Does Local Label Bias Consumer Taste Bud and Choice Behavior: Evidence of a Strawberry Sensory Experiment

Demand for local food particularly for fresh vegetable and fruits, keeps increasing. Consumer claimed reasons of purchasing local food often include that local food are fresher, more environmental friendly and can support local community, which implies that the local information can affect consumer’ perception of food quality. Previous marketing or consumer research mainly focused on the impact of local information/label on consumer preference as a credence attribute that is not observable even after purchaseing the products. However, the local information of food may also influence consumer perception of the other two types of important attributes, search and credence attributes. Determining the impact of different types of attributes on consumer choice of food and the dynamics between these attributes is important for new product development and quality labeling strategies. In this study, we determined the impact of local information on consumer perception of strawberry search and experience attributes and how these three types of attributes affect consumer choice. We randomly divided 100 participants in a sensory experiment into two groups. In the first group, we didn’t tell participants that the strawberries was locally produced, and in the second group, consumers were told that the strawberries were grown on the farms within 100 miles. Participants first rated search attributes (size, color, etc.) of three boxes of strawberries in 16 oz clear plastic clamshells. Then they tasted berries and rated experience attributes (flavor and texture). Results show that providing local information significantly positively affect some of the search and experience attributes as well as their stated willingness to pay for the strawberries. In addition, consumer willingness to pay decreased after they tasted the strawberries no matter the local information was provided or not. However, when the local information was provided, the decrease in willingness to pay for some strawberries was much smaller than that without the provision of local information.