This paper investigates the market position of hard cider within the broader alcoholic beverage market. The first experiment identifies two distinct consumer segments—around 40% prioritize flavor attributes, while 53% prefer production information. The second experiment utilizes a basket- and expenditure-based choice experiment and a multiple discrete choice extreme value model to assess hard cider's standing among commonly consumed alcoholic beverages. Results reveal that hard cider is perceived as a complement to red and white wine but is independent from beer. The study suggests marketing hard cider in conjunction with white wine to capitalize on observed complementarity. Emphasizing the importance of addressing both consumer segments—those valuing flavor notes and those prioritizing production information—the research offers valuable insights for optimizing hard cider market strategies.

Consumer concern about farmed animal welfare is growing but does not always translate into real-world purchasing behaviour of welfare-friendly animal products for human consumption. Possible reasons for this include unfamiliarity with farming practices and economic sensitivity. In contrast, the number and role of pets in the United States have grown measurably, and spending on pets is strong. The pet food market has many opportunity niches as pet owners navigate strong marketing trends and nutrition philosophies. We hypothesised that pet owners in the US would be willing to pay a premium for pet food containing welfare-friendly animal ingredients. Eight hundred and thirty-eight pet owners completed an online survey asking questions that measured their knowledge of and interest in farm animal welfare, and their willingness-to-pay for pet food labelled as farm animal welfare-friendly. Respondents overall displayed relatively low knowledge about farm animal welfare, but poor self-assessment of their own knowledge. They displayed interest in farm animal welfare and an overall positive mean willingness-to-pay (WTP) for welfare-friendly pet food. Younger respondents, women and cat owners displayed a higher WTP than older respondents, men and dog owners. Income level was not correlated to WTP. Creating pet food products that contain animal ingredients produced using welfare-friendly practices may enhance farm animal welfare via two primary avenues: by providing a sustainable and value-added outlet for the by-products of welfare-friendly human food products, and by providing an educational opportunity about farm animal production via pet food packaging and other advertising.

State marketing programs for food and agricultural products are largely driven by consumers’ desires to purchase in-state products. Evaluations of state marketing programs have largely ignored consumer location and proximity to surrounding states, measures of ethnocentrism, and the presence of other geographic marketing labels. This study examines willingness to pay for own and out-of-state labels for a generic commodity, milk, within an eight-state region. The results show that an aggregate model conceals consumer heterogeneity in marginal willingness to pay values for state brands as compared to a disaggregate model, even when using random parameter logit models.

Both schools and industry members are concerned about wages in the veterinary profession that are low relative to the years of schooling and tuition costs. This study examines the differences in starting salaries for the 2009–2014 graduates of the 28 schools accredited by the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Findings show relatively small (less than $4,000) but statistically significant differences in starting salaries related to school choice. A larger differential effect is present among the different practice types of veterinary medicine, with equine practitioners and private industry veterinarians (e.g., pharmaceutical researchers) representing the least and greatest average starting salaries, respectively.

Ecolabeling allows firms to segment a market by informing consumers about unobservable attributes of a product. Previous studies evaluate consumer preferences for products explicitly labeled as possessing positive environmental attributes. This research evaluates consumers’ willingness to pay for a product that is perceived by the consumer as having environmentally friendly attributes. We explore glass packaging for fluid milk as a case study. Data were collected through a contingent valuation survey, and a bound-and-a-half logit model was employed. The estimated premium is 59.78 cents with a premium between $0.73 and $0.92 for consumers more likely to prefer the glass alternative.