The consumer in product development 199 Table 5.1 Breakfast cereals: family-member influence on buying Stages in buying ation Search and evaluation Final decision Husband 2.64 2.51 Child 3.91 B Husband Wife What kind to buy 3.81 What brand to buy 3.90 What siz 260 2.8 Where to purchase 4.43 When to purchase 4.37 Each score represents the average of the husbands, wife's and child's perception of family member influence, on a scale where 1= no input and 6= all of the input. Source After Lawson et aL. 1996 there are so many stimuli the individual does not react to them all on a conscious level, and probably has a basic set used for each type of product. The depth of study in comparing food products and buying is usually not very great; the consumers do it everyday and they want it to be simple and not take time. The product stimuli to buy or not buy include strong not buy' factors such as the smell of deteriorating fish, bruising of fruit, unusual colour of bacon strong" buy' factors such as value for money, sensory attractiveness; Table 5.2 Consumer actions after buying the food product Action Sub-actions Decisions for and against Preparati Transport, store, prepare, Easy/difficult Eating See. feel. smell. bite Enjoy/neutralldislike savour. swallow Easy/difficull Quick/takes time Post-eating Digest, general feeling, feeling in stoma Well/sick Pleasant/unpleasant afrer-taste Dispose of waste Compare with other foods Like/dislike Repurchase/never bury again
there are so many stimuli the individual does not react to them all on a conscious level, and probably has a basic set used for each type of product. The depth of study in comparing food products and buying is usually not very great; the consumers do it everyday and they want it to be simple and not take time. The product stimuli to buy or not buy include: • strong ‘not buy’ factors such as the smell of deteriorating fish, bruising of fruit, unusual colour of bacon; • strong ‘buy’ factors such as value for money, sensory attractiveness; Table 5.1 Breakfast cereals: family-member influence on buying Stages in buying Initiation Search and evaluation Final decision Husband 2.64 2.51 2.60 Wife 3.64 3.66 3.88 Child 3.91 3.42 3.62 Buying decisions Husband Wife Child What kind to buy 2.60 3.81 3.95 What brand to buy 2.42 3.90 3.68 What size 2.16 4.20 2.84 Where to purchase 2.07 4.43 2.29 When to purchase 2.14 4.37 2.75 Each score represents the average of the husband’s, wife’s and child’s perception of family member influence, on a scale where 1 no input and 6 all of the input. Source: After Lawson et al., 1996. Table 5.2 Consumer actions after buying the food product Action Sub-actions Decisions for and against Preparation Transport, store, prepare, Easy/difficult cook, serve Quick/time-consuming Eating See, feel, smell, bite, Enjoy/neutral/dislike savour, swallow Easy/difficult Clean/messy Quick/takes time Post-eating Digest, general feeling, Comfortable/indigestion feeling in stomach Well/sick Pleasant/unpleasant after-taste Dispose of waste None/large, clean/messy Compare with other foods Like/dislike Repurchase/never buy again The consumer in product development 199
200 Food product development important buy' factors such as the size of a loaf and the thickness of the slices may not stimulate buying because they accept quite a wide variation weak 'buy' factors which do not stimulate such as the nutritional value and the ingredients list on the label In developing the product concept, it is important to recognise these aspects of stimuli for the new product- strong buy/not buy, range of acceptable variation in important factors, and the low importance factors The consumer actions after buying the food, in preparing, eating and post- ating, are important in building up long-term attitudes and behaviour. The decisions that can be made, shown in Table 5.2, can lead to strong acceptance or dislike of the food Think break Compare the complete consumer behaviour from the initial perceived need to buy food to the post-eating actions for the following 1. A teenager feeling hungry and deciding to buy a takeaway snack 2. A person buying the week's food for a household of adults and children under 3. A wealthy person deciding to go out to a high-class restaurant 5.1.2 Product judging criteria Product judging criteria during the buying and use of the product are important; for example for bread, they may be judging on: colour of the crust, shape of loaf, fibre content and price. When a person is faced with a food, they perceive its physical and social attributes through the senses of sight, feel, smell, hearing and taste These in turn arouse the central control unit (the brain) to make a comparison between the perceived sensory properties and the acceptable criteria for the food based on personal preferences and past experience. The result of this comparison is acceptance or rejection of the product. This can occur at any stage of the food behavi The product may be rejected at the search stage, because it does not fit the cultural pattern, someone in the household dislikes it, or it does not suit the eating occasion. It can be rejected during the buying stage because of the pack appearance, the nutritional information, the price, or because the product appears soft to touch, has an unpleasant odour. Similar judgements will take place hroughout the preparation, cooking and eating stages The level of involvement that a consumer has product and environment. Involvement has several facets: perceived importance of product and buying/eating situation, perceived symbolic or sign value perceived pleasure value and perceived risk (Laurent and Kapferer, 1985) Consumers' product knowledge is based on a chain(Peter and Olson, 1999)
• important ‘buy’ factors such as the size of a loaf and the thickness of the slices may not stimulate buying because they accept quite a wide variation in them; • weak ‘buy’ factors which do not stimulate such as the nutritional value and the ingredients list on the label. In developing the product concept, it is important to recognise these aspects of stimuli for the new product – strong buy/not buy, range of acceptable variation in important factors, and the low importance factors. The consumer actions after buying the food, in preparing, eating and posteating, are important in building up long-term attitudes and behaviour. The decisions that can be made, shown in Table 5.2, can lead to strong acceptance or dislike of the food. 5.1.2 Product judging criteria Product judging criteria during the buying and use of the product are important; for example for bread, they may be judging on: colour of the crust, shape of loaf, fibre content and price. When a person is faced with a food, they perceive its physical and social attributes through the senses of sight, feel, smell, hearing and taste. These in turn arouse the central control unit (the brain) to make a comparison between the perceived sensory properties and the acceptable criteria for the food based on personal preferences and past experience. The result of this comparison is acceptance or rejection of the product. This can occur at any stage of the food behaviour process. The product may be rejected at the search stage, because it does not fit the cultural pattern, someone in the household dislikes it, or it does not suit the eating occasion. It can be rejected during the buying stage because of the pack appearance, the nutritional information, the price, or because the product appears soft to touch, has an unpleasant odour. Similar judgements will take place throughout the preparation, cooking and eating stages. The level of involvement that a consumer has with a product varies with product and environment. Involvement has several facets: perceived importance of product and buying/eating situation, perceived symbolic or sign value, perceived pleasure value and perceived risk (Laurent and Kapferer, 1985). Consumers’ product knowledge is based on a chain (Peter and Olson, 1999): Think break Compare the complete consumer behaviour from the initial perceived need to buy food to the post-eating actions for the following: 1. A teenager feeling hungry and deciding to buy a takeaway snack. 2. A person buying the week’s food for a household of adults and children under ten years. 3. A wealthy person deciding to go out to a high-class restaurant. 200 Food product development
The consumer in product development 201 psychosocial value Some attributes are related to strong core values of the person; others are unimportant and get little response from the consumer. Consumers can believe that product attributes are strongly related to their goals or values, for example that diet foods will help them to achieve their goal of losing weight, and therefore they feel strongly about the low-calorie attributes of the product. Values include instrumental values, the preferred modes of conduct, and terminal values, the preferred states of being. Consumers also recognise functional product attributes, which are important but not related strongly to either their goals or values, for example that dried soup powders mix easily with water. Finally there may be product attributes that are of no importance to them and these attributes will not gain their interest in the product. These three levels of attribute involvement by the consumer can occur in one product, and lead to the hierarchy of attributes used in product design. The consumers' product knowledge can recognise a number of product attributes, a number of product benefits and also their value satisfaction from the product 5.1.3 Consumer/food relationship The consumer and food relationship is important throughout the food behaviour process, both the food and the consumer have attributes and it is the ompatibility of these attributes that determines acceptance or rejection of a food product. In product development, consumers' needs and the related products' attributes need to be considered together at each stage of the food behaviour process as shown in Fig. 5.3(Schaffner et al., 1998). The consumer decision in the post-action to not buy the new product, if widespread, will necessitate a redesign of the product. If it is decided just to drop the product, it is important to determine what caused the failure in the consumer/food product produouship and to store all the information for a later time. The consumer/food relations relationship is the basic relationship in food product development and it is important that it is considered in all the steps in the food behaviour process Think break In studying consumer/product behaviour for the development of new product concepts, there are four important stages 1. Identify the consumerproduct relationships for each action stage of the omplete consumer food behaviour process 2. Relate the specific consumer needs/wants with specific product attributes 3. Rank the specific product attributes for consumer importance in three levels mportant, functional, not important
product functional psychosocial values attributes consequences consequences Some attributes are related to strong core values of the person; others are unimportant and get little response from the consumer. Consumers can believe that product attributes are strongly related to their goals or values, for example that diet foods will help them to achieve their goal of losing weight, and therefore they feel strongly about the low-calorie attributes of the product. Values include instrumental values, the preferred modes of conduct, and terminal values, the preferred states of being. Consumers also recognise functional product attributes, which are important but not related strongly to either their goals or values; for example that dried soup powders mix easily with water. Finally there may be product attributes that are of no importance to them and these attributes will not gain their interest in the product. These three levels of attribute involvement by the consumer can occur in one product, and lead to the hierarchy of attributes used in product design. The consumers’ product knowledge can recognise a number of product attributes, a number of product benefits and also their value satisfaction from the product. 5.1.3 Consumer/food relationship The consumer and food relationship is important throughout the food behaviour process; both the food and the consumer have attributes and it is the compatibility of these attributes that determines acceptance or rejection of a food product. In product development, consumers’ needs and the related products’ attributes need to be considered together at each stage of the food behaviour process as shown in Fig. 5.3 (Schaffner et al., 1998). The consumer decision in the post-action to not buy the new product, if widespread, will necessitate a redesign of the product. If it is decided just to drop the product, it is important to determine what caused the failure in the consumer/food product relationship and to store all the information for a later time. The consumer/food product relationship is the basic relationship in food product development and it is important that it is considered in all the steps in the food behaviour process. Think break In studying consumer/product behaviour for the development of new product concepts, there are four important stages: 1. Identify the consumer/product relationships for each action stage of the complete consumer food behaviour process. 2. Relate the specific consumer needs/wants with specific product attributes. 3. Rank the specific product attributes for consumer importance in three levels: important, functional, not important. The consumer in product development 201
202 Food product development 4. Identify the most important product attributes on which to base the total product concept for the design of new products Now study the following buying situations using the above four stages Middle-aged man buying chocolates for a partners birthday Vegetarian buying a frozen convenience meal for their own consumption Identify the important product attributes for the product concepts of a new chocolate product and a vegetarian convenience meal Consumer actions 2 Consumer needs Product attributes Problem recognition Products' companson easy availability sales promotion Buying action leeds fulfilment Judge, pay nutritional value, safety socially acceptable environmental standard Move, make, serve group preference nutritional value 1 satisfaction group happiness Digest, assess, compare Good after-effects individ value correct Fig 5.3 Comparing consumer needs and product attributes in the food behaviour process
4. Identify the most important product attributes on which to base the total product concept for the design of new products. Now study the following buying situations using the above four stages: • Middle-aged man buying chocolates for a partner’s birthday. • Vegetarian buying a frozen convenience meal for their own consumption. Identify the important product attributes for the product concepts of a new chocolate product and a vegetarian convenience meal. Fig. 5.3 Comparing consumer needs and product attributes in the food behaviour process. 202 Food product development
The consumer in product development 203 There are three levels of understanding the consumer/product relationship: as an individual product, as a meal and as an eating pattern. The bar of chocolate could be eaten alone, but many food products are eaten together. For example the hamburger is in a bun with lettuce, tomato, a sauce, and it is sold with French fries and a soft drink. Sometimes this juxtaposition of foods is ignored in product development. The consumers also have eating patterns, which do change with time, and the foods have to fit into this eating pattern. So the consumer behaviour is more complex than the single product action model, as each model is interrelated with other product models. The success of the takeaway industry is based on its understanding of these interrelationships. In some cases it has also been used in the supermarkets, for example relating pasta and meat to sauces 5.2 Understanding food choice Food choice is an area of research that has expanded a great deal in recent years and whose findings need to be brought into product development. Food choice is caused by the interaction of the person and the buying or eating environment oth the state of the environment and the individual affecting the choice( bell and Meiselman, 1995). Buying fish and chips served on fine china in a high- class fish restaurant, or buying them wrapped in newspaper from a fish and chip shop changes the interaction between the consumer and the product. Consumer food choice is complex; some of the variables are shown in Fig. 5.4 ndividual Perception of ethnicity Perception of social group Perception of variety Habitual behaviour Prior experience Interaction Decor, store layout Food choice Fig 5.4 Interaction of the dual and the environment in food choice
There are three levels of understanding the consumer/product relationship: as an individual product, as a meal and as an eating pattern. The bar of chocolate could be eaten alone, but many food products are eaten together. For example the hamburger is in a bun with lettuce, tomato, a sauce, and it is sold with French fries and a soft drink. Sometimes this juxtaposition of foods is ignored in product development. The consumers also have eating patterns, which do change with time, and the foods have to fit into this eating pattern. So the consumer behaviour is more complex than the single product action model, as each model is interrelated with other product models. The success of the takeaway industry is based on its understanding of these interrelationships. In some cases it has also been used in the supermarkets, for example relating pasta and meat to sauces. 5.2 Understanding food choice Food choice is an area of research that has expanded a great deal in recent years and whose findings need to be brought into product development. Food choice is caused by the interaction of the person and the buying or eating environment, both the state of the environment and the individual affecting the choice (Bell and Meiselman, 1995). Buying fish and chips served on fine china in a highclass fish restaurant, or buying them wrapped in newspaper from a fish and chip shop changes the interaction between the consumer and the product. Consumer food choice is complex; some of the variables are shown in Fig. 5.4. Fig. 5.4 Interaction of the individual and the environment in food choice (Source: After Bell and Meiselman, 1995). The consumer in product development 203