The Role of Relationship Marketing in Food Marketing
Discuss about the Food Marketing on Consumer Behavior.
Food marketing is intended to bring together the food producers and food consumers through range of promotional activities. Food markets should be able to identify several issues influencing the purchasing decision of the consumers. This study will be highlighted on the role of food marketing on consumer behaviour. The study will demonstrate the way food marketers build long-term relationship with consumers. Apart from that, the study will also evaluate the impact of price, quality and value of the foods on purchasing pattern of the consumers.
Relationship Marketing is highly focused on customer loyalty and long-term customer commitment that short term acquisition of customers and sales. In case of food marketing, it is highly important for the marketer to understand the motivational factors of the consumers to maintain an relationship with them. According to Sheth, Jagdish and Atul Parvatlyar (1995), the fundamental factor of relationship marketing is that the customers prefer to reduce their product or marketer choice through engaging in loyal market relationship. The customer use to patronize their selected marketers, products and service rather than marker exercise, if they become engaged in relationship marketing. In case of food marketing, it has been found that 90% of the times, consumers like to repeat their visit in same restaurant.
Consumers always like to simplify their extensive and limited problem solving situation through routine behaviour and reducing numbers of products under consideration. In case of food marketing, the organizations, which are able to meet the social aspiration of the consumers, are more likely to maintain relationship marketing (Sheth, Jagdish and Atul Parvatlyar 1995). On the other hand, referral network has also some impact on relationship marking, where the consumers prefer to choose products through recommendation of opinion leader. On the other hand, Siro et al. (2008) pointed out that functional Food has huge impact on the food marketing impact on consumer behaviour. The relationship between health and nutrition has resulted in the concept of functional food. The consumers in food marketing are likely to be influenced the by the food, in which they can find some extra nutritional value. Therefore, manufacturers of food should highly concentrate on adding nutritional value to the food during its processing time.
The food manufacturers should focus on new approach of achieving optimal health status and promote state of well-being through reducing risk of disease. The demand for functional food has been increased by 40% in the 2015 with the health consciousness of the people (Siro et al. 2008). Therefore, the marketers should base the nutritional factors as their base of marketing. They should convey the message that the consumer would surely derive some health benefits from the consumption of the said food.
Consumer Behavior and Price, Quality, and Value of Food Products
The perception of consumers in relation to price, quality and value of the products seem to be pivotal determinants in consumer shopping behaviour. The shopping tendency of the consumers is highly depended on these factors. According to Zeithaml (1998), Most of the consumers perceive price of the products to be related with quality of the products. Therefore, price has an extreme impact of the buying behaviour of the consumers and it becomes the reason of choosing product by leaving others.
The consumers are more likely to find a positive relation between the price and quality of the products. When the food quality provided by organization satisfies the consumers, they can find value in it. This is the reason for which customers would like to buy those foods repeatedly. Organizations can set the price of the food at high rate, when they get positive quality perception from the consumers (Zeithaml 1998). When qualities of different products are same, then price becomes a vital factor for influencing buying behaviour of the consumers. On the other hand, Harris et al. (2009) opined that during the time of food marketing, the marketers should be highly focused on the category of the consumers. It is extremely crucial for the marketers to set some boundaries between the types of food and categories of consumers to which these foods are to be sold. Some foods are good for the adults, while those are not good for the children. Marketers are asked not to perform marketing of junk foods to the children, as these kinds of foods are mostly related to obesity.
There is an increasing rate of marketing to children in media like television, mobile phones, social media and mobile phones (Harris et al. 2009). However, these kinds of foods contain high calories but low nutrition, which can badly affect the health of children. Therefore, the marketers should maintain their boundaries of marketing and choose right consumer for right marketing.
While impressing consumers through food market, it is highly important for the markets to understand the needs of ecological consumers. These kinds of consumers are only attracted through marketing of organic foods to them. These types of goods are generally produced through organic manner and utilize biological way for controlling pest. According to Paul and Jyoti (2012), most of the people like to have organic food but they are unable to get because of its high price. The reason behind this high price is unavailability of food in most of the stores and outlets.
Catering to Different Consumer Categories in Food Marketing
Organic foods are produced without the utilization of chemicals and therefore, it is free from causing any kinds of diseases. Therefore, markets should be able to advertise their organization at affordable price towards influencing the buying pattern of the consumers. The consumers should also be educated and knowledgeable enough for understanding the value of organic food (Paul and Jyoti 2012). On the other hand, Block et al. (2016) opined that too much of marketing initiatives in food marketing may lead to wastage of food from the part of consumers. The instances of food wastage are rampant at all stages of food distribution, which also include food marketing. Extremely positive relation between marketing initiatives and consumer buying behaviour sometimes lead to disposal of food.
Wastage food can happen, when consumers become highly interested to buy too much of food due to extreme marketing initiative. It is highly recommended that consumer reduce their rate of food disposal. Sometime the marketers market their foods with extremely low prices and consumers tend to buy those foods as much as they can buy at that time. Therefore, there is high chance of wasting this much of foods. Food marketing strategies should not be framed in such way that consumers can move out so much for buying huge quantity of food, which they do not need (Block et al. 2016).
Food is considered to be the major contributor towards the physical well-being of the people. It can become the major source of pleasure, stress and worry for the people. Consumers are often faced with variety of competitively priced foods, which are of premium quality. Each food item should be safe, good tasting, aesthetically pleasing and maintain consistency with food image. According to Wilcock et al. (2004), variation among the batches of products should be kept at minimum, as it can be an indicator of product fault to the consumers. Consumers are likely to purchase more, while having positive attitude about the products.
Conversely, they are likely to consume less, while having negative attitude towards the products. In case of food marketing, the socioeconomic status and demographic factors are highly important for the marketers towards understanding their food tendency. The marketing strategies of food organizations should be framed by creating positive attitude of consumers towards the food quality (Wilcock et al. 2004). Therefore, the marketers should convey the right message about the food safety and quality towards impressing the consumers. On the other hand, Grunert (2002) pointed out that it is extremely difficult to understand the food choice of the consumers in developed countries. The demands of the consumers regarding the food are constantly changing and it is becoming the challenging factor for the marketers to make consistency with that dynamism.
The Significance of Catering to Ecological Consumers
Most of the consumers are likely to evaluate the quality of the food through their expectation before buying and after buying. Therefore, the markers should create the quality expectation of the consumers for their brands in such way, which bring future prediction for the consumers regarding their brand. Genetic modification is the way, where the technologies used in food production can influence the consumer buying behaviour (Grunert 2002). In this case, the qualities of the foods are remained invisible to the consumers before and after the purchase. Marketers can take the advantage of such situation, by making them convinced towards purchasing foods.
With increasing concern for healthy and fresh foods, consumers are more like to buy fresh cut food. Marketers need to understand the buying pattern of the consumers towards buying certain types of foods. According to Sillani and Federico (2015), some specific approach will be the driver for the marketer towards making the consumers interested in buying fresh cut foods. The fresh cut foods are extremely appealing to the consumers, but these types of foods may be extremely expensive with its limited stock in food outlets. Consumers can be used to with the high price of the products, while they will get continuous supply. Therefore, food marketers should assure continuous supply of fresh cut food to the consumer for influencing their buying pattern. On the other hand, Teng and Yu-Mei (2015) opined that trust serves as an important factor towards building positive relationship between consumers and marketers regarding organic foods. Subjective norms and consumer attitude influence the purchasing pattern of organic food.
Perceived knowledge regarding organic food has no significant impact on the purchasing behaviour of the consumers. Therefore, marketers should effectively promote the benefits and accessibilities of the organic foods to the consumers. Through promotion, the marketers should gain the trust of the consumers, which can be translated into the purchasing intension of the customers. Markets should also provide credible information to the customers reading organic food towards enhancing the trust level of the consumers.
Most of the grocery retailers are intended to join fray against the obesity through offering wide range of health and wellness program at any point of time. According to Nikolova and Jeffrey (2015), marketers are intended to join various programs and seminars, which are aimed at creating wellness during purchasing point. Effective scoring system has also been developed towards measuring the effectiveness of these programs towards improving the health of the consumers. This scoring system should be based on nutrition scoring system, which evaluates the nutrition provided by the promoted foods. Therefore, health information provided by the marketers at point of scale helps the consumers to choose healthy foods. In this way, the offerings of wellness programs have huge impact on shopping decision of the consumers regarding a certain food.
Avoiding Food Wastage through Marketing Strategies
There has been an increasing rate of available information regarding the local foods and thus, can influence the perception of the consumers regarding the local food. On the other hand, Feldmann and Ulrich (2015) opined that markers should be specific about the information to be delivered to the consumer reading local food so that it can influence the purchasing pattern of the consumers. Consumers are perceives the local foods to be more expensive than those of organic foods. Consumers are more willing to pay premium for their local foods. Moreover, the local foods should meet the demand of the consumers appropriately. Marketers, who are able to capitalize their provision in regards to availability of the local foods, are more likely to influence the purchasing decision of the consumers.
Conclusion
While concluding the study, it can be said that the marketer should be specific in providing information about the foods to the consumers. During food marketing, the marketers should be able to convey the benefit of the foods to the consumers. It will influence the purchasing intension and pattern of the consumers. However, food marketers should be concerned about targeting the consumers during advertising so that right message is conveyed to right consumers. Food marketers usually remain concerned about maintaining long-term relationship with the consumers. The more consumers will have positive attitude towards foods, the more they will be intended to purchase those foods. Apart from that, during food marketing, the food marketers should remain aware of health-concerned consumers. For these kinds of consumers, the food marketers should provide health benefits of the foods to the consumers towards influencing their buying behaviour.
Reference List
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Nikolova, Hristina Dzhogleva, and J. Jeffrey Inman. “Healthy Choice: The Effect of Simplified Point-of-Sale Nutritional Information on Consumer Food Choice Behavior.” Journal of Marketing Research 52, no. 6 (2015): 817-835.
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Siro, Istvan, Emese Kapolna, Beata Kapolna, and Andrea Lugasi. “Functional food. Product development, marketing and consumer acceptance—A review.” Appetite 51, no. 3 (2008): 456-467.
Teng, Chih-Ching, and Yu-Mei Wang. “Decisional factors driving organic food consumption: generation of consumer purchase intentions.” British Food Journal 117, no. 3 (2015): 1066-1081.
Wilcock, Anne, Maria Pun, Joseph Khanona, and May Aung. “Consumer attitudes, knowledge and behaviour: a review of food safety issues.” Trends in Food Science & Technology 15, no. 2 (2004): 56-66.
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