Marketing Expansion Strategies for Local Crops-Based Couscous in Tahoua State, Niger Republic

Abstract

This study investigates the own-price and cross-price elasticities for locally grown crops-based couscous and compares confidence intervals computation for willingness-to-pay and market shares under Krinsky Robb and Delta bootstrapping methods. Syntheses of previous literature and a focus group with consumers had helped to identify nine brands of couscous included in this research. The fractional factorial design was used to collect data from three hundred consumers, while the multinomial logit was used to analyze data. Results indicate that rice, cowpea and millet-based couscous were the most preferred by consumers and their market share accounts of more than fifty percent. The Results from simulation showed that confidence intervals under Krinsky and Robb stabilize as a sample size increases and thereby adjusting for skewness. However, confidence intervals under Delta computation are constant regardless of sample size, thereby failing to adjust for skewness. Finally, results also indicate that skewness was also accommodated in confidence intervals for market share because its values progressively adjust as sample size increases. These findings may be useful to boost cropbased couscous demand in the study area and beyond and thereby improving farmers’ revenue and offering diet  diversification opportunity.

Keywords: Marketing expansion, Strategies, Local crops, Couscous, Willingness-to-pay