Winning ugly: Profit maximizing marketing strategies for ugly foods |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness and the LSU AgCenter, 101 Martin D. Woodin Hall, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA;2. Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, 2120 Fyffe Road, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA;1. Chair of Food Engineering, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany;2. Chair of Engineering Psychology and Applied Cognitive Research, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany;1. MAPP Centre, Aarhus University, Fuglesangs Allé 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark;2. Department of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen, The Netherlands;3. SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Food and Bioscience, Box 5401, SE-402 29 Gothenburg, Sweden;4. Chair of Food Engineering, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany;5. Nofima AS, Postboks 210, NO-1431 Ås, Norway;6. Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432 Ås, Norway;1. Department of Marketing, Otago Business School, P O Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand;2. Department of Food Science University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | Ugly foods meet nutritional and safety benchmarks but deviate from cosmetic and size standards. The marketability of ugly food is a major factor that frustrates field-level food rescue efforts. We investigate opportunities to promote ugly foods in a way that converts uniform negative preferences towards ugly food to more diverse and horizontally differentiated preferences where some consumers prefer ugly food to standard offerings and pay a premium. We conduct an online discrete choice experiment and find a portfolio of marketing strategies that significantly enhance respondent willingness to pay for ugly carrots. Dual messages that simultaneously (1) link the purchase of ugly food to reductions in food waste and (2) suggest ugly food is natural and authentic significantly improve willingness to pay. We also find respondents tolerate some level of mixing of ugly with standard carrots. We find the most profitable strategy is to form bunches that include 40% ugly and 60% standard carrots and to sell the bunches with green leaves attached at farmers markets where consumers receive dual marketing messages. Profit simulations confirm that, in the absence of such marketing strategies, farmers rationally create waste by discontinuing harvest when the percentage of remaining carrots that are ugly is high. |
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| Keywords: | Food waste Ugly food Food loss Quality differentiation Profitability Q18 |
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