Observation of food choice in catering before and after introduction
of organic cheese and meat slices
A.A.M. Poelman1, C. Glorie2 and J. Mojet1
1Agrotechnology & Food Innovations, Wageningen UR,
Wageningen, The Netherlands
2Sodexho Food & Management Services, Capelle aan den IJssel, The Netherlands
Observational research in a real life setting offers great potential
for studying eating and
drinking behavior, but (reported) applications are still scarce. In a
food service restaurant
in Wageningen the consumer lunch choices for cheese and meat slices were
observed. The
observations were part of a larger study aimed at investigating the introduction
of organic
products in catering. The effect of different marketing strategies on
the success of organic
meat and cheese slices was studied monitoring sales and individual consumer
lunch choices
during a 6 weeks period. Camera recorded observations were explored to
obtain an insight
in the consumers’ choice process.
For organic products to be successful, consumers have to involve them
in their choice process. It is assumed that when these products are incorporated
in the consumers’ consideration set, it will be reflected in a prolonged
choice process. The decision time to choose meat and/or cheese was measured
before, during and after introduction of the organic products. The consumers
needed, on average, 20% more time to choose a product within the category
in the introduction week, but this effect was only indicative (p=0.08).
Three weeks after introduction the decision time seemed to decrease slightly.
Initial purchase of organic products was quite high (around 25% for meat
within that category), but decreased to around 7% over time.
The second objective was to examine the duration of product handling
after the choice was
made. The organic products were presented unwrapped on a porcelain plate.
The regular
products were presented in individual plastic wrappings. Organic products
took up to a
fourfold of time to obtain when compared to regular products.
It was concluded that the strategy was successful in gaining consumers’
attention. To
increase repeat purchase, several suggestions were made, including the
improvement of
the presentation.
Paper presented
at Measuring Behavior 2005
, 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques
in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The
Netherlands.
© 2005 Noldus
Information Technology bv
|