Extrinsic attributes of red meat as indicators of quality in Europe: an application for market segmentation
Introduction
The concept of food quality is not unique and depends on who is making the definition (Becker, 2000, Verbeke and Viaene, 1999, Wandel and Bugge, 1996). Issanchou (1996) points out that food quality is not an inherent characteristic of food, but rather linked with the concept of acceptability. Consumers' quality judgements of food depend on the perceptions, needs and goals they have (Steenkamp, 1990). Within this user-oriented framework, known as the “perceived quality approach”, the concept of quality is essentially defined by the consumer and, therefore, is not easy to measure (Grunert, Larsen, Madsen, & Baadsgard, 1996).
Several approaches have been used to study the perception process of food quality by consumers. Within the widely accepted “multi-attribute approach”, quality is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, described by a set of characteristics (attributes) that are subjectively perceived by the consumers (Grunert, 1997).
For some authors though, product characteristics and attributes are not synonymous. According to Becker (2000), features of the product that are used as technical indicators for quality and are in principle measurable by analytical methods are product characteristics. The features of the product that meet consumers needs are product attributes. The objective product characteristics are not the centre of interest, rather the subjectively perceived product attributes. The difference between these concepts resides on the perceived quality paradigm. This research supports this distinction and, therefore, the term ‘attribute’ will be used referring to the perception consumers derive from the correspondent product characteristic. Relative to this subject, Steenkamp and Van Trijp (1996) presented a conceptual model—the ‘quality guidance approach’—that related consumers' quality judgements to the physical characteristics of meat in order to improve product quality from a consumer's perspective.
For the consumer to be able to evaluate quality, he or she needs to have information on the quality characteristics of the product. This information reaches the consumer in the form of quality cues, which are defined by Steenkamp (1997) as informational stimuli that, according to the consumer, say something about the product; i.e. they are used to evaluate the performance of the product with respect to the consumer demands. Cues can be intrinsic and extrinsic (Olson & Jacoby, 1972). Intrinsic cues relate to physical aspects of the product (e.g. colour, shape, appearance, etc.) whereas extrinsic cues relate to the product but are not physically part of it (brand, quality stamp, origin, store, packaging, production information, etc.).
These cues are categorised and integrated by the consumer (Steenkamp, 1990) to infer the quality attributes of meat. According to the author, they can be experience quality attributes, those ascertained on the basis of actual experience-consumption- of the product (e.g. taste, tenderness, leanness, etc.), and credence quality attributes, those that cannot be ascertained even after normal use of the product, or as Becker (2000) states, attributes that are of concern to the consumer but for which are no accessible cues in the process of buying and consuming (e.g. hormones, BSE, animal feeding guarantee, environmentally friendly produced, respect for the animal welfare, etc.). Some authors (Becker, 2000, Grunert, 1997) also differentiate search or expected quality attributes; those that are available at the time of purchasing and are used to infer experience quality.
Under this multi-attribute approach, search, experience and credence quality are integrated by the consumer into an overall perceived quality.
Nonetheless, food quality is not only a subjective, multi-dimensional concept, but also a very dynamic one. Consumers are becoming more demanding about product quality (Dalen, 1996, Steenkamp, 1990) and the perception of food quality, in particular meat, is changing rapidly (Grunert, 2001, Issanchou, 1996, Mannion et al., 2000). Consumers give increasing importance to credence quality attributes in response to rising concerns on safety, health, convenience, locality, ethical factors, etc. (Anwander & Badertscher, 2001; Corcoran et al., 2001; Anwander and Badertscher, 2001, Corcoran et al., 2001, Harrington, 1994, Issanchou, 1996, Latvala and Kola, 2001, Wandel and Bugge, 1996). These credence attributes mainly focus on the quality of the production process (extrinsic characteristics of meat) and not on the product itself (Becker, 1999) and often there are not relevant cues available.
As Henson (2000) points out, there are two interrelated processes when producing a quality product: the quality characteristics offered by the industry and the quality evaluation that consumers make depend, not only on the product, but also on the production process.
Quality is regarded as an essential element of the competitive strategy of a company (Wolff, 1986) and is one of the main factors that determines its success (Steenkamp, 1990). Therefore, the aim of the meat supplier is to understand consumers' tangible and intangible demands with respect to meat quality and then to translate these into intrinsic (product) or extrinsic (process) characteristics that satisfy these demands.
The red meat industry, and in particular the beef industry, is experiencing a long-running crisis, accentuated by recent sanitary scandals (Latouche, Rainelli, & Vermersch, 1998). Lack of consumer-oriented communication from the industry has often been given as one of the main problems of the meat sector (Henson and Northen, 2000, Issanchou, 1996, Northen, 2000).
Delivering the quality attributes demanded by the consumer, together with impartial and reliable information (cues), are key actions that will enable many meat industries to stay in business or to expand (Corcoran, Bernués, & Baines, 2000). Within this context, new product development is a major success factor in competitive meat markets (Grunert & Valli, 2001), where the product is still mostly unbranded. Consumer-led product development should incorporate the emerging credence quality attributes that are important for an increasing number of consumers. Logically, the relative importance of these attributes will differ between consumers with different social, cultural, economic, etc. characteristics (Verbeke & Viaene, 1999).
The consumer decision process is affected by three types of factors (Steenkamp, 1997): the properties or characteristics of the food (supplied by the industry); factors related to the person engaged in food consumption and environmental factors.
Fig. 1 represents a conceptual model of supply, perception and demand of food quality that gathers several aspects of models built by Steenkamp, 1990, Steenkamp, 1997, Grunert, 1997, Becker, 2000, where the main stages of the consumer' quality perception process are represented, as outlined in Section 1.1. The basic structure of the model fits with the three stages in the process of quality evaluation proposed by Steenkamp (1990): cue acquisition and categorisation; quality attribute belief formation; and integration of quality attribute beliefs into overall quality evaluation. The relationships between product characteristics (technical specifications), informational cues (cost cues, intrinsic, extrinsic) and attributes (quality judgments) are made explicit. As outlined by Grunert (1997), purchasing and consumption stages are separated and expected quality is differentiated from experience and credence quality. Meal preparation is also recognised as a very important factor for experience quality. Similar to Becker's (2000) model, the supply of quality by the industry is specifically represented, emphasizing the different stages of the chain and the implications for the intrinsic, extrinsic and cost characteristics of the product. Finally, the overall perceived quality, together with the dynamic and increasingly diverse personal and environmental factors, determine the purchasing motives, that are linked with credence and expected quality.
From this process the industry can work to translate purchase motivations (that integrate previous quality experience, values and concerns of the consumer, usage goals, etc. and also influences from the socio-economic environment) into consumer-led commercial strategies such as development of new products/ attributes, further segmentation of the markets, etc.
The paper focuses on the grey areas in Fig. 1. Although the empirical research of this study focuses only on the extrinsic attributes of red meat (perception of extrinsic features of the product) and their relationships with credence quality and motivations of consumers, it concurs with the means-end theory, where products are seen as a means through which consumers obtain certain valued ‘ends’ (Audenaert & Steenkamp, 1997), i.e. consumers do not demand products for their own sake, but because of the consequences that the consumption of these products will give to them (Grunert & Valli, 2001). These consequences are linked to basic life values. The sequence ‘attributes-consequences-values’ is interpreted in this study as ‘extrinsic attributes-purchasing motives-consumer concerns/ lifestyles’ as depicted in Fig. 1.
The objectives of this paper are: firstly to evaluate the importance of several extrinsic quality attributes of red meat (beef and lamb) to consumers in five European regions; secondly to analyse the relationships between attribute beliefs, importance of informational cues available and factors or motivations that are important to consumers when buying meat; and finally to identify groups or segments of consumers according to the importance that extrinsic quality attributes have for them.
Section snippets
Sampling
Information from a sample proportionally stratified by geographical area, place of residence (town size) and type of outlet was collected in five European regions located in England, Italy, France, Scotland and Spain.1
The survey was carried out between October 1999 and January 2000. Respondents were selected through
Importance of extrinsic attributes for beef and lamb consumers
For both the beef and lamb consumer samples, the extrinsic attributes of meat that were most appreciated were animal feeding (83.2 and 82.6% of respondents rated this attribute as ‘important’ or ‘very important’, for beef and lamb, respectively) and origin of meat (85.7 and 79.9%; Fig. 2). Environmentally friendly production and animal welfare were also relatively important (72.0 and 75.9% of beef and lamb respondents respectively considered environmentally friendly production as ‘important’ or
Importance of extrinsic attributes for evaluation of quality
Information on the extrinsic characteristics of meat constitutes the main cue to inform the consumer on credence quality concerns, such as safety, health, ethical considerations, etc. (Becker, 2000, Northen, 2000). In this study, animal feeding was the most important extrinsic attribute for both beef and lamb consumers. Cowan, 1998, Henson and Northen, 2000, Glitsch, 2000 found that animal feed was considered amongst the most important cues to predict credence quality, more specifically safety
Acknowledgements
The contribution of J.P. Boutonnet (INRA-Montpellier, France), M.T. Pacchioli and F. Torrelli (CRPA-Reggio Emilia; Italy) and R. Baines (RAC-Cirencester, UK) is very much appreciated.
The authors wish to acknowledge the European Commission for the financial support to carry out the research project: “Marketing red meat in the European Union; extending the options” (CRAFT: FA-S2–98–9093). Participants in this project were:
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Research Institutes: University of Edinburgh (Scotland); Royal Agricultural
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