Are consumers willing to go the extra mile for fair trade products made in a developing country? A comparison with made in USA products at different prices

We investigated whether fair trade messages (fair labor/environment-friendly production) can counterbalance the negative country of origin effect on brand evaluations and increase willingness to pay premium prices. Our findings suggest that fair trade messages led consumers to evaluate a product made in a developing country as favorably as a product made in the U.S. While brand attitude and brand trust were higher for a fair trade product made in a developing country, consumers hesitated to buy a product with a fair trade message when the premium price was 15% higher than the base price product with no fair trade message. We discussed implications of these findings.