Consumer behaviour.

Continuing education and the APD program

This quiz is an ideal activity for APD members to include in your CPD log, where it relates to personal learning goals. Record the time taken, to the nearest hour, to complete the quiz and any associated research.

INTRODUCTION

An understanding of consumer behaviour gives dietitians an insight into client food-related and general lifestyle decisions: what they buy, why they buy and how they buy. An understanding of consumer behaviour is important in understanding why individuals act in certain consumption-related ways and helps define what internal and external influences impel them to act as they do. This in turn can help deliver more effective strategies targeting improvements in health and lifestyle. Consumer behaviour is a field of study that embraces many models derived from a range of disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social psychology, cultural anthropology and economics. This continuing education quiz focuses on many of these areas and can assist dietitians who want to have a broad understanding on the methodologies used to understand consumer behaviour and potentially identifying ways to work with clients to change their food choice patterns.

1. Which of the following is NOT a recognised model for explaining behaviour?

a. Transtheoretical model

b. Health belief model

c. Haphazard model

d. Theory of planned behaviour

2. Which of the following best describes a focus group?

a. An in-depth interview of one person focusing on a specific issue of concern

b. An observation study focusing on human behaviour in the natural environment

c. Eight to 10 respondents who meet with a moderator and discuss a topic

d. A group of people asked to complete a survey on a single topic area

3. Which of the following is NOT regarded as a major theory of personality?

a. Freudian theory

b. Maslow's hierarchy theory

c. Jungian theory

d. Trait theory

4. Attitudes are an expression of inner feelings that reflect whether a person is favourably or unfavourably predisposed to some object. Which of the following describes attitudes?

a. Attitudes are learned

b. Attitudes displayed in one situation can be applied in another

c. Attitudes have consistency

d. All of the above

5. There are a range of theoretical models that have been used to predict eating behaviour. How much of eating behaviour can they explain?

a. 10%

b. 30%

c. 50%

d. 70%

6. Positivism refers to an approach to understanding consumer behaviour by predicting and describing consumer actions. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of positivism?

a. There is no single, objective truth

b. Events can be objectively measured

c. Findings can be generalised to the population

d. Consumers make decisions after weighing alternatives

7. Which of the following has been shown to have a positive impact on overt consumer behaviour?

a. Strategies designed to influence emotions, moods and feelings

b. Strategies designed to influence consumer beliefs and knowledge

c. Positive re-enforcement modelling-desired behaviours

d. All of the above

8. Which of the following is true about the role of women in food choice?

a. Women control 60% of the wealth and influence 85% of all purchases

b. Women control 30% of the wealth and influence 85% of all purchases

c. Women control 60% of the wealth and influence 60% of all purchases

d. Women control 30% of the wealth and influence 60% of all purchases

9. A high rate of adoption of new ideas, concepts and behaviours by consumers is influenced by which of the following factors?

a. Mass media campaigns

b. Monocultures

c. Cultures with a long tradition

d. The greater distance between people

ANSWERS

1. c.

There are a number of theories that aim to explain and predict human behaviour. These include, but are not limited to, the transtheoretical model (TTM), health belief model (HBM) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB). All have valid use in specific areas, with no one theory universally recognised.

The TTM (also known as the stages of change model) states that people progress through five distinct motivational stages in attempting to change their behaviour: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. (1) In addition to helping to understand behaviour, this model can be used as a counselling guide, as strategies will have varying effectiveness depending on the stage of change that the individual is at. In addition, this model can be used as a measure of outcome effectiveness. For example, an intervention may be considered effective if a client moved from 'I do not need to make a change' to 'maybe I should give some thought to change'.

The HBM is probably one of the most influential models governing health-related interventions. It postulates that cognitive factors influence an individual's decision to make and maintain a specific health behaviour change. The individual's behaviour will change if they believe that they are susceptible to a health concern that will impact on their life, and they are capable of making the necessary behavioural changes to reduce the risk. (2) Traditional approaches to dietary management of cholesterol lowering are largely based on this premise.

The TPB provides a model that can help explain behaviour and the intention to perform a given behaviour. In turn, a person's behavioural intention is determined by the attitude they hold towards the behaviour, the degree of social pressure felt by the person to perform or not perform the behaviour as well as the degree of control felt by a person over performing the behaviour. (3) These three factors are determined by a number of beliefs and subsequently how each is evaluated. The TPB, or modified versions of it, has been applied to a range of health-related behaviours. (4-6)

2. c.

A focus group consists of eight to 10 respondents who meet with a moderator for a group discussion focused on a particular issue, product or product category. Here people are encouraged to talk to one another as well as the researcher, exchanging questions concerns and anecdotes to express points of view. (7) Group work also assists in understanding an issue through the different ways people communicate with one another through the use of jokes, arguments and teasing, which is useful as people's attitudes are not necessarily encapsulated in reasoned, logical responses to direct questions. (7)

3. b.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation not personality and postulates that individuals strive to satisfy their needs according to a basic hierarchical structure, starting with psychological needs and ending with self-actualisation needs. (8)

Personality has long been regarded as an important determinant of various aspects of consumer behaviour. There are many theories of personality; however, Freudian, Jungian and Trait theory have played a prominent role in the study of the relationship between consumer behaviour and personality.

Sigmand Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality is a very important concept in modern psychology. This is based on the premise that unconscious needs or drives (especially sexual and biological drives) are at the heart of human motivation and personality. (9) Carl Jung who was a contemporary of Freud developed insights into personality types that are especially relevant to consumer behaviour. Jung's work forms the basis to the Myers-Briggs type indicator that measures the following dimensions: sensing-intuiting, thinking-feeling, extroversion-introversion, judging--perceiving. (10) Trait theory, in contrast, moved away from the qualitative measures that typify the Freudian movements and focused primarily on quantitative and empirical measures. Trait theory looks at the measurement of personality in terms of specific psychological characteristics, called traits. It does not aim to provide a single measure of personality, but a range of traits that, on combination, make up personality. (8)

4. d.

There is general agreement that attitudes are learned and are a direct result of experience, information attained from others and exposure to media. Attitudes are not synonymous with behaviours but can be used to determine favourability or unfavourability to an object. Consumer attitudes that one may feel in one situation can be applied to others. (3) For example, a person who dresses conservatively may also be conservative in the car they buy, the food they eat and the holidays they go on. Another characteristic of attitudes is that they are relatively consistent in the behaviour they reflect. However, they are not static. It is on this basis that many behaviour change programmes are founded upon.

5. b.

In trying to evaluate whether theoretical models are predictive of the behaviour of concern statistical calculations are conducted. Typically this has been performed with an indicator of model fit: [R.sup.2], the squared multiple correlation of the statistical model with the phenomenon of concern. A low [R.sup.2] values (e.g. <0.3) suggest that the model is not predicting substantial variance in behaviour. A review of the literature of models predicting fat and fruit consumption revealed a generally low predictiveness ([R.sup.2] < 0.3; or 30% of behaviour could be predicted). (11) In work investigating the use of foods enriched with omega-3 fatty acids, again less than 30% of the variance in behaviour could be predicted. (12) It is worth noting that no single theory provides models that out-predict others.

6. a.

Positivism refers to research based on empirical data and is also known as logical positivism, modern empiricism and objectivism. (13) The research methods generally involve survey techniques, field experiments, and findings are often descriptive in nature, empirical and generalised to larger populations. This contrasted with interpretivism, which is more interested in the act of consumption rather than the act of buying. (14) The research methodologies associated with interpretivism includes ethnography, semiotics and depth interviews.

7. d.

Ways to change overt food-related behaviours is important to dietitians. All the good intentions in the world are to no avail if there is not some change in behaviour. Therefore, although influencing emotions (affective strategy) and knowledge and beliefs (cognitive strategy) are useful and important steps in changing behaviour, they are often intermediate steps in the change process. (15) Behaviour change is achieved by performing one or more of the behaviours (behavioural strategy) such as exposure to new healthier options, store contacts and new product tastings. In reality all three strategies are used in combination to help affect change in an individual.

8. a.

It is true that the role and wealth of women differs in differing cultures. It is also true that the role of the women as influencers is constantly changing and may not be as clearly defined as many studies have found. However, in the majority of westernised countries it appears that women control approximately 60% of the wealth and influence more than 85% of all purchase. (16) This makes women a very important market segment for food companies and nutrition professionals alike.

9. b.

Several factors influence the speed with which an innovation spreads. One issue is relative advantage (i.e. the ratio of risk or cost to benefits). (8) It has been shown that some cultures adopt new behaviours (and products) more than others and innovation spreads more easily in cultures of similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds (i.e. monoculture). However, other factors, such as how modern a culture is will impact on the speed of uptake. For instance, in some countries, such as Britain, tradition is greatly valued and new products often do not fare as well where as in Australia the population tends to value innovation and progress. Certainly the more opinion leaders are respected the more likely innovation is to spread. Conversely the greater the distance between people, the less likely innovation is to spread. (8)

REFERENCES

1 Prochaska JO, Velicer WF. The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. Am J Health Promot 1997; 12: 38-48.

2 Brownell KD, Cohen LR. Adherence to dietary regimens: an overview of research. Behav Med 1995; 20: 149-55.

3 Ajzen I, Fishbein M. Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980.

4 Povey R, Wellens B, Conner M. Attitudes towards meat, vegetarian and vegan diets: an examination of the role of ambivalence. Appetite 2001; 37: 15-26.

5 Stubenitsky K, Mela DJ. Consumer perceptions of starchy foods. Br J Nutr 2000; 83: 277-85.

6 Anderson AS, Cox DN, McKellar S, Reynolds J, Lean ME, Mela DJ. Take Five, a nutrition education intervention to increase fruit and vegetable intakes: impact on attitudes towards dietary change. Br J Nutr 1998; 80: 133-40.

7 Krueger RA. Focus Groups. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994.

8 Bednall S, Kanuk W. Consumer Behaviour. Sydney: Prentice Hall of Australia, 1997.

9 Sigmund F. The Major Works of Sigmund Freud. Chicago, IL: Encyclopadia Britannica, 1952.

10 Jung CG. Collected Works Vol. 6: Psychological Types. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1921/1977.

11 Baranowski T, Cullen KW, Baranowski J. Psychosocial correlates of dietary intake: advancing dietary intervention. Annu Rev Nutr 1999; 19: 17-40.

12 Patch CS, Tapsell LC, Williams PG. Attitudes and intentions toward purchasing novel foods enriched with omega-3 fatty acids. J Nutr Educ Behav 2005; 37: 235-41.

13 Lutz R. Positivism, naturalism and pluralism in consumer research: paradigms in paradise. Adv Consum Res 1989; 16: 1-7.

14 Hirschman E. The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies, feelings and fun. J Consum Res 1982; 9: 132-40.

15 Peter JP, Olsen JC. Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Strategy, Vol. 5. Singapore: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 1999.

16 Gillentine A. Marketing groups ignore women at their own peril. Colorado Springs Business J 2006; 1: 1-3.

This quiz has been prepared by Dr Craig Patch, National Centre of Excellence, University of Wollongong with assistance from Anne McMahon. Correspondence should be directed to Dr Craig Patch, National Centre of Excellence, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia, or at [e-mail]