Conjoint Analysis is a statistical technique where respondents ranked preferences for different offers are decomposed to determine the person’s inferred utility function for each attribute and the relative importance of each attribute. It is a versatile marketing research technique that can provide valuable information for new product development and forecasting, market segmentation and pricing decisions, advertising and distribution, competitive analysis and repositioning. The aims of conjoint analysis were to identify attribute combinations which confer the highest utility to the consumers and to establish the relative importance of attributes in terms of their contribution to total utility. There are 5 basic steps to be taken by a Researcher interested in applying conjoint analysis namely Problem formulation, Determining the product profile, Sampling plan, Data collection and Analysis and interpretation of the results. Conjoint measurement is based on the assumptions that a product can be described according to levels of a set of attributes and the consumer’s overall judgment in respect to that product is based on these attributes level. This analysis is based on three models like Part -Worth Model, Vector Model and Ideal Point Model. An attempt was made to analyze the consumer preference of ragi using conjoint analysis in Bengaluru and Vijayapura districts of Karnataka. The results reveal that, among all the attributes of ragi studied in Bengaluru urban, fineness was found to be most important and first consideration of consumers accounting for 23.80 per cent of relative importance with superfine ragi having the utility of 1.45. In case of Bengaluru rural, price was found to be most important and first deliberation, accounting for 30.60 per cent of relative importance.Among all the attributes studied in ragi in Vijayapura urban, colour was found to be most significant and first consideration, accounting for 30.33 per cent. In case of Vijayapura rural, fineness was found to be the first contemplation and most important, accounting for 33.91 per cent of relative importance. Dhamotharan et. al. (2015), conducted a study using conjoint analysis to analyze consumers’ preferences for geographic indications (GI) bananas. The results show that consumers prefer GI bananas for their medicinal properties, natural production method, and lower price premium.Mangala (2010), conducted a study on Impact of food retail chains on producers, consumers and retailers. The results showed that, among all the attributes studied, quality of the produce found to have the highest relative importance of 33.8 per cent, with a preference for premium quality (utility value 2.77). Importance of 26.89 per cent was given to location of the outlet, with preference for nearness of the shop had utility value 2.16.Consumers are becoming more aware of the quality attributes of different commodities they are consuming, and consequently are choosing products that closely match their tastes and preferences. Demand for food products has increased among the consumers for a variety of reasons: unique quality, locality, supporting local producers. Researchers and managers in agricultural and food industries often face problems relating to new product development, forecasting, market segmentation and pricing decisions, advertising and distribution, competitive analysis and repositioning. So a conjoint measurement study can assist them in solving these problems.

Billions of fresh-cut flowers are flown into the United States every year, allowing Americans to choose from a broad array of blooms regardless of the season. Favored Flowers is a lively investigation of the worldwide production and distribution of fresh-cut flowers and their consumption in the New York metropolitan area. In an ethnography filled with roses, orchids, and gerberas, flower auctions, new hybrids, and new logistical systems, Catherine Ziegler unravels the economic and cultural strands of the global flower market. She provides an historical overview of the development of the cut flower industry in New York from the late nineteenth century to 1970, and on to its ultimate transformation from a domestic to a global industry. As she points out, cut flowers serve no utilitarian purpose; rather, they signal consumers’ social and cultural decisions about expressing love, mourning, status, and identity. Ziegler shows how consumer behavior and choices have changed over time and how they are shaped by the media, by the types of available flowers, and by flower retailing. Ziegler interviewed more than 250 people as she followed flowers along the full length of the commodity chain, from cuttings in Europe and Latin America to vases in and around New York. She examines the daily experiences of flower growers in the Netherlands and Ecuador, two leading exporters of flowers to the United States. Primary focus, though, is on others in the commodity chain: exporters, importers, wholesalers, and retailers. She follows their activities as they respond to changing competition, supply, and consumer behavior in a market characterized by risk, volatility, and imperfect knowledge. By tracing changes in the wholesale and retail systems, she shows the recent development of two complementary commodity chains in New York and the United States generally. One leads to a high-end luxury market served by specialty florists and designers, and the other to a lower-priced mass market served by chain groceries, corner delis, and retail superstores.