7 A Conjoint Analysis of New Zealand Consumer Preference for Environmentally Certified Forest Products

The study examines the relative importance to New Zealand consumers of environmental certification compared to other wood product attributes using conjoint analysis. A survey of preferences for product attributes for wooden outdoor furniture using different product bundles based on price and warranty for the furniture, and environmental certification, type of forest, and country of origin of the wood. Conjoint results indicate that environmental certification is just one of a number of important attributes. Other important attributes include the country of origin, with New Zealand sources being preferred, and forest type, with plantation grown preferred over wood from natural forests. Cluster analysis of the data indicates that six market segments with unique furniture attribute preferences exist in New Zealand, although the standard demographic variables, such as age, sex, and education, collected in the survey did not provide a basis for profiling these segments