Consumer preferences for color, price, and vitamin C content of bell peppers

Most bell peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) produced and consumed are green. How ever, yellow, red, orange, white, black, and purple bell peppers are also a vailable. While bell pepper consumption in the United States has been incre asing in the past 10 years, limited information is available on how their c olor, retail price, and vitamin C content influence consumer preferences. A conjoint analysis of 435 consumer responses showed that, for the total sam ple, color was about three times more important than retail price in shapin g consumers' purchase decisions, while vitamin C content was nearly irrelev ant. Six distinct consumer segments were identified through cluster analysi s. Four segments favored green peppers, while one segment favored yellow an d one favored brown. Demographic variables generally were not good predicto rs of segment membership, but several behavioral variables, such as past be ll pepper purchases, were significantly related to segment membership. Whil e green is generally the preferred color, market segments exist for orange, red, yellow, and even brown peppers. Applications to marketing strategies suggested that price sensitivity could explain why green peppers were price d individually, but those of other colors were priced by weight, and that p romotion of increased vitamin C content would be most effective if associat ed specifically with yellow and orange peppers.