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 (Thiérache - 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.