Abstract
The argan tree (Argania Spinosa L. Skeels) is endemic to the southwestern part of Morocco, located in arid to semi-arid areas. Recently, it gained fame as a world patrimonial wealth, celebrating its international day on May 10. Argan oil is of great interest, as it is used in several cosmetic products. To better valorize this natural output, it is important to understand how well foreign consumers know argan oil and what they would pay for Argan products. As the Japanese cosmetic market is wide and remunerative, we search for the main variables that explain and increase consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for four argan-based cosmetic products in Japan. We conduct an online survey comprising 20 questions to collect data on 836 women. We perform a principal component analysis to aggregate the four singular WTPs into an overall WTP, and then run a multiple correspondence analysis to bring together the modalities that correspond to each class of WTP. Finally, we perform a log-level interval regression to model each feature and its respective impact on the WTP. The results show that knowledge of argan oil and experience of argan and vegetable oil products increase WTP significantly. This indicates the importance of “simply” communicating about argan oil and proceeding to product testing. In addition, we assess the impact of intrinsic features such as wages and interest. This may be helpful in establishing a marketing strategy.
