Consumers’ Behaviors and Attitudes toward Doggy Bags: Identifying Barriers and Benefits to Promoting Behavior Change

This study identifies barriers and benefits of consumers’ current doggy bag behaviors and provides the information required to run an effective community-based social marketing campaign encouraging consumers to take their uneaten restaurant and café food home. This is done by applying a two-stage methodology, including quantitatively analyzing existing survey data and qualitatively investigating focus group discussion. Multiple barriers to widespread doggy bag participation were common and varied for different individuals and included both convenience and social stigma-related factors. The rational appeal of “saving money” was found to be the most effective motivator for encouraging doggy bag usage, especially for women, young people, students/unemployed, and low-income earners. Social marketing strategies and behavior change tools can be developed to remove the barriers and enhance the benefits of using doggy bags, such as developing positive social norms around using doggy bags and highlighting the financial incentive of using them. This research contributes to a limited but growing literature on out-of-home food waste and provides practicable insights for both public policy and for the food service sector for future initiatives aiming to reduce food waste

Dynamic ideologies : insights from the Slow Food movement

Ideology is the framework in which all consumer decisions are made and as such, an understanding of ideology is important for marketers. There is however, little research which conceptualises either what ideology actually is, or the role that it plays in a marketing context. One of the most obvious problems is the tendency for scholars to treat ideology as static, rather than exploring its dynamic nature. This thesis examines ideological change in the context of a consumer activist movement. The Slow Food movement is a contemporary example of such a movement and provides an interesting research case for investigating ideology. The research is guided in that it uses a framework provided by new social movement theorist Alberto Melucci to study ideological change. A number of research propositions are derived from this framework about the form, content and role of ideology and how these vary over time. The histories of the Slow Food movement members are therefore 'told' in this thesis through the eyes of Melucci's criteria. A historical methodology is used to search for evidence based on these research propositions. The data is collected at two different levels of analysis: at an organisational level and an individual activist level. The thesis makes a number of significant theoretical and practical contributions: • The research provides a comprehensive historical narrative of the Slow Food movement. This includes insights into food activists' thoughts and behaviours and how these have changed over time. • The research extends on current marketing conceptualisations of ideology by investigating how it is operationalised in a marketing context. This includes an understanding of how it is co-produced, how it changes over time and how it is used strategically by a consumer activist movement to reach its objectives. In achieving these ends, the research has also extended on several well known marketing concepts and theories by applying them to the research context of ideology. • The research overviews the work done in marketing to date on consumer activist movements and suggests the new title 'consumer activist movement theory' for this body of literature. Building on this, the research then shows how consumer activist movements can be conceptualised as a subset of social movements and how these can be differentiated from other types of collective actions that occur in the marketplace. A systematically logical and simple way of differentiating between different types of consumer activist movements is identified. • The research emphasises the importance of ideology as a leadership resource and provides consumer activist movement leaders with the knowledge of how to approach and assess their movement's ideology. The major finding of this thesis is that Melucci's framework for evaluating ideology - when used in conjunction with a number of marketing theories such as tribal marketing - is useful in helping marketers understand ideological change in the context of contemporary consumer activist movements. Future research could investigate if this framework can be extended into other contexts such as understanding the ideologies of political parties

An Exploratory Qualitative Exploration of the Personal Values Underpinning Taiwanese and Malaysians’ Wine Consumption Behaviors

Augmented buying power of East Asian consumers has resulted in increased interest in these markets. Wine is a particularly promising sector to target as the number of East Asians choosing to drink wine rises. In order to serve these markets, companies must understand factors influencing consumers’ choices. The objective of this research was to understand how Taiwanese and Malaysian consumers’ personal values influenced their consumption decisions about wine. The means–end chain framework and associated semi-structured interview technique, value laddering, was used to elicit consumers’ preferred product attributes, the consequences of these attributes and the values that underpin these consequences. Data collection involved intercepting foreign travelers from Malaysia and Taiwan in New Zealand (20 Taiwanese and 20 Malaysian) to partake in a wine choice interview. The resulting findings are exploratory in nature. Analysis revealed the most preferred wine attributes for Taiwanese were “Price” and “Sensory Aspects”—that these attributes were linked to consequences “Financial Considerations” and “Satisfy Senses”—which in turn were linked to personal values “Self Direction” and “Achievement”. For the Malaysian participants, the attribute “Sensory Aspects” of wine was most important, as was the value “Hedonism”. This study adds to literature related to beverage consumption decision making by exploring cultural aspects. It also offers suggestions for practitioners interested in targeting these consumers

Revealing barriers to healthier fast food consumption choices

In light of growing concerns around obesity, the present work investigates why consumers continue to choose traditional unhealthy fast food options over newly offered healthier fast food alternatives. A total of 24 value laddering interviews were conducted with people who had just purchased an item from the traditional menu at McDonalds. Individual reasoning for not selecting a healthier Weight Watchers' approved alternative was aggregated across the respondent set to form a summary map which pictorially displays barriers to healthier fast food choices. Consumers' choices not to purchase healthier fast food options were dominated by Self Direction type values and are heavily influenced by engrained perceptions that fast food is junk food. For the fast food industry, this research highlights that to help shift consumers' choices toward healthier alternatives, they need to reposition themselves as quick service restaurants that offer good tasting food that is both convenient and healthy. For public policy makers, this research suggests a need to address the perceptions of personal relevance of obesity and diet related health issues. The valuable in-depth information collected via the value laddering process offers substantial insights into the unexplored area of barriers to healthier fast food consumption

Revealing the lifestyles of local food consumers

Changing consumption patterns have led to a number of transformations throughout the food cycle, and understanding how and why people purchase local food is important. This paper aims to examine the characteristics of the people leading this phenomenon: those that prefer to buy locally produced food. In order to explore the characteristics of local food purchasers, a single item question, “I try to buy a lot of locally produced food”, was included in the food section of a New Zealand consumer lifestyles survey for which 3,556 responses were collected. The full survey included 600 questions across the full attitude, interest and opinion schedule. For people who express a strong intention to purchase local food, this behaviour is linked to the types of food they eat (e.g. unprocessed foods), where they buy it (e.g. at speciality stores), and how they cook it (e.g. follow recipes). A range of personality and other personal characteristics differ between local and non-local food buyers, with the former segment being more liberal, interested in quality, and frugal. Consumers who express an interest in purchasing local food are a demanding segment of the population whose interest in food makes them critical judges of produce. Local food must thus be fresh and value for money. Growing this sector requires making local food more accessible through mainstream retail outlets. While something is known about why people buy local food, less is known about other aspects of local food consumers, the range of attitudes they hold towards food or their food-related behaviours

Young Chinese and Functional Foods for Mobility Health: Perceptions of Importance, Trust, and Willingness to Purchase and Pay a Premium

Consumers’ desire to enhance diet and health has become a driver for the development of functional food products. China, with one of the largest markets in the world, offers huge potential for these foods. In the context of functional foods, specifically related to mobility health, this study aimed to understand Chinese consumers’ perceptions of the importance of these foods, trust, and willingness to purchase and pay a premium for such foods. A mixed-methodological approach using both focus groups and a survey was used to collect data from Chinese living in New Zealand. Findings show Chinese consumers place a high level of importance on their mobility health. Level of importance increased when asked about the believed importance of this area later in life. Key factors influencing Chinese consumers’ willingness to purchase functional foods were also identified: the carrier/nutrient combination; trust in the product’s country of origin and in the various institutions that may be involved in the production of functional food products; trust in both the product brand and how it is advertised; health motivation; and price. The study offers the food industry insights into the development and marketing of mobility-related functional foods targeted to this market

University foodservices’ potential for providing environmental education to students

University foodservices are potentially well placed to foster environmental education in a non-classroom setting and so could have the power to benefit communities through producing environmentally literate graduates. Buy-in from foodservice staff is critical for realising this potential, so understanding what foodservice staff think about their foodservice engaging in the provision of environmental education is essential. The aim of this study was to identify the dominant perspectives held by university foodservice staff about the desirability and realities of fostering environmental education in their workplaces. Methods: The study design integrated two phases: (i) 36 foodservice staff conducted a card-sorting activity that revealed four dominant viewpoints; (ii) 60 foodservice staff completed a survey where they identified with one of these viewpoints. The study was conducted in Dunedin, New Zealand. The four main perspectives were The ‘Believer’, the ‘Relatively Positive Integrator’, the ‘Uncertain Contender’ and the ‘Sceptic’. All of the perspective groups, except for Sceptic, believed environmental education in their workplace was desirable. In the survey, 25% of the 60 participants self-identified with the Believer narrative, 40% with the Relatively Positive Integrator, 25% with the Uncertain Contender and 10% with the Sceptic. There were no significant differences between factors for sociodemographic characteristics. A paradigm shift in foodservice framework thinking could unlock the potential university foodservice has to assist universities whose strategic mission is to embed environmental education in both curricular and co-extracurricula activities

Immune-Boosting Functional Foods: A Potential Remedy for Chinese Consumers Living Under Polluted Air

The deterioration of air quality in China has resulted in many people looking for remedies to counteract the impact that air pollution is perceived to be having on their health. As the importance of diet on immune health is becoming increasingly well recognised, a narrative literature review was undertaken to elucidate Chinese consumers’ acceptance of functional food products designed to help the immune system recover from pollution-driven impact and to assess their market potential. Consumers’ attitude towards immune-boosting functional foods were mainly positive, with scientific validation being important in determining the credibility of a product. This was despite the fact that the effectiveness of the functional food products currently in the market that purported to be remedies for pollution-driven impacts on the lung did not appear to be supported by scientific evidence. Numerous studies have reported functional foods could provide a wide range of benefits to immune health, including helping pollution-driven immune issues. This review highlights the market demand for effective and scientifically-proven functional food products that help Chinese consumers’ immune system recover from the impact of air pollution

Determining How Chinese Consumers that Purchase Western Food Products Prioritize Food Safety Cues: A Conjoint Study on Adult Milk Powder

This study investigated how Chinese consumers prioritize cues when assessing the safety of imported milk powder. A choice-based conjoint survey was completed by 307 participants in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Nanjing, using the internet-based software 1000minds. Important cues for consumers were “government certification logo shown on the product label/Website”; “ingredients and materials, free from preservatives and additives”; “having traceability techniques such as QR code included” and “realistic photos.” Distinct consumer segments reflecting differing trade-offs between safety cues were not detected suggesting that a single food safety communication strategy for this market may be sufficient. These findings add to extant literature by highlighting what cues give consumers the most confidence a product is safe and they provide a raft of actionable insights for government and the food industry in terms of designing and implementing effective risk or market communication strategies for Chinese consumers

It’s not just about the destination, but also the journey: Reflections on research with Indigenous women food growers

cultural values, aspirations, and tikanga (protocols). While the research explored how Māori women are reclaiming the food system and promoting agroecology, food self-reliance, and alternative visions based on Māori cultural values and traditions, this article is a reflective work based on my experiential learning through the process of utilizing a participatory methodology and kaupapa Māori. Nonetheless, I touch upon key research findings. The vastly opposing worldviews between Indigenous women promoting agroecological farming and the industrial model of food production are representative of the conflicting values of an Indigenous versus an academic worldview. In this paper, I set out a series of reflections on working with Indigenous Māori women within a research context; the challenges and tribulations that were overcome; as well as how kaupapa Māori, an Indigenous methodology, expands on participatory research