The Impact of Brand and Attention on Consumers' Willingness to Pay: Evidence from an Eye Tracking Experiment

In the field of agricultural economics, willingness to pay (WTP) studies often do not include information regarding the brand of the product. Therefore, we conducted an auction examining consumer WTP for branded and unbranded energy drinks containing different sweeteners. Eye tracking was used to capture the magnitude of attention spent by participants on specific areas of interest regarding the energy drinks in the auction (e.g., brand). Results indicate that attention to brand, package attributes, and product information had a varying impact on WTP depending on the brand examined. Results show that the presence of brand had an impact on WTP for certain brands. Also, as more attention was paid to particular stimuli regarding the energy drinks, individuals were more likely to either increase or decrease their WTP. These results have implications for both marketers of branded food products as well as researchers eliciting consumers' preferences and WTP values for products that can be branded in the marketplace.