Consumer Decision Making in Food Context

Questions: 1.Make Communication and Professional Presentation of Report.2.What are Consumer Decision Making in Food Context3.What is Development of Appealing Offer.4.Development of an Effective Branding Strategy.5.Incorporation of Appropriate Strategies to Interrupt Routine Behaviour at Point of Sale. Answers: 1.Introduction Food marketing can be defined as the activities that take place between the farming sites to the final consumers. There are a lot of procedures involved such as processing, wholesaling, retailing, food service, and transportation (Pomeranz and Adler 2015). Food marketing allows communication between companies and the consumers to influence the purchasing decision of consumers. Food purchasing satisfies the physiological need of the individuals. However, the consumer decision process may not necessarily be the fulfilment of basic physiological needs (Cairns et al. 2013). It is important for the marketers to understand the notion of food beyond satisfying hunger. The study of consumer behaviour shall enhance the understanding of the processes involved in satisfying needs through purchase of products and services (Powell, Harris and Fox 2013). This report aims to develop a food marketing strategy for healthy food products. The knowledge of consumer decision making is applied in food mar keting by identifying the target market, highlighting consumer decision making process and explaining the stages of consumer decision making process. Further, an appealing offer is developed using the marketing mix strategy. An effective branding strategy is also developed in the next section. Lastly, appropriate strategies are incorporated to interrupt routine behaviour at point of sale through extensive packaging and labelling. Other point of presence strategies is also formulated. 2.Consumer Decision Making in Food Context The food marketing process not just involves marketing of products to consumers, but also states the reasons of such influences. Different elements such as attitudes, demographics, values, price willingness and consumer attitude influence consumer decision making (Maity and Dass 2014). Target Market The target market for food marketing is selected after defining multiple segments. For marketing the food products, the organizations need to understand and satisfy consumer needs better than the competitors. The target market for healthy food products are health and weight conscious people who prefer having an active lifestyle with a special diet aged 20-35. The health and weight conscious people prefer maintaining or losing weight and prefer food that gives them a reasonable calorie count. The people with an active lifestyle who are involved in running, rock climbing, mountain biking and others prefer eating healthy food (Freeland-Graves and Nitzke 2013). Consumer Decision Making As every consumer is different, and have different needs and wants, the demand for food differs for every individual. Habitual decisions refer to the least conscious efforts made for purchase when people buy basic products such as milk or bread. Further, limited decision making involves decisions taken with minimal thought such as rotating cereal brands. In the given scenario, the food marketing strategy is developed for health conscious people (Freeland-Graves and Nitzke 2013). Therefore, they make extensive decision making as it is more complex than routine and limited purchasing decision process. The extensive decision making process is followed as the method is out of ordinary for an individual. The businesses need to provide maximum information about their products to accomplish sales (Karimi, Papamichail and Holland 2015). Stages of the Decision Process A consumer goes through a series of steps before purchasing food products. As extensive decision making is followed for healthy food products, the consumers go through a series of steps. The first stage is problem recognition. In this stage, the problem of consumers is to improve their health and undertake a diet that has low fats and carbohydrates (Becker et al. 2015). The consumer enters the second stage information search in which they research diets online. Data may also be gathered from peers, friends and family. In the third stage, the consumers evaluate alternatives by comparing different approaches and brands to maintain a healthy diet (Chen and Lobo, 2012). In the fourth stage, a product is chosen from the alternatives that are considered as feasible, affordable and meeting the health needs of consumers. In the last stage of post purchase evaluation, the outcomes are observed if the consumer needs are met and a balanced weight and health is maintained (Drescher, Roosen and M arette 2014). 3.Development of Appealing Offer For ensuring sale of products, the companies need to develop an appealing offer using the marketing mix framework. Food marketing goes beyond branding and packaging, it needs to look at the four significant elements that make products highly lucrative. Product In case of healthy food products, the health and weight conscious consumers shall prefer fat free or diet food that shall help in maintaining weight. For example, the individuals may choose to buy cereal. They can be offered variants in cereal with different flavours and fragrances that would make the products appealing. Such variants shall provide the consumers with high fibre breakfast with minerals, vitamins and no fats along with the goodness of different flavours such as strawberry, banana and others. The companies can invest money in brand building as the main focus can be laid on healthy ingredients. Different forms and variety of food in both solid and liquid form can be offered to the consumers. Not only it must be made from wholesome ingredients, but it must also look good and taste well. The organizations can either create a healthy food product or modify a few ingredients to add to health and improve the existing product. After the necessary changes, the food product can be manufactured and sold in the market (Harrington, Ottenbacher and Fauser 2017). Price While setting price for the food, the manufacturers must ensure that the retailers add 50% to the price after it buys from the wholesaler. The prices must be attractive as the health conscious consumers are willing to buy premium prices products. Premium prices may be set as the consumers need to feel ensured regarding the high quality of products. Market research must be conducted before setting price. Competitive prices may be set for similar products having the same base or ingredients (Hanssens et al. 2014) Promotion The marketing professionals need to conduct marketing and communication activities where the consumers can be informed about the health quotient of the product. The multiple locations to promote food products to the consumers are in-store and out-of store. The campaign for healthy products can be conducted where the target market can be influenced to purchase products. Moreover, strong campaigning can convert the potential consumers into new customers. Public relations strategy can help in building quality brand image. Further, social media marketing sites such as Facebook and Twitter can help in spreading message in masses. The promotional strategy should involve such elements as the audience that must be targeted with the advertising, as well as the amount that should be spent on the advertising and the amount of return expected from the advertising (Dixon et al. 2014). Place Place can be defined as the warehousing and distribution efforts made by the food manufacturers to move to a convenient location. The food products must be competent for market share. The marketers consider the ways in which they can move product from one location to another. The cost is also considered. Healthy food products must be sold in both retail stores and online channels. Also, the product location in the store shelf also affects the consumer behaviour such as the end of an aisle; the top, bottom, or middle shelf; in a special display case. Market stores are the main places for distributing the companys products. The vast majority of sales transactions occur in these stores. However, the companies must also have an online store where people can place their orders. The firm offers delivery service for online purchases (Dixon et al. 2014). 4.Effective Branding Strategy Brand building increases the consumer awareness and voice of a brand apart from giving it worth and identity. The first stage involves defining the brand by highlighting the core strengths. The health benefits that shall be provided to the consumers can be defined so that the consumers know about the brand values. The well-being of the consumers must be clearly stated by consuming healthy products. Further, the companies must differentiate and position the brand in a manner it stands out from the competitors. The brand name must sound healthy. No false claims must be made. Further, names and phrases such as gluten free, fat-free, no added preservatives and others can attract consumers (Rubio, Oubina and Villasenor 2014). Attractive logos and superficial elements may be used so that the consumers choose to purchase particular healthy product over its competitors. Further, the brand must be exposed in the promotional channels, forums and social media that would create a voice for the brand. Multiple brand building campaigns must be built by personalization (Anselmsson, Vestman and Johansson 2014). Top brands encourage consumer-brand interaction by personalizing products to meet the needs and preferences of consumers. Knowing the target audience, the company shall solidify its message and increase confidence in the steps to take to connect with that audience (Chkanikova and Lehner 2015). 5.Incorporation of Exquisite Strategies Routine or habitual behaviour refers to the no conscious or very little conscious buying. Such purchases are automatic in nature as it is behavioural in nature. Such purchases involve minimum thinking and it is very hard for the marketers to break through and influence the consumers. To interrupt routine behaviour at point of sale, the companies may incorporate appropriate strategies and enhance the labelling, packaging and other standards to influence the consumers. Packaging and Labelling The food companies can adopt certain strategies that would enhance the products. A container must be chosen for packaging that would impress the consumers. The colour, material and size affect brand perception of the consumers. Further, the companies may improve products favourability by hiring a professional designer. The labelling must contain all necessary information regarding ingredients, nutritional content and warnings in the food product. The appearance, attractiveness and size of the packaging affect consumer perceptions towards the brand. Fresh food can be packaged using techniques such as vacuum packaging, skin packaging and others. The colour psychology must be followed as it affects the mood, emotion and human behaviour. The packaging materials used must be high quality as it affects the opinion about brand. The website address or other contact details can also be provided in the packaging that gives customers a chance to contact the company. Other POP Strategies Point of Purchase or Point of Presence strategies refer to the marketing strategies where the individuals can gain multiple POP touch points. Price promotions can be made where purchasing a healthy product can get a consumer 50% discount. Multipack buys can encourage sale of more healthy products. The taste testing can enable the consumers to buy products only if they like its taste. Recipe card holders and information pamphlets can also enhance POP sales. The digital and interactive media regarding the best usage of food products in the healthiest manner can also influence the consumers. These tricks can help the consumers influence behaviour. Conclusion Conclusively, food purchasing satisfies the physiological need of the individuals. The study of consumer behaviour shall enhance the understanding of the processes involved in satisfying needs through purchase of products and services. The target market for healthy food products are health and weight conscious people who prefer having an active lifestyle with a special diet aged 20-35. The extensive decision making process is followed as the method is out of ordinary for an individual. The problem of consumers is to improve their health and undertake a diet that has low fats and carbohydrates. The outcomes are observed if the consumer needs are met and a balanced weight and health is maintained. Different forms and variety of food in both solid and liquid form can be offered to the consumers. Premium prices may be set as the consumers need to feel ensured regarding the high quality of products. The campaign for healthy products can be conducted where the target market can be influenc ed to purchase products. The well-being of the consumers must be clearly stated by consuming healthy products. References: Anselmsson, J., Vestman Bondesson, N. and Johansson, U., 2014. Brand image and customers' willingness to pay a price premium for food brands.Journal of Product Brand Management, 23(2), pp.90-102. Becker, N., Tavor, T., Friedler, L. and Bar, P., 2015. 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