A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but an apple by another name could fetch a much sweeter price for farmers.
Using experimental auctions, researchers at Cornell University's Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management tested participants' willingness to pay for five different varieties of apples, including a new, patented variety developed at Cornell, currently named NY1. Participants didn't know about the apples' history or the Cornell connection, but they learned about each variety's attributes, such as sweetness and crispness, and they tasted slices of each.
The researchers' conclusion? Consumers were willing to pay more for NY1, and they were willing to pay still more when it had an "exciting, sensory" name, said assistant professor Bradley J. Rickard. He presented the research Nov. 8 at the New York Produce Show and Conference in New York City.
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