Consumption Trends & Consumer Attitudes

Question 1

What factors affect Food consumption and buying behaviour?

Answer 1

• Consumers have basic food
needs but many other factors
affect their buying behaviour
e.g. nationality, culture, society, education,
income, social groups, technology, food availability..
• Food consumption can be studied at
1) macro level - a country’s nutritional standards 2) micro level - individual consumer behaviour

Question 2

What is Food Consumption at Macro Level?

Answer 2

1) Aggregate nutritional intake per capita usually reported on the basis of calories or mega joules, proteins, carbohydrates, fats (vitamins & minerals may also be included)
2) Quantities of different food groups
eaten per capita such as cereals, meat and poultry, milk and other dairy products and so on

Question 3

What are the two main causes in changes in Food Consumption?

Answer 3

1) Rise in economic status i.e. more affluent
economies
2) Variety of food produced by
highly technological agricultural
production and food processing

Question 4

What are the Changes in Food Pattern Consumption?

Answer 4

•A smaller percentage of income is spent on food in developed countries compared to the developing countries (e.g. Income and expense on Food)
With economic development
•Calories per capita gradually increase (e.g. developed
country consumers have more calories in their diets) •Proteins in the diets increase
• Carbohydrate intake decreases. Lesser intake of bread & rice and increase in animal based products such as milk and meat (e.g. CGIAR dietary change facts)

Question 5

What are the effects of Culture, Society, Education & food Availability on Consumer food behaviour?

Answer 5

Greatest influence comes from nationality and race & then various other factors listed below:
Individual’s Psychological (personality, fears, pride) & Physiological makeup (sensory abilities, hunger, nutritional needs)
b) Age Sex
Income & Education (i.e. Socio economic status)
Household composition (i.e. Single household, family size, working women ….)
Social groups (i.e. Sports group, work group
c)Ethnicity, culture or religion (i.e.
Food love & presentation, meal pattern & number of meals, way food is brought &
prepared, fresh or frozen, time to cook,
traditional significance, food we eat and they
eat, Kosher or Halal) (e.g. Perspectives: A fishy dilemma? & TESCO Promotion)
d)Food availability and
technology (Geography of a country e.g. Availability of a certain fruit, technological
development changes food habits e.g. more processed food)
e)Regional preferences (areas in one country where different regions might eat hot or bland

Question 6

What is meant by International Acceptance Of Food & Tastes?

Answer 6

• Changes in international acceptance of processed foods such as Coca-Cola & KFC from USA, Rice noodles from China or generic agriproducts such as kiwifruit from New Zealand
• Possible through heavy branding and promotion
• Four basic tastes are changed to suit the specific country’s market
a) Sweetness b) Saltiness c) Sourness d) Bitterness

Question 7

What are two important Food Buying Behaviour?

Answer 7

Two important facets of consumer food behaviour are:
Food-buyingdecisionprocess
Relationship between the food and the consumer at each stage of this
process divided into six broad stages: 1) pre-action,
2) search action,
3) buying action,
4) preparation action, 5) eating action, and 6) post action
Important to note that:
Only an individual or a group of individuals take part at each step
People perceive physical and social attributes through the sensory perception
Buying decisions vary a great deal

Question 8

What are the consumers concerns of buying food?

Answer 8

• Consumer concerns can be divided into three broad areas (we will study them one by one in the next few slides)

1. Nutrition
2. Food Safety
3. Social and Environmental concerns

Question 9

What regulations does a food marketer have to follow?

Answer 9

1. Food marketer must follow government & international
   regulations
   I. Every country has its own regulation for domestic and imported food
   II. FAO & WHO have developed Codex Alimentarius as international regulations
   III. GATT’s agreement sanitary & phytosanitary measures provides a framework on ensuring regulation not excessive

Question 10

What food companies need to consider about safety?

Answer 10

2. Food companies need to find methods to market food safety, quality and shelf life
   I. Safety becomes even more important in countries where food regulations are weakly implemented. HACCP takes the whole of chain approach to ensure safety (Hazard Assessment Critical Control Points)
   II. Quality as all food is processed to some degree until eaten immediately (spectrum from minimal to complex). Consumers are more concerned about modern processing methods.
   III. Shelf life of foods is a consumer concern. Consumers are concerned about perishable products and wether they are safe to consume. The processor has to guarantee food’s quality for it’s indicated life (on label)

Question 11

What are Social & Environmental Concerns?

Answer 11

• Increasing social and ethical concerns affecting food marketing
I. Environmental Concerns i.e. Increasing consumer awareness about
agricultural and fishing practices (e.g. Tasmania super trawler or Japanese whale fishing)
II. Animal Welfare Concerns depends on community and culture varies from country to country. It can be no animals to supply of animal
proteins by efficient methods (e.g. Live cattle exports to Indonesia, cages, transport)
III. Biotechnology or use of recombinant DNA technology and in particular transfer of genetic information from one species to another has been a cause of concern among consumers (e.g. Meat & consumer)
The Social and Environmental concerns & food marketing: These consumer concerns lead to innovation and promotion of environmentally friendly products. This includes strategies addressing ingredients, packaging or the use of pesticides.

Question 12

What are Food Marketing Ethics & The Consumer?

Answer 12

• No definitive list of consumer food concerns. These concerns change with time and vary. They are not generally identified by the consumers themselves but others in the food
sectors such as experts (e.g. Processed meat, health and consumer & More good news for vegetarians ).
• Food marketer has to align with what is acceptable in the market and what is good for business.
•Consumer concerns can broadly be categorized into I.Dread
II.Unfamiliarity
III.Degree of exposure to risk
•Consumers balance the benefits with the risks involved (e.g. buying the near expiry product cheaper). Once consumers move beyond physiological need to satisfy hunger they increasingly become more concerned with food safety, its
immediate nutritional value, its long terms effects, mostly in regards to illness
and their health, and its social and environmental effects.