Media matters: Rich media (video) vs. infographics on consumer valuation of cheese attributes

: As fluid milk consumption continues to decline, small US dairies are turning to value added cheese and target marketing to improve margins. Although richer media formats characterized by their high capacity for information and sensory cues (e.g. video, interactive content, etc.) are known to boost consumer engagement, there is limited evidence of their impact on consumer willingness to pay (WTP). We examine this by utilizing video as a representative rich media treatment in the context of cheese attributes, including retail location, origin, color, cattle breed, and farmstead. A total of 110 participants completed an incentivized discrete choice experiment. They were randomized into rich media (video) or infographic treatments. We estimated consumer WTP using mixed-logit model, with robustness checks in WTP-space, regret minimizing models, and treatment balance tests. Results show consistent premiums for in-state origin, Holstein milk, and farm-direct retail, while cheese color and farmstead attributes had no effect. Importantly, media richness differentially shaped attribute valuations: the video treatment significantly increased WTP for the farm-direct retail to $1.44 (over grocery stores) compared to $0.80 in the infographic treatment. Conversely, the infographic treatment raised WTP for the Holstein breed attribute (over breed unspecified) to $1.38, compared to $0.82 under the video treatment. These findings suggest attribute tailored marketing strategies can help dairies and cooperatives boost revenues while informing policy and extension efforts to strengthen local food systems.