T. Farina and S. Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Vol 5 Iss 2 2003
guarantee of product differentiation, supporting his decision to buy (Sans & Fontguyon,
1998). Hence, “certification promotes quality gains for the consumer and income elevation
for the agents” (Nassar, 1999). Certification, therefore, avoids the outcome of the market
for lemons foreseen by Akerlof.
Differently from certification, brand name does not guarantee the process standard of a
generic product, referring only to the product supplied by a specific company. The firm
develops a reputation and the consumer pays a price premium for that relationship of
trust. Certification can be seen as a substitute for brand name, in expanding markets,
because it guarantees a process that can be followed by many firms of different sizes and
origins. Nevertheless, it will only emerge in markets where there is a sign from the
demand that firms will have positive returns should they adopt it.
Following, we will explore the Sao Paulo consumer’s perception of alternative chicken,
the importance he attributes to brand names and to certification, and his willingness to
pay a price premium for this differentiated product.
3. Consumer Perception of Alternative Chicken
As was previously stated, the problem of this study is to investigate the perception of the
consumer as to alternative chickens.
Although the characteristics that differentiate alternative chicken from conventional are
not easily observed, the price differential between them indicates that there are some
attributes of this product that consumers value and that are not present in the
conventional chicken. Hence, the objective of this study is to pinpoint which attributes
are most important for the consumer choice of alternative chicken, assuming the
following hypotheses:
1) The consumer acquires alternative chicken because he considers it to be healthier;
2) The consumer is willing to pay a price premium for alternative chicken;
3) Certification is more important than brand name for these products and can
replace it;
Item 3.1 presents the methodology utilized in the consumer research. Item 3.2 presents
the results of this research.
3.1 Methodology
The works that address consumer perception of different quality attributes of products
utilize different methods, among them Conjoint Analysis. ( Baker,1998 ; Spers, 1998) . In
the present study we adopted this method to analyze the consumer perception in relation
to alternative chicken.
Conjoint Analysis is widely used as a research tool in marketing to verify product
acceptance. This tool can be applied both to products available on the market as well as
to hypothetical products. The principle of Conjoint Analysis is to break down a product