A cross-cultural segmentation of western Balkan consumers: focus on preferences toward traditional fresh cow cheese

BACKGROUND: Western Balkan countries (WBCs) have a long-standing culinary tradition. The promotion of traditional foods may be a tool for coping with modernisation trends in such transition economies. This paper explores consumer preferences toward food in this region, focusing on a traditional fresh cow cheese locally called ‘Mladi Sir’. This product was quoted in all the preliminary focus groups as a common traditional product present in the six WBCs studied: Bosnia–Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. RESULTS: After a literature review investigating the conceptof traditional foodinWBCsandthe implementation of focusgroups, asurveyincludingaconjointanalysisonpreferencesforfreshcowcheesewascarriedoutin2011tocollectdatafrom1200respondents. Four clusters of consumers were identified: one focused more on the local origin; one oriented more toward the scale of production(on-farmandsmall dairy); thethird favouringlowpricesandthefourth preferringhighpricesandindustrial products. CONCLUSION: Policy makers and the supply chain could take these differences in consumer preferences regarding traditional food products into account in order to develop specific strategies.