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 [email protected]
Youenn LOHEAC
