Running wild in the marketplace: the articulation and negotiation of an alternative food network

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we examine how actors within what we conceptualise as an emerging wild food alternative network are navigating through the foodscape to find alternatives to homogenous and standardised food products. Drawing on data from different research engagements with wild food consumers and producers over the last decade in Canada, we use the context of wild foods to explore how the ‘alternative’ is being articulated and negotiated. Inspired by scholarly work exploring the pedagogical promise of food, we also explore the transformational potential of the ‘alternative’ – how bringing wild foods to the table can both inspire and teach consumers about sustainability and alternative consumption practices. We conclude with directions for future marketing research on alternative food networks.     

Theory into practice: meditations on cultures of accountability and interdisciplinarity in marketing research

Abstract

The emergence of a more reflexive and discerning customer has created inter alia a demand for ‘better’ food (i.e. quality and ‘authenticity’) in terms of sourcing, processing, and specialist distribution/retailing. As a consequence, the food production/distribution industry is under pressure to change many of its practices. One manifestation is the emergence of farmers' markets and the associated emphasis on ‘local’ food. This paper aims to identify the extent to which ‘conscious’ consumers are committed to buying local foodstuffs and supporting local food producers, especially from farmers’ markets. Given the exploratory nature of this research, a qualitative approach was undertaken using in-depth interviews with ‘conscious’ consumers. The results reveal that ‘conscious’ consumers recognise their own limitations (i.e. time, convenience, and price) but also demonstrate that integrating ethical considerations into their consumption behaviour is a complex and flexible task. A number of strategic actions for farmers’ markets are proposed to help differentiate their provision, particularly in terms of capitalising on perceptions of authenticity and locality.     

Making a market for alternatives: marketing devices and the qualification of a vegan milk substitute

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to describe, conceptualise and critically discuss how and with what consequences marketing is used to construct a mass market for vegan substitutes. Drawing on the concepts of the marketing device and qualification, it shows how Oatly – a Swedish company making oat-based products – enrols three sets of marketing devices, i.e. digital media, packaging and stores, to simultaneously ‘alternativise’ and ‘convenienise’ its range of vegan products. The result is the material and discursive construction of a range of vegan products that is qualified as different enough from conventional dairy products to be an attractive alternative, but similar enough to fit into existing practices of shopping for food, cooking and eating. By qualifying products along multiple registers, Oatly constructs ‘plastic’ products, which can be consumed, for various reasons, by various groups of consumers thus enacting a multi-niche market for its products.     

Can consumers buy alternative foods at a big box supermarket?

ABSTRACT

While consumers in affluent countries are ever hungry for alternatives to the ‘Big-Food’ mainstream, critical scholars have raised serious questions about the meaning of ‘alternative’ food products. I explore scholarly critiques of alternative food, and argue against a binary approach that sees foods as either alternative or not alternative. Instead, I suggest the utility of taking a multifaceted, ‘family of issues’ approach that is both reflexive and materialist. The case of ethical meat is used to explore the myriad, often contradictory ideals contained within consumers’ search for alternatives to mainstream market options. Three cautionary lessons are put forward. First, the goal of producing myriad consumer alternatives is significantly hampered by the competing, and often contradictory demands of market forces. Second, the discourse of food alternatives uses a ‘win-win’ logic suggesting that consumer sacrifice or change is unnecessary; the challenge of reshaping, and even downgrading consumer expectations is a necessary, but tremendous challenge facing consumer projects for ecological and social change. Third, the search for eco-social alternatives cannot simply make consumers feel good about their purchases, but must address the material realities and limitations of niche markets, and the need for structural reform to the food system.     

Hear what I appreciate: activation of consumption motives for healthier food choices across different value segments

Abstract

This study represents ‘nudging’ interventions aiming to promote healthier food choices by altering the environment where choices are made, without price incentives. The study focuses on the activation of a consumer’s different consumption motives immediately prior to making food choices, thereby drawing a direct goal-priming approach that is postulated to stimulate congruent behaviours. The twofold purpose of this experimental research is to (1) evaluate the usefulness of direct goal priming when aiming at healthier food choices and (2) to identify the boundary conditions that either favour or inhibit the emergence of motivational priming effects. This purpose contributes to the literature on consumer health behaviour in two ways. First, it reveals new motivational origins for health-goal priming effects. Second, it gleans unprecedented empirical evidence for the moderating capacity of consumers’ values. Direct priming of a health goal proved to be effective in steering consumers towards healthier food options. Surprisingly, however, responsibility and status primes also led to an increase in choices of healthy food products. Moreover, a moderation analysis showed that the consumer’s values (achievement, conservation, and universalism) play an important role in how goal priming works. Thus, the success of priming greatly depends on the underlying values of the consumers.     

On the marketing implications of place narratives

Abstract

Acknowledging that ‘locals’ are recognised as an important (yet neglected) dimension of place marketing and following critiques of places as ‘products’, the purpose of this paper is to give voice to ‘local people’. Drawing on local narratives of Santorini, Greece, we call attention to places as culturally significant and discursively produced and consumed. Local narratives provide multiple meanings constructed around the diverse and contested experiences of living and making a living in a place. Our analysis employs the metaphors of ‘harsh beauty’, ‘service business’ and ‘home’ to capture these perspectives. The paper has implications for the development of generative metaphors of ‘place’ and ‘local’ within place marketing and contributes to the dialogue over the continued relevance of our discipline to the public sphere.     

Complicating conventionalisation

ABSTRACT

A central theme of the literature on alternative food and drink markets is whether these efforts maintain their alterity as they grow, or whether they conventionalise. We argue that conventionalisation is not inevitable. Furthermore, analysts of the consumer version of this process, co-optation theory, often fail to recognise that alternative entrants often transform both sides of a market. In research at a food swap, we found that the desire to enact alterity became so exaggerated that participants were forced to ‘thread an oppositional needle’ as they rejected many offerings. We theorise that oppositional identities can at times be a bar to new markets. We conclude with reflections on the relevance of this finding for the larger ‘sharing’ economy.     

How brand-cause fit shapes real world advertising messages: a qualitative exploration of ‘femvertising’

Abstract

Brand-cause fit, the concept that a brand and a social issue ‘pair’ together conceptually, has been a topic of great interest yet it is not fully understood due to inconsistent findings and limited theoretical development. In this study, we take a different approach to understanding brand-cause fit to explore how and in what ways ‘fit’ shapes advertising message strategies. A growing trend in advertising is ‘brand responsibility’, wherein a brand aligns itself with a social issue. A prominent focus of these messages is gender equality, namely, female empowerment. Advertisers utilize ‘femvertisements’ to emphasize their support of women. The motive behind this work is often called into question, given brands’ inherent desire to sell products. Advertisers should consider how brands ‘fit’ with specific social issues. Through a qualitative analysis of advertisements that received an award for femvertising, this study sheds light on the differences in message themes between brands with high versus low brand-cause fit, specifically target audience brand-cause fit, in an effort to further this literature and advertising practice. Five key messaging themes are elucidated among high-fit brands (overt femininity, fixing the self, being a girl is a hardship, actors on set, and let’s talk about it) and four themes among low-fit brands (low femininity, breaking stereotypes, reminders that women and men do the same activities, and getting men on board); which shape how women are depicted, the overall brand message, and the overall social issue message. Indeed, fit should be considered beyond simple high/low congruence. Implications for advertising practitioners and researchers are discussed.     

Shelf Life Date Extension of Fresh-Cut Salad: A Consumer Perspective

ABSTRACT

During the past decades, various technological applications relating to an extension of the shelf life of food products have been introduced. The adoption of such technologies in the fresh-cut salad sector is a key issue for the sustainable management of the supply chain. The aim of the study is to analyse consumers’ attitude towards fresh-cut salad with an extended shelf life date. The analysis was based on face-to-face interviews with 351 consumers living in Lombardy, one of the Italian provinces where the consumption of fresh-cut salad is high and characterized by good margins of development. Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was used as preliminary data preparation for market segmentation. Cluster analysis revealed the presence of three different consumers groups. Only the cluster of ‘favorable’ shows a positive attitude towards the extended shelf life date. Consumers grouped in the cluster of ‘skeptical’ associate such innovation to a low level of product freshness. The cluster of ‘mistrust’ reveals the presence of consumers with safety concerns towards the prolongation of the shelf life date. Such consumers do not reveal a high level of trust in processing firms and their related brands.     

Nutritional labelling information: Utilisation of new technologies

Abstract

The increase in food-related diseases in society has led to a variety of public policy and private sector initiatives, such as the use of nutritional labels. Although nutritional labels have been shown to be broadly effective in terms of informing food choice, their influence is moderated by a variety of factors, such as how information is conveyed and processed by consumers. Recent advances in technology might overcome these limitations. Using a choice experiment, this paper examines consumer preferences for alternative technological devices that may aid consumer processing of nutritional information on food packaging. The results show which attributes of the technology consumers prefer, and identifies three distinct segments of consumers (‘information hungry innovators’, ‘active label readers’, and ‘onlookers’), and differences between them in relation to their preferences, demographics, and psychographic characteristics. The identification of segments is a novel aspect of this research, and highlights the importance of finding more customised solutions to the communication of nutritional information – an issue to which technology can contribute.     

A Qualitative Study of Malaysian Parents’ Purchase Intention of Functional Weaning Foods using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Background: In this study, qualitative research methods were used to explore the behavioral, normative, and control beliefs underpinning parents’ decisions to purchase functional weaning food products.

Methods: Seven focus groups were conducted with 44 parents in two locations in Malaysia (Sabah and Selangor). Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior theoretical framework, participants were prompted with questions about commercial weaning foods including functional weaning foods and shown several different products to stimulate discussion.

Results: Important behavioral beliefs (product attributes, babies’ needs and suitability of the product, perceived healthiness), referrals and influences (family and friends’ opinions and experiences, internet and social media influence, health professionals’ recommendation and advice) and facilitating and inhibiting factors (trust and confidence, brand and cost, and product availability and options) were identified.

Conclusions: Overall functional weaning food purchase intention was influenced positively and negatively by behavioral, normative and control beliefs. To increase the awareness and commercial product knowledge on weaning food are suitable for their children, more information on functional weaning food products from reliable sources that can reach the parents and other potential customers is needed. Government, health professionals and manufacturers should work together to develop a better way to inform parents about functional weaning foods.     

Making a market for male dairy calves: alternative and mainstream relationality

ABSTRACT

The article uses actor network theory and the field of market studies to take a processual and relational approach to the alternative/mainstream food duality. Questions about how food systems or products make claim to be of the alternative or mainstream, and to what consequence, underpin the study. Analysis traces the making and shaping of two market versions for male dairy calves, a by-product of the dairy industry, often treated as ‘waste’ in the UK. Analysis focuses on the assemblage of actors, the breaking of matters of fact and shaping and communication of concerns, and at actions. Contrary to many approaches to the alternative, focus is paid to overlap between systems, knowledge and actors and simultaneous development of two products. From this, the ethicality of the mainstream, the continued duality and its consequences are discussed. Beyond seeing mainstream/alternative as co-constituted constructs, the two are symbiotic, mutually supportive and implicated in the circuit of culinary capital.     

Domesticating fears and fantasies of ‘the East’: integrating the Ottoman legacy within European heritage

ABSTRACT

‘Europe’ has no fixed geographical, historical, religious or cultural boundaries. Claims for the existence of European civilization as a discrete construct are continually made yet dissolve on close scrutiny. Here, we examine these claims at one of the grandest points of existential crisis and belonging for Europe, the relationship with the ‘Other within’: Turkey, the Balkans and Ottoman heritage in Europe. Through a hybrid semiotic and Foucauldian analysis of catalogues of eight high-profile exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Belgium and Portugal we argue that an unsettled discursive struggle is at play, in which one ‘Europe’ articulates ‘reconciliation’ of profound civilizational difference while another, Ottoman, ‘Europe’ stakes a claim of right as an intrinsic component of what it means to be European in a contemporary context. We attempt to trace the role of museum marketing in the perennial accommodation/exclusion of the Ottoman Empire as an intrinsic component in the diversity of Europe’s cultural heritage.     

Consumer reactions to the availability of organic food in discount supermarkets

The market for organic food products in industrial countries has changed significantly. Conventional grocery stores have entered this market in recent years and now present an alternative point of purchase to farmers’ markets and specialized health food shops. In Germany, the main newcomers in this field are the discount supermarkets. The question is whether the increased supply of organic food products leads to sustained effects on consumer behaviour. In other words, can a first‐time purchase of organic products at a discounter act as an ‘icebreaker’ and induce further purchases? This question is addressed here. A consumer survey (n = 231) indicates that an initial purchase of organic food in a discount store is indeed very likely to lead to follow‐up purchases. The link shown is statistically significant. Furthermore, customers are very interested in the availability of locally grown products, reliable information and easy comparison with non‐organic products. Important recommendations concerning organic product range, display and information, especially for retailers, can be deducted.     

How customers ‘learn’ to work for retailers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning style affects the performance of the ‘working’ customer in one self-service context – retail Self Check-Out Tills (SCOT). For the purposes of this paper, we have adopted the UK term Self Check-Out Tills (SCOT), also known as ‘self-service registers’ in other countries, to describe this form of self-service in retail stores). The study uses qualitative and quantitative data collected from users of retail SCOT. Initial exploratory factor analysis of 232 SCOT users revealed significant differences in learning styles. Three categories emerged: ‘regular reassurance’, ‘motivated practice’ and ‘cautious discovery’. Customers adopting different learning styles varied in their perceptions of ability and enjoyment with SCOT, and in their capability of helping other customers with SCOT. The demographic make-up of customers adopting the different learning styles was also shown to vary. Previously, little has been done to identify the specific training needs of working customers. This research begins to address this knowledge gap.     

International food advertising,pester power and its effects

The increasing importance of children as consumers has focused attention on ‘pester power’: children’s influence over adult purchasing through requests and demands for certain products. Many concerns are expressed about pester power, including that it increases parent-child conflict. In the contested area of food marketing, an additional and particularly potent criticism of pester power is that it can undermine parents’ attempts to feed their children a healthy diet. Results from a systematic review of international evidence find that food advertising does cause ‘pestering’ by children and results in parents buying less healthy products that are associated with obesity. This undermines industry arguments that pester power is just a legitimate way for children to express their growing autonomy as consumers. Policy implications for marketers and government are discussed.     

Turning regulation into business opportunities: A brief history of French food mass retailing (1949–2015)

Abstract

The French retail market stands out among its European counterparts as being more concentrated. Relative to its neighbors, it has a higher number of large stores, such as hypermarkets. This article explains the origins of this market structure by assessing the impact of regulation on the French food retail industry between 1949 and 2015. Despite legislation aimed at curtailing their growth, retailers were able to circumvent legal constraints. Over the period considered, three ‘regulation-adaptation’ loops are described. Retailers’ responses to regulatory regimes affected both their bargaining mechanisms with suppliers and the business models they used to sell their products. By turning regulation into business opportunities, French retailers have managed to create a powerful oligopolistic industry, and are now among the largest retail groups in the world.     

Reduced‐fat foods: the shopper’s viewpoint

The inclusion of reduced‐fat foods in the daily diet affords consumers the potential to reduce overall dietary fat. Nevertheless, despite an increased range of these food products throughout the market, there has remained a lack of widespread consumer acceptance. The aim of the study was therefore to understand why consumers choose or reject reduced‐fat foods. Ninety consumers were interviewed by means of a qualitative approach within food retail outlets in the United Kingdom. Thematic content analysis indicated that uptake or rejection of these products is influenced by health concerns, ‘goodness of fit’ with individual dietary health strategies, the preferences of different household members, perceived sensory properties and scepticism towards these products. The results imply a need to explore and innovate ‘natural’ fat substitutes and to improve the sensory quality of reduced‐fat products. Further research is required to determine how these foods are used within the household and incorporated within the overall diet. Policy must seek to restore consumer trust in reduced‐fat food products and the food supply generally.     

An extension of the benefit segmentation base for the consumption of organic foods: A time perspective

Abstract

Benefit segmentation is a long-standing marketing approach that emphasises the ‘what’ and ‘how’ dimensions of consumer benefits; that is, what benefits consumers perceive in product/service consumption, and how such benefits are perceived. This research proposes a fresh time-based approach to benefit segmentation – namely, focusing on the ‘when’ element or when in time benefits take effect. Drawing upon a survey of UK consumers, it explains and discusses consumption motivations through examining antecedents of temporally dominated benefits in application to organic food. Specifically, the study investigates why some consumers predominantly seek present-based benefits vis-à-vis future-based benefits or vice versa in organic food purchase and consumption behaviour. Using correlation and regression analyses, the research findings establish significant associations of level of involvement, prior knowledge level, and product usage level, and some association of time orientation with the temporally emphasised consumption benefits consumers ultimately pursue. Overall, the research highlights the added contribution of a time perspective in a benefit segmentation approach which can assist marketers in understanding better and communicating more effectively with consumers through drawing up consumer profiles based on when in time their dominantly pursued benefit for an offering is perceived to take effect.     

Impact of privacy concerns on resistance to smart services: does the ‘Big Brother effect’ matter?

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the factors that explain consumer resistance to smart services from a privacy perspective. To this end, an exploratory qualitative study and a quantitative study were carried out. 653 French consumers answered an online questionnaire regarding smart services in the banking sector. Structural equation modelling was used to test the conceptual model. The findings show that information privacy, the unauthorised secondary use of personal information and perceived intrusion have an impact on consumer resistance to smart services. Moreover, our research highlights the major role of the ‘Big Brother effect’ as an antecedent to these various privacy concerns.