Functional or constructive attitudes: Which type drives consumers' evaluation of meat products?
1Department of Marketing, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand.
Meat Science
|March 13, 2016
Summary
Consumer meat attitudes are not always stable. Research shows attitudes towards abstract meat types differ from attitudes towards specific meat products, suggesting choices are often situational.
Area of Science:
- Consumer Behavior
- Food Science
- Psychology
Background:
- Consumer attitudes towards meat are categorized as stable functional attitudes or ephemeral constructive attitudes.
- Understanding the stability of these attitudes is crucial for meat product marketing and consumer choice analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the temporal and situational stability of consumer attitudes towards different meat types (chicken, beef, lamb, poultry).
- To compare attitudes towards meat as abstract concepts versus meat as components of food products.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a functional, multidimensional attitude instrument to generate attitude profiles.
- Assessed attitudes towards four meat types both as abstract constructs and as cues in various meat-based products.
Main Results:
- Strong attitude profiles were generated for abstract meat types.
- These attitude profiles significantly broke down when evaluating specific food products containing the same meats.
- Indicates a discrepancy between abstract meat attitudes and product-specific evaluations.
Conclusions:
- Consumer attitudes towards meat may lack temporal and situational stability.
- Product evaluation and choice are likely influenced more by on-the-spot constructive attitudes than by long-term functional attitudes.
- Findings suggest a need for marketing strategies that consider the situational construction of consumer preferences.
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