Marketing of locally produced sustainable animal fiber products

Marketing of locally produced sustainable animal fiber products

Summary

During the year covered by this report, 255 subjects recruited for the auction session that took place in January and February, 2011 in Alexandria, VA, San Marcos, TX and Athens, GA. Marketing materials were developed and presentations and papers about the project were written and shared with various stakeholders.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. Estimate the value consumers place on apparel products made from locally grown fibers and fibers grown using sustainable production methods.

2. Investigate the effects of labeling on premiums for Southern fiber products.

3. Identify and characterize the attitudes and motivations of market segments of consumers willing to pay premiums for products produced from sustainable, locally grown animal fiber.

4. Develop and communicate pricing, labeling, and marketing strategies to Southern animal fiber producers using sustainable production methods.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Benchmarks:

1) Socks for use in the experiment will be procured through purchases or custom-ordering.

This benchmark has been met. The socks created from purchased wool were of similar style and quality to the socks procured from US sock manufacturers, which meant that difference in style or quality do not need to be considered during analysis.

2) Approval for research with human subjects will be obtained from all three participating universities.

This benchmarks has been met. The Institutional Review Board of all three participating universities approved the study design

3) The survey instrument will be developed and pretested.

This benchmark has been met. Pretesting was conducted in 2010 with university students and the online survey software, Qualtrics, was programmed to capture participant responses.

Benchmarks:

4) The auction sites will be selected and the auction session will be coordinated.

This benchmark has been met. The auction sessions were conducted in early 2011 in all three states.

5) A recruiting firm will be selected and hired to recruit participants at each location.

This benchmark was modified. The quotes from recruiting firms were too high for the level of service they would provide. The student hired for the project developed a recruiting strategy that successfully recruited the 255 participants needed for all three locations. The diversity of participants was excellent and the main way that the sample diversified from the typical population in each state was that the participants in VA were somewhat more educated, which is likely due to the large concentration of highly educated people in the Alexandria area.

6) The auctions will be conducted.

This benchmark has been met. The auction sessions were conducted on January 15-16, 2011 at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria (VA), on February 5-6, 2011 at University of Georgia in Athens (GA) and on March 5-6, 2011 at Texas State University in San Marcos (TX). There was a total of 85 participants in the seven sessions held in VA with between 4 and 22 participants in each session. There was a total of 95 participants in the four sessions held in GA with between18 and 39 participants in each session. There was a total of 75 participants in the four sessions held in TX with between 13 and 23 participants in each session.

7) The data will be analyzed.

This benchmark has been met. Several types of data were generated during the study. The various attitude and behavior variables included in the survey were analyzed for validity and reliability using exploratory factor analysis. The choice experiment data was analyzed using multinomial logit analysis and the bid data was analyzed using tobit regression analysis. The marketing image data was analyzed to determine the participant preferences based on their ratings and frequency of selection.

8) The results will be used to create marketing materials.

This benchmark has been met. Based on the analysis of the participant response to the images used in mock labels, sample labels were created to demonstrate the preferred marketing. Additionally, the shopping data was analyzed to create marketing guidelines for each state that reflected consumer preferences for retails outlets and labeling language.

9) The marketing materials will be placed online.

This benchmark has been partially met. A workshop was held for small-farm producers in Delaware in order to develop the approach that will be used in the online videos about topics such as “Agricultural Branding”, “Defining Sustainability”, “Where’s Local”, and “Selling USA”. An article about the project was also placed on the Southern SARE website.

10) The results and marketing strategies will be shared with animal fiber producers, apparel manufacturers and other stakeholders in sustainable fiber supply chain.

This benchmark has been met. Sample skeins of the yarn leftover from the sock production were banded with sample labeling designs and distributed along with marketing guidelines to animal fiber producers and consumers at the 2011 Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair in Asheville, NC in October 2011. Hundreds of producers and consumers who attended the event were given the yarn samples and marketing material. Additionally, an advertisement was placed in the event program encouraging producers to visit the Southern SARE website for information about the project and producer grants. A workshop titled Your Farm Has a Story: Marketing Sustainability to Consumers was also conducted at the Delaware State University Extension Producers Conference: Profiting From A Few Acres; Dover, DE, December 2011.

11) The results will be used to create peer-reviewed presentations and articles for dissemination in academic forums.

This benchmark has been partially met. The results of the project were presented at the 5th International Consumer Research Conference in Bonn, Germany in July 2011. Three articles have been prepared, with two still under review and one accepted for publication in the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal in September 2012.

The following benchmarks will also be met in 2012.

Benchmarks:

12) The marketing materials will be placed online.

Videos are being produced to be placed on the Southern SARE YouTube Channel. An article on marketing sustainable, local animal fiber has been written for the Alpacas Magazine and will also be placed on the Southern SARE website. The interaction with wool producers in each of the states included in the study will provide important insight for the development of marketing guides. Based on these interactions, an additional marketing tool that will be developed is a “story” about how locally produced wool can be turned into a marketable product using US manufacturing facilities like the Zielinger Mill in Michigan.

13) The results and marketing strategies will be shared with animal fiber producers, apparel manufacturers and other stakeholders in sustainable fiber supply chain.

A poster titled Marketing Local: Logos, Labels and Location was presented at the 2012 Practical Tools & Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms Conference of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Little Rock, AK, in January, 2012. This poster was also placed on the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group website and will be available for a year. The results have been shared with leaders in the alpaca, wool and mohair industry and will be shared with the agricultural branding programs in all three states used for the study.

14) The results will be used to create peer-reviewed presentations and articles for dissemination in academic forums.

Additional presentations will be made in the coming year, including at the 2012 Sheep and Goat Field Day in San Angelo, TX.

• General Marketing Guidelines Distributed at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair
• Georgia Specific Marketing Guidelines Distributed at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair
• Labeling Guidelines Distributed at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair
• Example of Sock Band Developed for Texas
• Texas Specific Marketing Guidelines Distributed at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair
• Advertisement Placed in the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair Event Program
• Sample of Sock Labeling Developed for Virginia
• Virginia Specific Marketing Guidelines Distributed at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair
• Sample of Sock Labeling Developed for Georgia
• Poster Prepared for the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Conference in January 2012.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The main outcome of the project at this point are the results of the bid data. Analysis of this data found that before the consumers were told definitions for all the labeling terms, including organic and conventional, the bids for socks labeled “All Natural” were only $0.14 less and the “Eco-Friendly” were only $0.15 less than the “Organic” socks, for which participants were willing to pay $3.31. The socks labeled “Sustainable”, while still worth more than the $2.28 participants would pay for the “Conventional” socks, were worth the least of the alternatives at $2.90. This changed after participants were given information about the terms. Reminding participants what “Organic” means increased their bids to an average of $3.50. The bids for socks labeled as “Sustainable also increased to $3.10 once this term was defined. “Eco-Friendly” and “All Natural” didn’t change in price after definition.
The results of this study suggest that producers and retailers who are confident that their products meet these definitions, which are not regulated by any government body but still must meet the FTC “Truth in Advertising” requirements, should use these alternatives where possible. If the term “Sustainable” is the best fit for the product, the definition of the term should be included to help consumers know what it means in the context of an animal fiber product. All of the products in the study were manufactured in the U.S. and all of the socks that were made from U.S. wool received higher bids than the same socks made from imported wool. Retailers should make an effort to highlight the local origins of their animal fiber products wherever possible.

Collaborators: