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Examination of Margarine Preferences Among College Consumers
3-12Views:138The purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of discrete choice experiment and thereby assess consumer preferences for margarine among students of the University of Debrecen Faculty of Economics and Business. The questionnaire was based on a focus group interview where the most important product attributes (price, fat, salt and sunflower oil content) and their levels were determined. Based on the estimates of the multinomial logit model, we concluded that increasing fat and salt content among participants reduced the sense of utility and hence willingness to pay, while we cannot found significant effect in respect of sunflower oil content.
JEL Codes: I12, M31
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Attitudes of Alternative Diet Followers Towards Purchasing Local Products
3-15Views:402Earth’s population has been growing steadily over the last centuries, with increasing demand for food production. For this reason, despite the current technological progress, even more and more cultivated lands are needed. The purpose of our research is to examine the proportion of local products that are being used by those who follow different alternative diets, which can also be used to test the behaviour towards sustainability. In order to reach our goals, we have developed a national survey including 504 Hungarian consumers. The survey consists of several questions about alternative diets, food-oriented lifestyle, and local products. The answers were weighted in order to properly represent the gender distribution of the population and were analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. According to the results, environmental conscious behaviour appears among the alternative diet followers, but for sustainability this is not a sufficient condition. Local products are bought by 82.9% of the respondents. The biggest incentives of buying local products are the origin, the support of local producers / merchants, the reduction of food kilometres, the healthy and natural characteristics of the products, and the positive experiences with local products. In contrast, the reasons why local products are mostly refused by consumers are the facts that they are time consuming and difficult to obtain.
JEL codes: C38, D70, I12, M31, Q56
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The Online Marketing Activity of German Farmer Shops
73-91Views:280The importance of digital marketing is increasing significantly. During the current pandemic situation, its shortcomings are even more easily noticeable. Due to the German consumers' green purchasing behaviour, the poor online performance of German farmer shops appeared. The aim of this paper was to analyse the usage of digital marketing tools in this field. A representative database was applied for the descriptive statistics and the principal component analysis as well. Five clusters were defined by the K-mean method. The research of 375 farmer shops highlighted shortcomings in the usage of the website and social media. More than 70% of the farmer shops did not operate any website or did not provide on it all the required information, while only 20% of the shops were available online as a webshop. The low share of digitally well-managed farmer shops (less than 3%) was revealed by the clustering method. These focus mostly on the sale of alcoholic beverages. The social media surfaces meant in the case of many shops the only contact to the consumers, however, the application of these platforms was not common according to the applied method. For the farmer shops, the lack of digital marketing could mean a disadvantage in a short period, however, the increasing importance of online appearance could cause the decrease of interest and sales for a longer period.
JEL Codes: M31, O13, E21 -
Analysis of the Food Consumer Behavior in the Online Environment: Does Digital Food Consumer Exist in Hungary?
29-38Views:348In recent years one of the major players in the market have changed radically, the consumer. They have been titled as „digitally enlightened” citizens by various researches. The main characteristics of „traditional” consumer’s behavior have been discussed previously by numerous researchers. However research on digital consumers, especially in domestic circles, is still in initial stage.
The main objective of this article is to determine the online consumer behavior trends in our country, in relation to information and shopping in particular of food. At the end of this publication we intent to answer the question asked in the title, i.e. does digital food consumer exist in this country.
In our study we used the online consumer buying behavior process as base. Each step was mapped out by using relevant and current literature analysis. Using national representative survey (N=1000) we examined in detail the food-related online information searches and the shopping opportunities in online shops.
The convenience factor – similar to the description of the literature- is the most advantageous aspect of online shopping. At online shops the other factors examined convergence occurring in the median values show the uncertainty of customers’ purchasing behavior, which results in a lack of trust in food purchases.
Overall, we can conclude that the majority of literature and research on food consumption behavior doesn’t separate properly the online consumer’ roles and most of the emphasis is on the final purchase. Based on literature research, we have attempted to differentiate the digital food consumers based on online behavior in which the basis for the subsequent researches hypothetical fives categories were distinguished. -
Examination of the Young Athletes’ Eating Habits
79-88Views:533Nowadays, movement and maintaining health are becoming more and more prominent in both public life and the scientific world. In connection with this, we can meet many scientific developments and new recommendations. In the present research, we examined young athletes, primarily in terms of their eating habits, as the compilation of a proper diet contributes greatly to the ability of athletes to achieve the best possible results. The aim of the secondary search was to get acquainted with the young athletes’ health-consciousness behavior and eating habits. The primary search consisted of an online-, and paper based questionnaire as well. As far as data analysis is concerned, we only considered data given by the targeted segment of the respondents, which falls between the age of 15 and 35. For statistical analysis we used descriptive statistics and crosstabs procedure. The results revealed that the majority of the athletes eat 3-5 times a day both in preparation and competiton period. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of athletes find conscious eating important, however, they did not find either the consumption of different health protecive or disease preventive food important. They also do not follow the latest trends in connection with sportfood.
JEL Classification: M31, H12, Z2
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Research of Risk Reductive Behaviours Related to Food Products
63-77Views:76This topic will always be actual, since most of the companies crave to understand the
behaviour of their consumers in Hungary – what kind of patterns of behaviour they have, and how companies can influence consumer behaviour without high expenses, considering the most effective methods. As we know, consumer behaviour should be researched on the level of a specific product or service in the short term, or as a brand versus personal preference.
Nowadays, the role of health-awareness and cost-consciousness is getting misrated, alongside with environmental protection and the awareness of hazardous substances. Based on our idea, the background of our research assumes awareness of the contents of food, and the investigation of labels or titles. The organic labels on food have a high priority role in Hungary. In our opinion, the trust contains the following factors: (1) There are control authorities who are reliable, and guarantee the high quality of products for the consumers (for example: Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection, or other food and chemical industrial laboratories). (2) Food processing facilities are accredited, recorded, and given a certificate (for example: certificate of organic production, etc.) (3) Purchasing is straight from the source. (4) Purchase is on the basis of information technology. These factors are the underlying cause of the change in behaviour resulting from risk reduction awareness. The article focuses on the food consumption behaviour analysis of Hungary’s population. The analyzed database was queried from IPSOS Ltd. (N=1 038 people) but we will select 883 people, based on inclusive criteria (aged between 18 and 70) and exclude people with extreme incomes (due to being outliers). In order to indroduce the topic, we will start our research with a short literary introspection. Before the analysis of the database, we presume consumers have a kind of set awareness that is shaped by buying their daily food and products. In this research, we will prove this assumption.JEL code: D12
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A HÍR védjegy ismertsége és beágyazódottsága a magyar fogyasztók körében
81-97Views:178The Traditions-Tastes-Regions (TTR) programme has more than 20 years of history, promoting and economically stimulating the traditional and local food products of Hungary. Since 2002 the TTR is a registered trademark and used for product differentiation. At the end of 2018 altogether 92 producers with 176 products had the right to use the trademark. The Geographical Indications Programme – initiated by the Hungarian government in order to increase the number of the Hungarian GI products in the EU register – is also based on the TTR initiative. The demand of the Hungarian traditional food products in general, as well the supply side of the TTR programme is well described by the literature, however the field of the consumers’ relation with the TTR trademark seems to be undiscovered. In spite of this background, this study tries to describe the recognition and the embeddedness of the TTR trademark among the Hungarian consumers. Part of an international survey conducted by the Strength2Food H2020 research project, the TTR trademark was analysed on a sample of 444 Hungarian consumers, retrieved from an online survey. Results suggest that the almost 40% recognition of the TTR trademark significantly exceeds recognition of the EU geographical indications labels. However, only roughly 10% of the consumers seeks purposefully food products with TTR label. Regular buyers of such foods usually seek for meat products. Based on the binomial regression models the recognition of the TTR trademark’s logo is significantly higher among female, older and non-vegetarian consumers with lower income levels. The place of regular purchase is also statistically significant: consumers with regular purchase in organic shops and in short food supply chains (directly from the producer) tend to be more aware of the TTR logo. Regarding the regular consumption of such products we can say that males and consumers shopping in supermarkets and discounters are becoming a frequent buyer of TTR products with a higher probability.
JEL Codes: M31, M37, O13, O34, Q13
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Awareness and Effect of CSR on Consumer Decisions
15-27Views:222Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a common topic, both at national and international levels. Profit maximisation is essential for companies, but they should not forget the social and environmental impacts of their activities. The question of sustainability is also a common topic requiring examination. The future of the Earth, our natural resources and the generations that will come after us also impact on the responsibilities of companies. For many companies, this kind of responsibility is natural and they take such CSR and sustainable steps that are worth following. From modern society, there is a high expectation and even strong pressure on companies to conduct responsible business practice. The number of responsible companies is increasing due to this pressure. What do we mean by CSR? What sorts of activities and steps are covered by CSR? What are the motivators of the CSR strategies, CSR activities of companies? What are their reasons? Many researchers investigate the motivators of CSR. From them, opinion on the company, image of the company, “consumers will prefer us”, are among the most frequent ones. However, are the CSR actions of companies appreciated by consumers? The results of many researchers demonstrate that they are not appreciated. In general, responsible business practise is a high expectation from consumers, but when purchasing a product, this aspect is one of the least important factors. The aim of this paper is to collect some of the most relevant research findings on CSR, to introduce the informedness of Hungarian respondents on CSR in general, to find out the main influencing factors of their purchasing decisions, and also find correlations between the received results and the demographic variables based on our primary research. Our results support the present practice in terms of the definition of CSR. Almost all the listed alternatives are strongly associated with CSR by the respondents. The highest average received for the “creating workplaces, employment” alternative indicates the importance of this activity. Regarding the different factors influencing purchasing decision, our results underline the importance of price and price value ratio. This research finding is in line with other research findings, which shows that CSR actions of companies, responsible business practice is not the number one influencing factor of actual consumer decision.
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Consumer Perception and Perspectives of Wines with Reduced Alcohol Content and Non-Alcoholic Wines (in Hungary)
3-20Views:396Significant changes have taken place in the international wine supply in recent times and the volume of non-alcoholic wines and the ones with reduced alcohol content and the consumer interest in them have increased as well. The latter is caused by changing consumer habits, like the development of health awareness and the fact that healthier eating is becoming more common. The present study provides a brief overview of some characteristics of the demand for non-alcoholic and reduced-alcohol wines, consumer perceptions, and the effects of alcohol on health. Based on some Hungarian wine consumer behavior research, this research examines the reasons behind the refusal to drink wine, and consumer opinions on the relationship between wine consumption and alcoholism. The revealed phenomena and the preferences and attitudes influencing them intend to prepare the basis for a research examining the domestic possibilities and potentials of non-alcoholic and reduced-alcohol wines.
JEL Code: Q13 -
The Megatrend Connections of Food Consumption
19-27Views:301The interest which is shown about food and meals nowadays is high. More and more new magazines, blogs, restaurant reviews and ratings, TV channels, contests and festivals appear in connection with this topic. In this study the new phenomena of food topic is analysed through several megatrend buzzwords. The study tries to draw up a system for the connections of food and meal topic and also tries to present research results about it. Some research results are presented in the study in order to illustrate the behaviour of Hungarian consumer.
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Analyzing Consumer Attitudes Towards Health-protecting Food
39-55Views:416The main goal of our research was to analyze the role of health-protecting food in our daily nutrition. In our secondary research, we analyzed the generalities and characteristics of health and health behavior with the help of relevant domestic and foreign literature. We analyzed the domestic tendencies of health in details. We examined the most important characteristics of functional foods and investigated the factors of personalized nutrition. Based on a literature review, in our primary research we conducted an online questionnaire survey with 231 respondents. Our survey cannot be considered representative, however, the proportion of genders in our sample population is almost the same as the Hungarian population’s. In the questionnaire survey, we examined the frequency of consumption of health-protecting food. After that, we analyzed respondents’ perceptions of the actual health effects of health-protecting food. We have measured consumer attitudes towards health-protecting food. We analyzed the perception of potential health risks and problems from the consumer perspective. We measured the impact of various health factors on shopping. Besides, we have explored our intention to participate in personalized nutrition-related programs. Based on our research, most of the analyzed health-protecting food is consumed once or twice a week. It can be stated that the respondents considered the examined food categories less scientifically proven. We could identify the preventive behaviors of respondents for various health problems. However, there is also uncertainty in the decision of respondents in what is the right way to prevent the diseases. In this uncertain situation, only experts can provide real help to them.
JEL Classification: Q16, Q12, Q13, O32