/brand was expected 
to have more value in the higher income categories, 
price was expected to be relatively more important 
at lower income levels, and higher-income consum-
ers were expected to be more concerned about safety 
issues such as pesticide residues. Compared to the 
overall model, price was relatively more important 
than was origin/brand for the bottom income level 
(Table 2). The expected relationships were found 
for origin/brand and price in the remaining income 
categories.
The relative importance of origin/brand in-
creased with income (from about 33 to about 57, 
but decreased a bit when the highest category was 
reached). For price, importance decreased (from 
about 42 for the lowest category to between 20 
and 30 in the higher categories). The importance of 
pesticide strategy was lowest for the middle income 
category, and tended to be higher for both the lower 
and the higher income categories.
Advertising By Grocers
An understanding of how retailers support and pro-
mote strawberries within their overall marketing 
mix reveals their perceptions about the contribution 
of strawberries to their competitive position. Two 
major grocery chains and ﬁ  ve local grocery stores 
were regular advertisers through newspapers, in-
serts, and bulk mailing. Over the four-month period 
of the survey, 24 ads for nationals and 52 for locals 
(all usually distributed on Thursday) were evalu-
ated. Nationals had a slightly higher percentage of 
ads that included strawberries, but the local stores 
were similar. Whether retailers felt that customers 
were concerned about the origin of berries pur-
chased at retail may be reﬂ  ected in whether they 
presented that information in the ad. Nationals 
identiﬁ  ed California in 27% of ads, while no locals 
did (Figure 2). Just the opposite was the case for 
specifying Louisiana as an origin. The locals were 
higher by a margin of 42% to 7%. This suggests 
that local stores see Louisiana origin as a factor of 
interest to their customer base.
Produce Managers’ Opinions About 
Strawberries
Baton Rouge area produce managers were surveyed 
to learn their perceptions for both Louisiana and 
out-of-state strawberries. There were 13 produce 
managers in the survey, including both national and 
local grocery stores. According to produce manag-
ers, 57% of strawberries sold during the Louisiana 
strawberry season were from Louisiana, followed 
Table 1.  Conjoint Analysis Results, All Respondents.
Factors Relative importance
Container 12.1
Origin/brand 56.1
Pesticide strategy 7.1
Price per unit 24.7
Table 2.  Conjoint Analysis Results by Demographics: Household Income.
Factors Relative importance
Less than 
$20,000
$20,000 to 
$39,999
$40,000 to 
$59,999
$60,000 to 
$99,999
More than 
$100,000
Container 7.14 16.27 10.98 9.54 10.26
Origin/brand 33.33 49.08 56.60 57.26 45.96
Pesticide strategy 17.35 12.07 5.90 12.35 15.60
Price per unit 42.18 22.57 26.52 20.85 28.18Hinson and Bruchhaus Preferences for and Retailer Advertising of Louisiana Strawberries   89
by California, Florida, and Mexico. Another ob-
jective of this research was to identify appropriate 
means to promote Louisiana strawberries to retail 
consumers, and in this context produce managers 
reported their perceptions of “needed support” 
versus “actual support.” Seventy-ﬁ  ve percent in-
dicated they need merchandising support (posters, 
brochures, and recipes) (Figure 3). They stressed the 
need to draw customers toward strawberry displays 
and to identify the product by origin/brand name.
Summary
The components of strawberry marketing covered 
here were consumer preferences for fresh straw-
berries, print advertising (newspaper ads, inserts, 
and direct mail) by local and large chain grocers, 
and grocery store produce managers’ opinions of 
strawberries. Conjoint analysis was used to estimate 
the relative importance of 4 preference factors. In 
order of importance, they were origin/brand, price, 
pesticide strategy, and container. The importance 
of origin was consistent with expectations, but the 
low level of importance of reduced pesticide use 
was not. 
For print-advertising results, strawberries were 
more frequently included in local grocers’ ads, and 
Louisiana origin was a more-frequently mentioned 
attribute compared to national chain ads. Produce 
managers in local and national chains gave Louisi-
ana berries higher ratings compared to competing 
berries, and they felt that customers preferred the 
Louisiana berry. In-store support, such as recipes 
and promotional material (posters, for example), 
was identiﬁ  ed as a problem area. Overall, these 
responses regarding attributes of the Louisiana 
berry seem to suggest promotional opportunities 
and the possibility of enhanced sales of berries in 
local markets.Journal of Food Distribution Research 36(1) 90   March 2005
References
Ag Summary 2003. 2004. Department of Agricul-
tural Economics and Agribusiness, LCES, LSU 
AgCenter, Louisiana State University, Baton 
Rouge.
Cook, R. L. 2002a. “Strawberry Production in the 
United States.” Department of Agricultural and 
Resource Economics, University of California, 
Davis. June.
Cook, R. L. 2002b. “The U.S. Fresh Produce Indus-
try: An Industry in Transition.” In Postharvest 
Technology of Horticultural Crops, Adel A. 
Kader, ed. University of California Division of 
Agriculture and Natural Resources, Publication 
3311. 27-117.
Hinson, R. A. and M. N. Bruchhaus. 2004. “Report 
On Consumer Preferences And Retailer Adver-
tising Of Strawberries: Louisiana 2004.” SP 
2004-10,  Department of Agricultural Econom-
ics and Agribusiness, LAES, LSU AgCenter, 
Baton Rouge. October.
National Agriculture Statistics Service. 2003. “U.S. 
Strawberry Harvested Acreage, Yield per Acre, 
and Production, 13 States, 1970-2001.” http:
//www.nass.udsa.gov.

Louisiana Strawberries: Consumer Preferences and Retailer Advertising

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