ISHS Acta Horticulturae 524: XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 14: Horticultural Economics at Micro and Macro Level, International Trade and Marketing, International Cooperative Programs, Relations between Research, Development, Extension and Education
A MULTINOMIAL LOGIT MODEL OF FLORAL CHOICE |
| Authors: | P.P. Oppenheim, T.R.L. Fry |
| Keywords: | Consumer Choice, Floral Choice, Floral Marketing, Multinomial Logit Model |
| Abstract:
The Australian cut flower industry has expanded at an average annual growth rate approaching 20% per annum since the early 1980's. Concurrent with this expansion has been an increase in the diversity of products offered by the industry to consumers with the result that increased competition is now apparent in the market place not only between producers but also between products. This increase in competion has had the effect of both raising the quality and lowering the real price of flowers to consumers. This paper reports the findings of a study which was undertaken to determine the salient factors which consumers use to make the choices they do with respect to the purchase of floral products. A generative research approach using depth interviews was adopted to identify general themes and issues associated with the floral purchase decision. Based on the findings of the generative research we conducted a comprehensive survey of floral consumers to quantify the hypotheses developed during the generative phase of the research. A discrete choice experiment in which price and the presence and absence of ten commercially important flowers was varied was incorporated within the research instrument. The results obtained from the this survey enabled a series of multinomial logit models to be efficiently estimated at the segment level. A number of emotional and epistemic dimensions were found to be significant in explaining floral choice behaviour. The paper concludes by examining the implications of these findings for marketing strategy. | |
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