Applying eye-tracking technology to investigate red meat consumer's purchasing preferences: a case study of the Mangaung Municipality
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Date
2018
Authors
Lombard, Willem Abraham
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
South African consumers are very fond of meat products, as seen from the large share this industry
contributes to the total retail value of the country. A shift of power has been seen in the red meat
industry whereby the market has become more consumer driven. Consumption statistics for beef
and mutton/lamb have shown an increasing trend in recent years, with the trend being stronger for
beef. Consumer preferences with regard to red meat products in South Africa have been
investigated by researchers in the past, but without the use of eye-tracking. To become more
consumer orientated, red meat producers/retailers must adapt by knowing their customers better.
By using eye-tracking technology, the researcher is able to improve consumer research. The
primary objective of this study is to use eye-tracking technology to analyse and determine red meat
consumers’ preferences in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality area of South Africa.
Red meat consumers in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality were tested at nine different
locations throughout the municipality. This was done to ensure representativeness in the data and
350 consumers were tested in total. During the test, the participants were first asked to complete
the eye-tracking test where they were shown different images of red meat products for a period of
five seconds each. The product aspects on the images were manipulated in order to test the
attention that consumers pay to different aspects. Product aspects that were altered included red
meat aspects (e.g. colour and fat), price label information (e.g. price of the pack and packaging
date), and quality indicators (e.g. brand and origin certified). After completion of the eye-tracking
test, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that contained questions regarding
aspects such as monthly red meat budgets, meat consumption trends, and their red meat
preferences. By making use of these two sources of data, it was possible to determine what
consumers thought was important when selecting their red meat products and comparing it to what
consumers actually paid attention to when presented with red meat products. The preferences
identified from the post-test questionnaire were ranked against eye-tracking data by making use of
Kendall’s coefficient of concordance tests.
The results showed that red meat consumers in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality place a
high value on the brand of meat that is presented to them. They not only indicated this importance
in the questionnaire but also showed it when presented with the test images. Labelling that indicated
the nutritional information of the products and certified the breed and different production practices
proved to enjoy higher levels of attention than the self-reported data’s ranking would suggest. The
opposite was found, however, for labels indicating traceability and after-slaughter practices. A label
guaranteeing quality was identified as the most important after-slaughter practice labelling.
Production practice labelling that proved to be more important and thus more preferred among
consumers were the labels that certified that the meat was produced “greener”. “No antibiotics”
labelling was the most preferred form of production practice labelling among the participants.
The price of the pack was identified as the price label aspect that enjoyed the highest amount of
attention from the participants; this was found while the participants indicated that price per kilogram
was the more important aspect of the two. The meaty area of red meat products enjoyed the highest
level of attention from the participants and was also ranked as the most important. Fat on the meat
was also important to the participants and it influenced the attention they paid to packs of meat.
Conclusions drawn from the study were that the participants paid more attention to some red meat
aspects that were identified with the assistance of eye-tracking than indicated by the self-reported
data. The questionnaire and eye-tracking data confirmed that the brand of meat sold at retailers is
important to consumers. If no brand label is provided, consumers will make use of the butchery’s
name to determine the value of the presented red meat product. It was determined that consumers
were aware of their health and wanted to know how their red meat was produced, where it came
from, and what the nutritional value of the meat was. The price of the pack was also identified as
the most important aspect on the price label that the participants consulted when presented with a
red meat product. While it was confirmed that the meat-only area of both high- and low-fat packs of
meat enjoyed the same level of attention from the participants, the total package area (including fat
and bone) of lower-fat packs of meat enjoyed higher levels of attention. The findings confirm the
improvement that eye-tracking provides in traditional research methods when investigating red
meat preferences. An important advantage of the technology is that it shows exactly what
consumers pay attention to and for how long when selecting red meat products, and the results are
not only based on what consumers say they look at when buying red meat products. Eye-tracking
results can therefore be used in various ways to give the producer or retailer a competitive
advantage in terms of customers and prospects.
Description
Keywords
Red meat preferences, Eye-tracking, Heat maps, Gaze plots, Price per pack, Brand, Origin certification, Colour of meat, Thesis (Ph.D. (Agriculture Economics))--University of the Free State, 2018