CONSUMER PERCEPTION ON ALTERNATIVE POULTRY

T. Farina and S. Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Vol 5 Iss 2 2003

Conjoint Analysis was complemented with a conventional questionnaire that identified
the profile of the interviewees, the reasons for consuming alternative chicken, and their
perception of certification and brand names. Furthermore, as there is much confusion on
the concepts of organic, natural, and free-range, the interviewees were asked whether
they considered alternative chicken to be an organic product. Finally, the consumers
were asked about the maximum price they were willing to pay for this type of product.
One of the objectives of this questionnaire was to check the consistency of the results
obtained by Conjoint Analysis.

3.2 Analysis of the Results

a) Consumer Profile

The characteristics of the individuals are essential in order to comprehend the results of
the Conjoint Analysis. 91% of the interviewees have a family monthly income over 10
minimum salaries4 and 57% receive over 15 minimum salaries, while the average income
in the State of Sao Paulo is 7,4 minimum salaries⁵. 81% of the interviewees have a college
education, of which 21% have done graduate work, which contrasts with the fact that the
average population of the State only finishes primary school. This result shows that the
population in question is inserted in the elite of society, both in terms of income as well
as education.

b) Results of the Conjoint Analysis

The Conjoint Analysis calculates the importance that each attribute has in total
aggregate utility of the product.

All the attributes had a similar relative importance. The highest coefficient is brand
name, 28,77%, in second place was the authenticity seal with 26,69%, in third place was
price with 23,33% and, finally, type with 21,21%.

Brand is the most important attribute, but its relative importance is very close to
certification. It should be noted that this is a result consistent with the type of consumer
public that has an elevated level of information and that knows the meaning of a
certificate. Even so, the hypothesis that the certification replaces the brand name for
alternative products was not confirmed.

The third attribute in the scale of importance to the consumer was price. This shows that
the consumer is less sensitive to price, being willing to pay a price premium for a
differentiated product. Table 1 shows that more than half the interviewees were willing
to pay more than R$ 3,00 per kilo of natural chicken and approximately a third were will
to pay up to R$ 5,00 per kilo, while its price, in supermarkets, is on average R$ 2,85 per

⁴ The minimum salary in Brazil, at the time of the survey (2001), was R$ 180,00.

⁵ Data from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD).

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