Consumer Preferences for Color, Price, and Vitamin C Content of Bell Peppers

Abstract

<jats:p>Most bell peppers (<jats:italic>Capsicum annuum</jats:italic> L.) produced and consumed are green. However, yellow, red, orange, white, black, and purple bell peppers are also available. While bell pepper consumption in the United States has been increasing in the past 10 years, limited information is available on how their color, retail price, and vitamin C content influence consumer preferences. A conjoint analysis of 435 consumer responses showed that, for the total sample, color was about three times more important than retail price in shaping consumers' purchase decisions, while vitamin C content was nearly irrelevant. Six distinct consumer segments were identified through cluster analysis. Four segments favored green peppers, while one segment favored yellow and one favored brown. Demographic variables generally were not good predictors of segment membership, but several behavioral variables, such as past bell pepper purchases, were significantly related to segment membership. While green is generally the preferred color, market segments exist for orange, red, yellow, and even brown peppers. Applications to marketing strategies suggested that price sensitivity could explain why green peppers were priced individually, but those of other colors were priced by weight, and that promotion of increased vitamin C content would be most effective if associated specifically with yellow and orange peppers.</jats:p>

Antioxidant and nutritive constituents during sweet pepper development and ripening are enhanced by nitrophenolate treatments

“…In a comparative study combining instrumental and sensory evaluation of flavour in fresh peppers, a close relationship between sweetness and concentration of glucose and fructose in pepper for red ripe stage has been reported, whilst the perceived sourness increased from the green to red maturation stages mainly due to an increased concentration of citric acid (Lunning et al, 1994). In this sense, the application of NPLs would induce an extra benefit related to consumer's acceptability, since red peppers with high contents of both sugars and acidity are more appreciated (Frank et al, 2005).…”

“…Traditionally, commercial growers have harvested peppers at the mature green stage when pericarp becomes thick and the fruit has reached its maximum size. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing interest in picking peppers at the red colour with improved flavour, nutritional aspects and high acceptation by consumers (Frank, Nelson, Simonne, Behe, & Simonne, 2005). In fact, mature red peppers are considered one of the richest sources of natural pigments (carotenoids), and is thus used as a food colourant in the form of ground powder (Hornero-Méndez, Costa-García, & Mínguez-Mosquera, 2002).…”

Mapping determinants of purchase intent of concentrated yogurt (Labneh) by conjoint analysis

“…The influence of the subjects' demographic and behavioral variables on segment membership was analyzed by comparing the variables' means of each segment to those of the main sample (Frank et al, 2001). The impact of subjects' variables on segment membership was also analyzed by estimating a multinomial logit (MNL) model that relates the preference structures of the different segments to the respondents' characteristics (Frank et al, 2001;Huang & Fu, 1995;Nelson et al, 2005).…”

“…Conjoint analysis is extensively used in marketing research to evaluate industrial products and services and is being increasingly used in the study of food choices by consumers. The technique has been used in market segmentation and identification of attributes governing purchase decisions of bell peppers (Frank, Nelson, Simonne, Behe, & Simonne, 2001), cheese (Souza Monteiro & Lucas, 2001), eggs (Ness & Gerhardy, 1994), fruits and vegetables (Van der Pol & Ryan, 1996), peanuts (Nelson, Jolly, Hinds, Donis, & Prophete, 2005), processed meats (Huang & Fu, 1995), and yogurt (Luckow, Moskowitz, Beckley, Hirsch, & Genchi, 2005;Vickers, 1993). The objectives of the present work are to identify the contributions of sensory properties, fat levels, price, production technology, and information about absence of preservatives in the product, to purchase decisions of Labneh by conjoint analysis, and to relate purchase decisions to behavioral and demographic characteristics of the products' consumers.…”

Estimation of genetic parameters and gains for color traits of strawberry

“…This preconceived flavor expectation may interact with other properties and influence consumers' judgments even after the product is tasted (Jaros and Rohm 2001). Estimates of the relative importance that consumers place on the color of fresh fruits and vegetables vary from 16% for mandarins (Campbell et al 2004) and 20% for apples (Manalo 1990) to 93% for bell peppers (Frank et al 2001). Color is, therefore, an important attribute of commercial fruit and vegetable varieties.…”