Increasing Sales by Promoting the Attributes of Pecan through a Systematic Science-Based Marketing Strategy

Last registered on January 31, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Increasing Sales by Promoting the Attributes of Pecan through a Systematic Science-Based Marketing Strategy

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0010789

Initial registration date

January 26, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

January 31, 2023, 12:04 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Grace Melo

Affiliation

TAMU

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Marco Palma

PI Affiliation

PI Name

Laura Chomali

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-01-27

End date

2023-04-30

Keywords

Agriculture, Behavior

Additional Keywords

BDM, health and taste information, willingness to pay

JEL code(s)

C90; D12

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Promoting health benefits and the taste of pecans could effectively increase purchase intention and willingness to pay (Robinson, 2020). However, a consumer generally faces tradeoffs between the healthiness and tastiness of food, which are linked to neurobiological processes underpinning food choice and control of eating behaviors (Lowe and Butryn, 2007). Taste, in particular, can be an essential demand determinant; however, it can contradict a person’s need for a healthy diet (Lowe and Butryn, 2007), especially among consumers of value-added products (Campbell and Shonkwiler, 2020). At the same time, health information could serve as a cue for low taste and high price (Jo and Lusk, 2018). Communicating the appropriate marketing information is essential for increasing producer and consumer welfare. That is, highlighting the “appropriate” attributes of foods may decrease the perceived tension between taste and health or clarify the common lay belief that “unhealthy food has a better taste.” The main goal is to quantify the potential economic benefits for producers and consumers of promoting evidence-based health benefits and taste-related attributes of pecans using two similar non-hypothetical incentive-compative elicitation methods. The results of our study will serve as a basis to (1) identify promotion and marketing practices in the pecan industry, which will have the potential to be expanded to the entire specialty crop industry, (2) determine whether experts have accurate information on consumers preferences, and (3) provide a better understanding of the role of elicitation methods on consumer and producer valuation

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Chomali, Laura , Grace Melo and Marco Palma. 2023. "Increasing Sales by Promoting the Attributes of Pecan through a Systematic Science-Based Marketing Strategy." AEA RCT Registry. January 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10789-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We will conduct two experimental studies using different marketing messages (information treatments). The
information treatments will be employed in two economic experiments: (1) an online survey with consumers
and (2) an online survey with experts.

Intervention Start Date

2023-02-03

Intervention End Date

2023-03-24

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

willingness to pay

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

consumer's valuation will be captured in each market scenario

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

experts (economits and producers) best guess about consumer value

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

producer guess of consumer's willingness to pay in each market scenario.

Experimental Design

Experimental design for consumer valuation
The information treatments are employed in an online survey with consumers using a between-subject design. We will also employ two similar non-hypothetical incentive-compatible elicitation methods, only differing by the way the market price is set in a within-subject design: (1) an auction-like and (2) a seller fixed price.
For method (1), we conduct an auction-like method to estimate the maximum Willingness to Pay (WTP) for 8 oz pecan product. This method is the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM), developed by Becker, et al. (1964) and widely used in experimental economics for understanding the process behind economic choice (Shogren and Lusk, 2007).
For method (2), we estimate WTP using a similar strategy as method (1). The only difference is consumers are told that the market price in the experiment is determined by actual pecan producers. Previous to the online survey, we asked a group of pecan producers their minimum willingness to accept (WTA) to sell the pecan products. Their WTA is then used as the market price in the consumer study.
In sum, for methods (1) and (2), two prices are involved: the offer price of the buyer and a market fixed price. The fixed price is either randomly drawn in the case of method (1) or determined by producers in the case of method (2). Any trade that takes place is for the fixed price. Thus both methods are non-hypothetical and incentive-compatible.

Experimental Design Details

The study is conducted online via Forthright with consumers across the US to obtain more geographically dispersed consumer acceptance estimates in the country. For each of the information treatment conditions, a subject is involved in the following steps:
1. Subject is asked his/her incentivized WTP for the pecan product (with health or taste-related information depending on treatment condition) based on elicitation method (1) or (2)
2. Subject is asked to choose a number between 1 and 10. The computer also randomly draw a number between 1 and 10. If the number subject selects matches the one drawn by the computer, the pecan market transaction is implemented based on the subject’s decision.
3. Subject then repeats steps (1) and (2) based on elicitation method (1) or (2) depending on whether the subject faced method (1) first or method (2).
Subject is explained in each method the following: If bid is higher or the same as the fixed price, subjects buy the pecan product and pay the fixed price. The fixed price is subtracted from the $10 endowment given to participants if the transaction is selected for implementation.
Experimental design for experts’ valuation
We conduct an online survey with producers and economists to elicit experts' perceptions of consumer valuation. The four information treatments and control are employed in the survey using a within-subject design. A subject face the market scenarios we presented to consumers in the consumer study, thus a subject faces a total of 10 market scenarios. A subject is involved in the following steps:
1. Subject is informed that before the survey, we asked consumers for their WTP for pecan products for five market scenarios using two elicitation methods.
2. Subject is asked to provide his/her best guess of consumer WTP for each of the information treatments and their confidence level of the perceived accuracy of his/her guess.

Randomization Method

randomization done by computer

Randomization Unit

It is at participant level

Was the treatment clustered?