An experimental approach of chocolate preferences

Emilie GINONLESSAC, ESC Dijon Bourgogne, France

Youenn LOHEACESC Bretagne Brest, France

CREM, CNRS & Université Rennes 1, France

1st Conference on Economics and Politics of ChocolateSeptember, 16-18, 2012 – Leuven, Belgium

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CONTEXT

We are interesting by

BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS

EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS

SENSORY STUDIES

& CHOCOLATE

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PLAN

Introduction1. A small piece

DesignResults

2. The full tablet/barElements

DesignResults

Conclusions

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Introduction (1)

ABOUT CHOCOLATE

Interesting product for exploring consumers’ behaviors:

--- Important variety of characteristics (origin, organic, fair-trade, ingredients, cocoa %, etc.)

--- Specific product with some infleunces and interactions with human physiology and behaviors

Some experiments (not exhaustive): Tagbata & Sirieix (2008), Mahé (2009), Teyssier et al. (2012), Kimura et al. (2012), Torres-Moreno et al. (2012), Savastano (2012)…

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Introduction (2)

ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS

--- generating behaviors in a controlled environment (lab)

--- to test theories or to explore behaviors

--- includes real incentive systems (generally with real money)

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1. A small piece --- Design (1)

HOW DO WE DECIDE WITH

&

???

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1. A small piece --- Design (2)

RISK AVERSION

--- MPL from Holt & Laury (2002)--- 10 situations with increasing likelihood of lower gain and choice between safe and risky lotteries.--- real incentive with money and chocolate

DICTATOR GAME

--- sharing of a given amount (1.5€ / 10 miniatures)--- real incentive with money and chocolate

48 PARTICIPANTS

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1. A small piece --- Results (1)

RISK AVERSION

--- after excluding for non-consistency--- score on 10

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1. A small piece --- Results (2)

RISK AVERSION--- Women (definitively) more risk averse --- Men: more risk lovers with money

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1. A small piece --- Results (3)

DICTATOR GAME

--- sharing express in %

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Questions

How consumers react between blind tasting and full information tasting ?

Is there difference between elicitation methodologies ?

Correlations between buying intention, willingness-to-pay and:

--- hedonic score--- sensory descriptors--- individual characteristics--- individual opinion

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (1)

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (2)

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (3)

THE FOUR PRODUCTS

1.185 € 1.86 € 1.38 € 1.08 €Prices in retail store (feb. 2012)

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (4)

INCENTIVE SYSTEM

--- to avoid hypothetical bias

--- subjects could really buy the products

--- In accordance with the elicitation methods, in a precise random condition, subjects who give a WTP higher than an offered price really buy the product at this offered price

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Design (5)

ELICITATION METHODOLOGIES

BDM mechanism (Becker et al., 1963)

- for a randomly drawn product- in a randomly drawn phase (A/D)- if subject willing to buy the product- he/she randomly drawn a selling price in a uniform price distribution (market prices)- WTP < selling price no exchange.- WTP ≥ selling price subject buys the chocolate tablet at the drawn selling price.

Random nth price (RNP) auction (Shogren et al., 2001)

- for a randomly drawn product- in a randomly drawn phase (A/D)- a number n is randomly drawn between 2 and N (number of participants).- after ordering all the WTP, n is the price at which the (n-1) higher WTP buy the product at this price.

Details: Lusk & Shogren (2007), Lohéac & Issanchou (2007)

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Subjects

Students (master degree) from Dijon Business School--- N = 53--- 48 observations used due to absence in one part

(2) (3) (4) (5)BDM

treatmentRNP

treatmentMale Female All

Females (%) 36% 73% 56.2%Age (years) 23.1 22.8 23.5 22.6 22.9Eat chocolate at least one time by month (%) 68.2% 84.6% 66.7% 85.2% 77.1%It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is an organic product (score: 1 to 7) 1.86 1.73 2.09 1.55 1.79

It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is a fair trade product (score: 1 to 7) 2.54 2.07 2.57 2.07 2.29

It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is nutrionally good (score: 1 to 7) 3.68 2.92 3.76 2.89 3.27

It is important for me that the chocolate I eat is a national brand product (score: 1 to 7) 4.18 4.38 4.24 4.33 4.29

I try to limit my intake of sugary foods (score: 1 to 7) 3.5 4.04 3.28 4.18 3.79N 22 26 21 27 48

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (1)

WTP ELICITATION

--- 384 buying opportunities 145 real purchases--- average WTP = 2.00 €

BUYING INTENTION (%) WTP (€)

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (2)

SENSORY ANALYSIS

--- Hedonic score

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (3)

SENSORY ANALYSIS

--- Intensity

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (4)

SENSORY ANALYSIS

--- MCO on hedonic scores (BLIND)

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (5)

Link between hedonic score and buying intention

-- correlation between WTP and hedonic score: 55%-- but low correlation between WTP and descriptors

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (6)

Due to treatment/session effect split analysis by treatment

BUYING INTENTION (%)

WTP (€)

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (7)

Probit on buying

intention by treatment

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2. The full tablet/bar --- Results (8)

MCO on

WTP

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CONCLUSION … (1)

In “a small piece”

- Women are more risk averse-- Men are more risk lovers with money (chocolate averse?)--- Lower sharing with chocolate

In “the full tablet/bar”

- Methodological effect … but a session effect-- Sugar, bitter & aroma have a weight in hedonic score--- strong link between hedonic score and buying intention… but not with WTP---- some other significant effects

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CONCLUSION… (2)

BUT

- A too small sample (N = 48)

-- Only one session by treatment

--- The name of chocolate are written on it

SOLUTIONS

- Reconduct the experiment € € € €

-- To scrape the chocolate pieces …

Thank you very much(if you have any question or request)

1st Conference on Economics and Politics of ChocolateSeptember, 16-18, 2012 – Leuven, Belgium

Emilie GINONemilie.ginon@escdijon.eu

Youenn LOHEAC

yloheac@esc-bretagne-brest.com