In a global economy food origin is gaining
increasing attention as determining purchase criterion
in food consumption. Consequently, for many consumers
a product’s country-of-origin (COO) is an important
cue in evaluating both domestic and foreign products.
A double-bounded dichotomous choice approach in an
in-store setting was used to assess consumers’ preference
and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the product attribute
“Swiss origin” relative to “European origin” for chicken
meat. Data collection took place in the poultry section of
six grocery stores in Francophone Switzerland. Sample
selection was based on the consumer’s purchase decision,
that is only actual chicken buyers were questioned.
During the survey product data of participants’ actual
purchase were recorded. Thus, both hypothetical stated
and revealed consumer behaviour data were collected.
Based on 450 records we highlight four different consumer
segments, notably “Loyal Swiss”, “Low Price
Swiss Zappers”, “Price Orientated”, and „The Gourmets”.
At an equal price, 90% of the entire sample prefers
Swiss chicken meat. To elicit mean WTP for “Swiss origin”
we used logit analysis. The results indicate that
mean WTP differs significantly between the highlighted
consumer segments. “Loyal Swiss” – medium to high
priced Swiss chicken meat consumers – are willing to
pay a premium of about 7.40 Euros per kilo chicken
breast of Swiss origin. This premium corresponds with
actual price differences of at most 7.50 €/kg for Swiss
chicken breast relative to European found in the researched
grocery stores. “Low Price Swiss Zappers” are
willing to pay a premium of 2.10 €/kg chicken breast of
Swiss origin. In contrast, the “Price Orientated” and
„The Gourmets” are not willing to pay any premium for
Swiss origin. This corresponds with their revealed purchase
behaviour as they bought imported European
chicken. Considering mean WTP for the entire sample
of 3.00 €/kg for Swiss origin, we conclude that this is not
a good predictor for specific consumer segments. It
over-, or underestimates mean WTP of the highlighted
consumer segments. Using both stated and revealed consumer
behaviour data, we are able to calculate consumer
group specific mean WTP which leads to more
appropriate results for agribusiness and marketing purposes
