Conjoint Analysis

The use of conjoint analysis in assessing consumers ' preferences for attributes is demonstrated with the apple as an example. Conjoint analysis may be used to estimate the importance of attributes and attribute levels through decomposition of consumers ' ranking of alternative attribute combinations. It is shown that conjoint analysis provides results that may not be obtained from a survey where respondents are asked to directly state their assessment of the importance of attributes. The "marketing concept " holds that to meet or-ganizational goals, a firm must determine the needs and wants of its consumers and then deliver products and services that satisfy those needs and wants more efficiently than its competitors (Kotler). In today's agriculture, with its advances in plant breeding, crop management, and post-harvest handling, producing and delivering products that appeal to consumers should be easier than in the past. An important task is to determine, with some reasonable degree of precision, what consumers want. Several marketing research techniques have been developed to increase understanding of consumers' preferences. This paper illustrates the use of con-joint analysis in assessing consumers ' preferences for the attributes of an agricultural product. The benefit of using conjoint analysis is emphasized by comparing its results in analyzing the importance to consumers of apple attributes with those results obtained with the use of a survey. Overview of Conjoint Analysis Conjoint analysis finds theoretical support in eco-nomics in the approach to consumer theory pro-posed by Lancaster. This approach suggests that consumers derive utility not from goods them-selves, but rather from the attributes or character-istics that the goods possess. Alberto B. Manalo is an assistant professor of resource economics, University of New Hampshire. The comments of an anonymous reviewe