Masters Theses
Date of Award
8-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Major
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Major Professor
Alicia Rihn
Committee Members
Alicia Rihn, Charles Martinez, Liz Eckelkamp, Sreedhar Upendram
Abstract
As fluid milk consumption declines, small US dairies are turning to premium cheeses and target marketing to improve margins. While richer media formats (e.g. videos) are known to boost consumer engagement, there is still a lack of evidence on how well it translates to consumer willingness to pay (WTP), for cheese attributes such as retail location, origin, color, cattle breed, and farmstead. To address this gap, we conducted an incentivized discrete choice experiment with 110 participants, who were randomly assigned to either a rich media (video) or infographic treatments. We estimated consumer preferences using the mixed-logit model and derived WTP estimates. Our findings reveal that both treatments increased WTP for cheese with in-state origins, Holstein milk and farm-direct retailers when compared to out of state origins, breed unspecified, and grocery stores respectively. Color and farmstead attributes did not influence consumer choices. The video treatment significantly increased WTP for the farm-direct retail (over grocery stores) to $1.44 versus $0.8 under the infographic treatment. Conversely, the infographic treatment raised WTP for the Holstein breed attribute (over breed unspecified) to $1.38, compared to $0.82 under the video treatment. Our findings hold under WTP-space estimation, regret minimization models, and balance tests. These findings show that media richness differentially amplifies attribute valuations, suggesting dairies use attribute tailored marketing strategies to boost revenue.
Recommended Citation
Bajgain, Pralhad, "The Influence of Rich Media (Video) Versus Infographics on Consumer Valuation of Cheese Attributes: Evidence from a Non-Hypothetical Choice Experiment. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2025.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/14529
Video treatment used in the lab experiment.
Draft II.docx (2431 kB)
Included in
Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Food Studies Commons