Out of sight, out of mind: Effect of geographical environment on consumer's representations

The objective of this article is to evaluate the effects of geographical distance and age on the representations of traditional products using Maroilles cheese as a case study. To test the effect of these factors, we used a free word association task with nine groups of participants from different places in France, at three different distances from the Maroilles production area (Thie & PRIME;rache -0 km, Lille -80 km and Angers -500 km) and three different ages (18-34, 35-54, >55 years old). Our study highlights that geographic proximity promotes information sharing by consumers and constitute a building block of knowledge acquisition. Finally, our study shows that geographical distance also plays a role on the valence of the terms associated with Maroilles cheeses suggesting the importance of the concept of local identity and ethnocentrism for artisanal products.