THE EFFECTIVENESS OF STATE LOGOS FOR FARM-RAISED CATFISH

Product differentiation can consist of identifying the corporate firm that produces the product (such as Kraft) or the producer cooperative that produces the product (such as Ocean Spray). The Catfish Institute (funded by producers, feed mills and processors) was created to promote the generic sales of farm-raised catfish. Also, a number of Mississippi catfish processors are differentiating their product by promoting it as Mississippi Farm-Raised Catfish. Louisiana farm-raised catfish are highly comparable in breeding, feeding and processing to catfish marketed as Mississippi Farm-Raised Catfish. Use of a state logo is based o the premise that loyalties tend to encourage food consumers to patronize local producers. Louisiana State University Agricultural Center researchers surveyed a sample of 5,000 households in three major Louisiana cities (New Orleans, Lafayette and Shreveport) in early 1992 to estimate their willingness to purchase a product classified as "Louisiana Farm-Raised Catfish," given the instate availability of catfish with the Mississippi Farm-Raised Catfish logo. The larger the percentage of Louisiana households willing to buy Louisiana Farm-Raised Catfish at higher or equal prices to Mississippi Farm-Raised Catfish, the more effective the proposed Louisiana logo and the stronger the premise that state loyalties exist and are effective. The survey data, which indicate that the proposed "Louisiana Farm-Raised Catfish" would be popular with many Louisiana consumers, were analyzed with respect to location (city) and socio-economic characteristics of the households using Logit analysis. As firms and states develop new nontraditional agricultural products, these results indicate that a state logo has the potential to be effectively used in promoting these new products