ANAHEIM, CALIF. — What is value?

It’s more than discounting a product every four weeks or offering a buy-one-get-one-free promotion. Value involves baked foods that offer quality, experience, convenience and experience, noted Rick Stein, vice president of fresh foods, Food Marketing Institute (FMI), during the recent International Dairy Deli Bakery Association’s show.

Speaking on the “Power of Bakery,” Mr. Stein said these four attributes become key when considering what he called “irrational behavior” by consumers. While shoppers may be budget-minded, they will buy products with a higher price point when they offer convenience or enhance a special occasion or experience at home that they value. FMI’s research also shows that more than half of consumers buy baked foods that they didn’t plan on purchasing when shopping at an in-store bakery. In fact, 59% of those surveyed said they buy functional products, such as bread, while 64% make unplanned purchases of indulgent items, such as cakes, pies, cookies and other sweet goods.

“The bakery is clearly a big impulse area, and you need to play into that,” Mr. Stein advised.

When it comes to freshness, 53% are very conscious of whether a baked food was made today or prepared inside the store. Finally, when it comes to shopping for bakery products, 81% of those surveyed want to see the commercial bread aisle next to or close to the in-store bakery. For most consumers, there’s no great divide between the perimeter in-store bakery and packaged center store baked foods. Shoppers think of bakery as one department with many great options.