A conjoint analysis of Irish consumer preferences for farmhouse cheese

The ideal farmhouse cheese profile for 256 Irish farmhouse cheese consumers was one with a strong flavour, a hard texture, a wax packaged wheel, made with pasteurised milk, nutritional information present on the package, a white coloured cheese and a price of €3.17 per 200g. Least squares regression was used to estimate part worths for the conjoint analysis. A cluster analysis revealed there were two clusters with different ideal product profiles. Cluster one preferred cheese made with pasteurised milk, while cluster two preferred one made with unpasteurised milk. Market simulation experiments simulated market shares for nine products (six semi-hard farmhouse cheeses, one soft farmhouse cheese and two factory cheeses), as well as the ideal product profiles for each cluster (two in total). The “ideal” product profile for each cluster was identified as having the largest market share, under both models of analysis.