Market research: group-related consumer preferences and purchasing criteria of (agricultural) products

Agricultural value chains are important elements within the context of international cooperation  Therefore, and in order to adjust production and marketing strategies according to consumer needs, this method brief provides a step by step guide- line for identifying consumer group-related purchasing criteria and preferences for agricultural products without demanding in-depth knowledge of quantitative data analysis  As part of a market research, results enable policy makers and private ac- tors to take specific demand driven actions  Combining quantitative and qualitative instruments, this method includes phases of survey design, piloting, data collection and data analysis  Particular attention is paid to the sampling and design of the questionnaire, which asks for data on revealed preferences, socio-demographic characteristics, stated preferences and purchasing criteria  The manual cluster analysis finally allows meaningful findings on group-related consumption behaviour but lacks definitive conclusions on market segmentations  This can be countered by the complementary implementation of choice experiments, for which the paper recommends further readings.

Klause, Kai A.