Evaluating the Marketing Impact of a Regional Branding Program Using Contingent Valuation Methods: The Case of the Appalachian Grown™ Branding Program

The main objective of this study was to develop and test effective messaging and marketing efforts for the Appalachian Grown™ regional branding program. The evaluation of the impact of the marketing efforts utilizes contingent valuation (CV) methods. CV methods allowed us to elicit consumers’ preferences before and after the marketing campaign for Appalachian grown products and measure the change in consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for this attribute. We found evidence of a statically significant positive effect in one of the two stores where the campaign was implemented. In the store where the campaign was found to have a positive impact, the marketing campaign was found to increase consumers’ willingness to pay for locally grown products by about 4%. Our results indicate that consumers’ willingness to pay may be positively impacted by the implementation of in-store local food marketing campaigns