Agricultural Marketing and Consumer Behavior in a Changing World

Michel Wedel (1957) is Professor of Marketing Research at the Department of Economics, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

As in many other sectors, in agribusiness major changes are taking place. On the demand side, consumers are changing lifestyles, eating and shopping habits, and increasingly are demanding more accommodation of these needs in the supermarket. With regard to the supply: the traditional distribution channel dominators - manufacturers of branded consumer products - are trying hard to defend their positions against retailers, who gather and use information about the consumer to streamline their enterprises and strengthen their ties with the consumer. The agricultural producers, meanwhile, face increased regulations with regard to food additives, pesticides, and herbicides. Pressures rise as their business becomes more specialized and capital-intensive than that of their predecessors. Finally, the larger political climate is not so favorable to agriculture, which now has to compete in the global market without significant government support.
This title describes and interprets changes in the domain of agriculture and food. The contributors develop the theme of taking an interdisciplinary approach to coping with these changes, using concepts and methods developed in general marketing, which are adapted so as to apply to the particular characteristics of the food and agriculture sector.
This book is published to honor the distinguished career of Professor Mathew T.G. Meulenberg from Wageningen Agricultural University, on the occasion of his retirement in September 1996. As a scientist, teacher, and advisor to the agribusiness and the government, Professor Meulenberg has made an important contribution to the development of marketing, inside and outside the domain of agriculture.

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I The changing competitive environment.- 1. New areas in agricultural and food marketing.- 2. Competing for the future in the agricultural and food channel.- 3. Marketing analysis for agricultural development: Suggestions for a new research agenda.- 4. Impact of changing pig welfare preferences on the economics of pork production-marketing chains.- II Evolution in channels and institutions.- 5. Evolution of agricultural marketing institutions, a channel approach.- 6. The impact of changes in the power and information balance upon the quality of supplier-reseller relationships in food marketing channels.- 7. Hedging risk in agricultural futures markets.- III Dynamics in consumer behavior.- 8. Dynamics in consumer behavior with respect to agricultural and food products.- 9. The identification of sensory dimensions of food products from scanner data using the STUNMIX methodology.- 10. Quality labeling as instrument to create product equity: The case of 1KB in the Netherlands.- 11. Means-end chain theory and laddering in agricultural marketing research.- 12. Consumer search and surplus in markets with differentiated food products.- 13. Testing for the intertemporal separability hypothesis on Italian Food demand.- 14. Analysis of changes in Portuguese meat consumption.- 15. A test for differences in food demand among European consumers. A dynamic approach.- About the contributors.- Author Index.- List of sponsors.