Consumer Preferences for Milk and Yogurt Products in Canada

Abstract

This research examines Canadian consumer preferences for milk and yogurt products, both those currently available in the marketplace as well as hypothetical products. Self-reported consumption and choice experiments are used to determine consumer preferences for various attributes and how these preferences are influenced by demographic and health characteristics. The results from the consumption analysis indicate that many demographic and health characteristics are significant factors in predicting milk/yogurt consumption, that milk and yogurt consumers are not the same people, and that consumers of individual dairy products fall into different demographic categories. The choice experiment analysis indicates that individuals have narrowly distributed WTP values for fat content and informational attributes and widely distributed WTP values for functional attributes. In general, women over 50 appear to be WTP more for informational attributes and vitamin-enhanced products than the general population, while young adults are WTP more than the general population for probiotic dairy products.