Is Presentation Everything? Using Visual Presentation of Attributes in Discrete Choice Experiments to Measure the Relative Importance of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Beef Attributes

A unique discrete choice experiment (DCE) is used to estimate the relative importance ofquality attributes to Australian beef consumers. In the DCE, consumers choose theirpreferred beef steaks from options varying in a large number of intrinsic (marbling and fattrim) and extrinsic/credence (brand, health, forage, meat standards/quality, and productionand process claims) attributes. This study is the only known DCE to present these attributesto consumers visually – in a manner that more realistically simulates the retail choicescenario for beef and allows us to evaluate the relative importance of attributes thatconsumers use both consciously and unconsciously when making product choices.Respondents’ beef choices were analyzed using a latent class scale adjusted choice model.We address two import issues that have potentially strong implications for the validity ofestimated attribute values: intrinsic attributes are likely to be underestimated in theirimportance if not presented visually; and DCEs that exclude important attributes (such asintrinsic characteristics) are likely to overestimate the value of product characteristics. Theresults suggest that visual attribute level presentation in DCEs results in less biased valueestimates. Therefore, it is not only important to consider what attributes to include, but alsohow you present the attributes.