University of Kassel

Diplomarbeit II / Diploma Thesis

Consumer preferences in a comparative European market research study

by

Sarah Kniel

29. Januar 2002

Contents

CONTENTS ... I
List of figures ... III
List of tables ... V

PREFACE ... VII

INTRODUCTION ... 1

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: Determinants of consumer behaviour ... 5
1.1 An interdisciplinary approach to understanding consumer behaviour ... 6
1.2 Strategic options for market segmentation ... 8
1.3 Lifestyle approaches ... 11
1.4 International market research ... 18
1.5 The importance of the ecological factor and food habits ... 23

CHAPTER II THE BOLLORÉ STUDY ... 29
2.1 Bolloré: the firm ... 30
2.2 The international market research project ... 32
2.3 Methodical procedure ... 33
2.4 Sampling procedure and data collection ... 34
2.5 Background data on those countries reanalysed for the Bolloré research study ... 35
2.6 The market for plastic packaging ... 41

CHAPTER III A THREE NATION COMPARATIVE RE-EVALUATION OF DATA ... 45
3.1 Consumer research theory ... 46
3.2 Research approach and research strategy ... 48
3.3 Data Analysis ... 50
3.4 Methodology ... 52
3.5 Evaluation procedure ... 53

CHAPTER IV CONSUMER TYPES AND SPECIFIC ATTITUDES & BEHAVIOUR ... 57
4.1 Building typologies ... 58
4.2 Typologies in relation to consumer behaviour ... 70
4.2.1 Distribution of consumer types in the three countries ... 70
4.2.2 Testing consumer groups in the context of further socio-demographic variables ... 75
4.2.3 Frequency behaviour of consumer types ... 80
4.2.4 Consumer types and choice of purchase location ... 85
4.2.5 Storage location and consumer types ... 89
4.3 Marketing aspects for Bolloré ... 93
4.3.1 Consumer types in relation to demands made on packaging ... 94
4.3.2 Specific criteria for packaging ... 100
4.4. Conclusion ... 101

CHAPTER V IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 103
5.1 Implications for marketing ... 104
5.2 Recommendations for further market research studies ... 112

COMMENT ... 117

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... i

APPENDICES ... A

List of figures

Fig. 1: Diploma thesis procedure plan ... 4
Fig. 2: Consumer research in relation to different scientific fields ... 7
Fig. 3: General view of the strategic and international market selection ... 9
Fig. 4: Relationship between culture and economy ... 22
Fig. 5: Overview of the process of international market research ... 32
Fig. 6: Opinion of ideal task repartition in the family ... 39
Fig. 7: The plastic production between 1950-2000 ... 41
Fig. 8: The world plastic production 2000 ... 42
Fig. 9: The usage of plastic ... 43
Fig. 10: Types of data and levels of numerical measurement ... 50
Fig. 11: Strategic analysis of data ... 56
Fig. 12: France′s repartition in the different cluster types ... 71
Fig. 13: Germany′s repartition in the different cluster types ... 72
Fig. 14: The Netherlands′s repartition in the different cluster types ... 72
Fig. 15: Order of testing hypotheses ... 74
Fig. 16: Homo oeconomicus repartition of household types ... 77
Fig. 17: Mr. Easy&comfortable′s repartition of household types ... 77
Fig. 18: Gourmand′s repartition of household types ... 78
Fig. 19: Free choice buyer′s repartition of household types ... 78
Fig. 20: Homo oeconomicus repartition of purchase locations ... 87
Fig. 21: Mr. Easy&comfortable′s repartition of purchase locations ... 87
Fig. 22: Gourmand′s repartition of purchase locations ... 88
Fig. 23: Free choice buyer′s repartition of purchase locations ... 88
Fig. 24: Storage preferences of consumer types ... 92
Fig. 25: Consumer groups in relation to the criteria ′cost efficient′ ... 96
Fig. 26: Consumer types in relation to the criteria ′protection′ ... 97
Fig. 27: Consumer groups in relation to the criteria ′touting′ ... 97
Fig. 28: Consumer types in relation to the criteria ′to bear information′ ... 98
Fig. 29: Consumer types in relation to the criteria ′identifying information′ ... 98
Fig. 30: Consumer groups in relation to the criteria ′environmental friendly′ ... 99
Fig. 31: Consumer groups in relation to the criteria ′easy to open′ ... 99
Fig. 32: Marketing as ′marketing oriented decisions making′ ... 105
Fig. 33: International marketing: the five major decisions ... 106
Fig. 34: The international marketing environment and marketing mix ... 107
Fig. 35: Marketing possibilities ... 108
Fig. 36: Strategic options for marketing ... 109

List of tables

Table 1: Overview of data obtained through qualitative analysis ... 35
Table 2: Fruit and vegetable consumption in France, Germany, Netherlands ... 37
Table 3: Household appliances in France, Germany, Netherlands ... 37
Table 4: Demographic data ... 38
Table 5: Population data ... 38
Table 6: Plastic consumption of the European market in 1997 ... 42
Table 7: The 12 extracted factors from the factor analysis ... 61
Table 8: Main components of clusters ... 65
Table 9: Results of the discriminant analysis applied to the 4 clusters ... 67
Table 10: Equality test for the average value of the groups ... 68
Table 11: Cluster repartition according to the number of cases ... 69
Table 12: Consumer type′s repartition according to the number of cases in the different nations: ... 70
Table 13: Statistical overview of Kruskal&Wallis ′H-test′: ... 76
Table 14: Consumer type′s repartition according to the type of household ... 77
Table 15: Repartition of consumer types according to the age group ... 79
Table 16: Level of significance according to the frequency of consumption ... 81
Table 17: Repartition of consumer groups according to the frequency of consumption ... 82
Table 18: Kruskal-Wallis test according to the frequency of purchase ... 83
Table 19: Chi-square and asymptotic significance according to the frequency of purchase ... 83
Table 20: Repartition of consumer groups according to the frequency of purchase ... 84
Table 21: Consumer types in relation to the purchase location ... 86
Table 22: Repartition of preservation location: freezer, fruit ... 90
Table 23: Repartition of preservation location: freezer, vegetable ... 90
Table 24: Repartition of preservation location: fridge, fruit ... 91
Table 25: Repartition of preservation location: fridge , vegetable ... 91
Table 26: Repartition of preservation location: pantry/dish, fruit ... 92
Table 27: Repartition of preservation location: pantry/dish, vegetable ... 92
Table 28: Repartition of consumer groups according to demand on packaging ... 96

PREFACE

Experiencing new and different cultures has been part of my life. The time abroad - more than a third of my life - has led to many interesting personal and professional experiences. This has helped me deal with new and unknown situations and respect tolerance as a most important value. Out of this interest I seek to understand and learn more about different cultures.

Eventually, one realises that differences in cultures might exist but are they really as significant as generally assumed? This question is of great importance for modern economy of these days. In view of the modern world as a global market, the question seems to be - can cultural aspects be ignored? To what extent can and do they influence our thoughts and habits? Bolloré′s market study in cooperation with 6 European universities provided an opportunity to analyse to what extent consumer behaviour is dependant on cultural aspects. Our comparison of European consumer preferences might help to give some attempt to whether we can assume that geographical boundaries are the only factors dividing nations within the European Union.

My research is guided by the very basic question: ′Even though European countries are linked geographically and politically, and seem to be moving towards a more and more homogeneous union, to what extent can they be considered as one entity?′

In order to answer this question from an economic perspective I decided to reanalyse and compare interview data from the Bolloré study under the title: consumer preferences in a comparative European market research study.

As social psychology research has shown, attitudes expressed in interviews and behaviour do not always correspond with each other. As an active interviewer in the study I sometimes had the impression that consumers attempted to present themselves in a way that did not correspond to their actual buying behaviour.

But it is not as simple as it seems. Perhaps a thought of Somerset Maugham can be applied to the problem at hand:

′There are times when I look over the various parts of my character
with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons
and that the person
that at the moment has the upper hand
will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one?
All of them are none.′

- W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

I have tried to keep this in mind in writing my thesis

INTRODUCTION

During recent decades the world has gone through dramatic changes in history demanding continuous adaptation to a changing environment. The results are an economy driven and politically oriented world, always seeking improvement. Europeans travel to far continents, immigrants from other nations settle in Europe to work and raise a family, consumers buy products manufactured in other countries than their own, restaurants with food from other regions of the earth are commonplace etc. The markets and industries are exposed to increasing demands from consumers with more complicated needs to satisfy than ever despite the fact that fierce competition is greater than ever.

A modern trend seems to be that if firms want to stay competitive they need to globalise - sooner or later. Globalisation in terms of ′providing the opportunity to capitalize upon consumer similarities worldwide′ (Keegan et. al.,1987). However becoming a global player is not a guarantee for success. Nevertheless many of those who are successful are operating on a worldwide basis, where the majority of turnover is from foreign locations. Strategically it offers more advantages and opportunities for any enterprise.

For many firms, developing a new product, the European market is the first step in internalisation. The French company Bolloré took first steps to find out if its new product, an innovative plastic packaging could be marketed across Europe. A special focus is on packaging unprocessed fruit and vegetables in their natural state.

In cooperation with European universities a market research study was conducted in order to analyse consumer buying habits concerning fruit and vegetables as well as attitudes towards packaging in 5 countries of the European Union (France, Germany, Finland, Spain and the Netherlands).

The primary focus was the likelihood of acceptance or rejection of the product after its launching. A second question was, which markets to target. In what way do consumers among different countries differ so that only some will be worth accessing? The aim of this cooperative market research study was to better understand customers, to analyse the current market situation and competitive environment and if possible to deduce a potential marketing strategy.

Consumer behaviour is dependent on many more factors than once assumed. Empirical research has discovered the multiple factors that influence consumer behaviour and buying habits (Kroeber-Riel/Weinberg, 1999:8). Therefore, chapter one will introduce these factors and their impact for marketing decisions. In addition, the importance of the ecological aspect in the context of packaging will be analysed.

In chapter two, Bolloré the enterprise will be briefly described and their research goals. In addition the methodology and the scope of the international comparative study are explained and described.

A review of some basic data on the countries included in the Bolloré consumer research study will be given as well to provide some better understanding of the different context for the following comparison.

Chapter three describes my theoretical framework, the methodology and consumer research theory applied.

In chapter four, theory based hypotheses are examined in more detail using a life style approach as a tool for analysis. The last chapter (five), links these results to the marketing aspect and presents some recommendations for Bolloré′s marketing strategy as well as some general conclusions for further comparative market research studies.

Consumer behaviour has been studied in numerous empirical research studies over the past decades from many different point of views. The cultural aspect in marketing has become more important as some of the following titles which were published in the past few years demonstrate: Globalisation of Consumer marketing: Structures and Strategies (Hassan/Kaynak, 1994), Marketing in a multicultural world: ethnicity, nationalism and cultural identity (Costa/ Bamossy, 1995). Marketing across cultures (Usunier, 1996) or European perspectives on consumer behaviour (Lambkin/ Foxall/ Van Raaij/ Heilbrunn, 1998).

Our comparison included only European countries, and we may ask if consumer behaviour is in fact country and culture specific or rather more dependant on other factors such as the social and psychological environment and therefore independent of nationality. Could this mean that a certain type of customer exists across some European countries independent of respective cultural factors? Depending on these variables are some countries just better markets to target than others?

In order to answer this research question, I re-analysed the national data collected for France, Germany and the Netherlands in an European comparative analysis. The study aims to establish a consumer typology with reference to preferences for buying and storing fruit and vegetables, attitudes towards packaging and social background variables. The outcome should not only be of importance for the case study but help to improve our understanding for developing a European strategy.

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