Purchasing factors of wakame consumers: using an auction experiment

Abstract

The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 has had a negative impact on the Sanriku wakame aquaculture. In order to develop a marketing strategy to strengthen the industry and brand equity, we investigated purchasing factors for wakame seaweed. An auction experiment was employed to measure consumers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for wakame including Sanriku salted, dried and Chinese salted wakame products. We discovered a signiˆcantly positive relationship between WTP and evaluation in the Sanriku salted wakame, while no signiˆcant relation was found in dried Sanriku and salted Chinese wakame products. Also, we found rich consumers have a higher WTP for Sanriku salted wakame. Therefore product discrimination is a possible strategy for strengthening the Sanriku wakame aquaculture.