Segmenting the UK egg market: Results of a survey of consumer attitudes and perceptions
Abstract
Despite the long-term decline in per capita consumption, eggs remain an important staple in the British diet. Having recovered from the salmonella scare in 1989, the image of eggs has suffered in recent years due to the growing awareness of (and concern over) diet and health, and bird welfare. Reports the results of a recent consumer survey and concludes that there is a polarization of egg consumers, with free-range consumers at one extreme, largely influenced by bird welfare, and battery consumers at the other, for whom functional properties (size and shell) and value for money are the major factors determining egg purchasing behaviour.
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- ... The consumption of free-range and organic eggs is growing in developed countries [38] and, although there are no reports in Brazil and Chile on trends in egg type consumption, a growth of demand can be inferred from growing availability of free-range and organic eggs in the market. However, as shown in other regions [38,39], cost may represent a barrier for the production and consumption of specialty eggs in these countries. For example, a recent survey of a representative sample of Brazilians showed that 84% would like to purchase organic prod- ucts, but did not due to price (62%) and difficulty to find organic products (32%) [40]. ...... In accordance with findings from other surveys [38,47] some participants believed that free-range and organic eggs have higher nutritional value than regular eggs; a few also expressed beliefs that the quality of treatment and the diet offered to the hens would affect eggs' taste and texture. This perception has not been supported by blind taste tests [39]; how- ever, it has been shown that consumers' sensory perceptions can be influenced by beliefs regarding the origin of beef [48]. A consumer misconception also appears to exist regarding differences in the nutritional value of eggs produced under different systems, as scientific evi- dence for such effect is restricted to nutrient-enhanced eggs [49]. ...... Odds ratio and 95% confi- dence interval (95% CI) for binomial models of the type of eggs participants usually buy and association with those that pay !5% are presented. management practices reduce hens' welfare [32,38,39]. Participants mentioned animal wel- fare especially in relation to freedom to move, and naturalness in the context of housing and feeding; in their perception, animals have a better quality of life and can express innate behav- iours in these conditions. ...In many industrialised countries, public rejection of intensive animal production systems has led to the development of legislation and industry actions that have resulted in significant changes in animal care at the farm level. However, little is known about the views of citizens from emerging countries regarding animal production. The aims of this study were to explore the views of Brazilian and Chilean consumers towards egg farming, and to investigate if these views are associated with participants’ eggs purchasing habits and reported willingness to pay (WTP) more for eggs produced in the conditions they perceive as important. In an open question, participants (n = 716) were asked to describe an ideal egg production farm and explain their reasons. This was followed by closed questions asking egg purchasing habits, willingness to pay for eggs produced in the conditions they perceive as important and demographic information. Participants main concerns were with animal welfare, naturalness, hygiene, production, and ethical aspects, which many associated with improved health, sensory, and nutritional quality of the eggs. The views of participants towards an ideal egg production farm were associated, to some extent, with type of egg purchasing habits and WTP a premium for organic or free-range eggs. Our results suggest a demand for more natural, animal friendly egg production systems; furthermore, they indicate a disconnect between lay citizens’ expectations and industry practices, given that intensive confined systems typically fail to supply many of the expected characteristics.
- ... Variety is also well known to increase food intake [57][58][59][60][61]. Associations between egg intake and consideration of eggs as an everyday type of food are also unsurprising. Studies in younger adults have reported that eggs are considered a staple food [40,62] and in the UK in the 1960s, eggs were advertised using the slogan 'Go to work on an egg' [63], possibly aiding this perception in the current older population. Less agreement that a certain type of person eats eggs may also be linked to consideration of eggs as an everyday food. ...Background: Dietary protein intake is important for health. Eggs, as a protein-rich food with characteristics that appeal to older adults, may provide opportunities for increasing protein intake. Interventions that focus on the challenges or facilitators that affect a large proportion of the population will be of increased impact on a population-wide scale. This work aimed to investigate the relative importance of a number of challenges to and facilitators of egg consumption in a UK population-wide sample of older adults. Methods: A cross-sectional postal questionnaire, measuring habitual egg intake, reasons for eating/not eating eggs and a range of demographic and lifestyle characteristics, was administered by post to 1082 older adults. Results: 230 questionnaires suitable for analysis were returned (110 females, ages 55⁻80+ years). Habitual egg intake ranged from 1⁻89 eggs/month, mean (standard deviation) = 18 (13) eggs/month. Reasons for eating/not eating eggs were reduced using Principal Components Analysis to 23 challenges and facilitators of egg consumption. Regression analyses revealed habitual egg intake to be associated with 10 challenges and facilitators (smallest β = 0.14, p = 0.04), and with protein consumption, age and Body Mass Index (smallest β = 0.14, p = 0.03). Discussion: Many possibilities for future intervention based on existing challenges or facilitators were found. Our results suggest that strategies to increase egg consumption in older adults should focus on: improving liking, tastiness and adding variety; promoting eggs as an everyday type of food; reducing stereotypes about who does and who does not consume eggs; and promoting eggs for people who have noticed the effects of ageing on their food intake. Strategies that highlight value-for-money may be counterproductive. Future work evaluating the value of these strategies for improving protein intake in this age group would be of value.
- ... Traditional and unplanned prawn culture has serious impact on the environment. Due to increase awareness, in many European Union countries, consumers are becoming more anxious about the food they eat and are increasingly concerned with food production issues such as food safety ( Haung, 1995), food quality ( Haglund et al. 1999), and animal welfare ( Fearne and Lavelle, 1996). Consumers of developed countries are turning their interest to the organically produced aquatic products. ...p>An experiment was conducted to compare the performance between traditional farming and organic farming of freshwater prawn in respect of production and economics. The experiment had two treatments, namely: Traditional (TT) and Organic (TO) with same stocking density (20000 juvenile’s ha<sup>-1</sup>) in triplicate. In treatment TO, formulated feed with locally available ingredients were used, and maize flour and bamboo branches were provided for maintaining C:N ratio to 20 and for developing periphyton, respectively. In treatment TT, only commercially available prawn feed was applied. No fertilizers or other types of chemicals or antibiotics were used in both treatments. There were no significant differences (P˃0.05) of different water quality parameters between both treatments. Weight gain and specific growth rate (% body weight day<sup>-1</sup>) of prawn was significantly higher (P<0.05) in TO than TT treatment. Survival rate and feed conversion ratio of prawn did not vary significantly between both treatments. Highest total yield was obtained from TO treatment (511.41 kg ha<sup>-1</sup> 90 d<sup>-1</sup>) compared to TT treatment (426.57 kg ha<sup>-1</sup> 90 d<sup>-1</sup>). Net yield was also significantly higher in treatment TO (428.32 kg ha<sup>-1</sup> 90 d<sup>-1</sup>) than TT (347.77 kg ha<sup>-1</sup> 90<sup>-1</sup>). Although there was no significant difference in benefit-cost ratio between both treatments, totalreturn was significantly higher in TO than TT treatment. J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 9(1): 109-116 2016</p
- ... Consumers believe that free-range access is important for broiler chicken welfare (De Jonge and Van Trijp, 2013; Vanhonacker et al., 2016 ). Concerns about animal welfare is one driver for consumers to buy particular products (Fearne and Lavelle, 1996; Hill and Lynchehaun, 2002; Davidson et al., 2003; Vanhonacker et al., 2010). But welfare is not the only driver: a Belgian study showed that when buying chicken meat, product attributes such as healthiness, quality, and taste are judged to be pivotal (Vanhonacker Verbeke, 2009). ...Demand for meat from free-range broiler chickens is increasing in several countries. Consumers are motivated by better animal welfare and other product attributes such as quality and taste. However, scientific literature is not unanimous about whether free-range access influences quality, composition, and taste of the meat. Because chickens normally do not use free-range areas optimally, it is possible that provision of more suitable shelter will lead to more pronounced differences between chickens raised indoors and outdoors. In this study, an experiment with 2 production rounds of 600 slow-growing broilers each was performed. In each round, 200 chickens were raised indoors (IN), 200 had free-range access to grassland with artificial shelter (AS), and 200 had free-range access to short-rotation coppice with willow (SRC). Free-range use, feed intake, and growth were monitored, and after slaughter (d72) meat quality, composition, and taste were assessed. Free-range use was higher in SRC than in AS chickens (42.8 vs. 35.1%, P < 0.001). IN chickens were heavier at d70 than AS and SRC chickens (2.79 vs. 2.66 and 2.68 kg, P = 0.005). However, feed intake and conversion did not differ. Breast meat of chickens with free-range access was darker (P = 0.021) and yellower (P = 0.001) than that of IN chickens. Ultimate pH was lower (5.73 vs. 5.79; P = 0.006) and drip loss higher (1.29 vs. 1.09%; P = 0.05) in IN versus AS chickens. The percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids was higher in AS than in IN meat (35.84 vs. 34.59%; P = 0.021). The taste panel judged breast meat of SRC chickens to be more tender (P = 0.003) and less fibrous (P = 0.013) compared to that of AS and IN chickens, and juicier compared to the IN chickens (P = 0.017). Overall, free-range access negatively affected slaughter weight, but positively affected meat quality, taste, and composition. Only a few differences between AS and SRC were found, possibly due to limited differences in free-range use.
- ... However, taste was a principal reason selected by over half of all respondents. Fearne and Lavelle (1996) also found that consumers believed free-range eggs to taste better, with many claiming that production methods and the diet of the bird have an effect on egg taste. Similarly, a survey carried out in the USA showed that almost 60 per cent believed that food products produced in "animal-friendly" environment taste better ( Heng et al., 2013). ...Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand which factors and resources free-range egg consumers believe are important for hen welfare. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was distributed via the mailing list of a UK free-range egg brand receiving 6,378 responses. The survey was mostly five-point Likert-scale based. The same survey was also distributed to a group of animal welfare specialists receiving 34 responses. Findings – Respondents bought free-range eggs because hens are “happier” (74.2 per cent) and “healthier” (69.0 per cent) and because they believed such eggs to taste better (57.9 per cent). They rated all the suggested factors that might contribute to hen welfare as “important” or “very important” (on average) but believed outside access and fresh air to be most important. Respondents rated the suitability of resources relating to behavioural needs high (“suitable” or “very suitable”) indoors and shelter as the most suitable outdoors. Consumers differed from welfare specialists in their views on factors contributing to hen welfare, but their views on resource suitability were similar. Research limitations/implications – The sample was biased towards free-range egg consumers who had expressed an interest in a brand marketed as high welfare. Originality/value – This is the first study to ask consumers what they consider to be important for hen welfare and how they think hen welfare can be improved. Because consumers can affect on-farm welfare through their purchasing habits assessing the degree of agreement between consumers and animal welfare specialists is important.
- ... In Europe, several interventions have been carried out in order to promote and improve the consumer safety, the farming and processing of eggs and of the derivative products (Cembalo et al., 2015;Migliore et al., 2015a). These safety measures, together with a correct manipulation, make this food a natural ingredient that is also safe for consumption (Fearne and Lavelle, 2011;Migliore et al., 2015b). To date, therefore, the security risk due to eggs has been almost completely overcome. ...The purpose of the present survey is to study and to investigate the proper eating style, focusing the attention on the propensity to “egg” consumption, in the diet of young people, with reference to the students attending the University of Messina. The data collection technique that was used consisted of the administration of a distributed anonymous ad hoc questionnaire by directly interviewing a sample of university students. In order to individualize the possible variables which may influence the frequency of egg consumption, a logistic regression model was used. It is a particular case of generalized linear model whose link function is the log it function. It is frequently applied when the dependent variable y is, dichotomous. The research results indicate that the only two statistically significant variables are the eating style and the reading of the product label. Moreover, the Hosmer and Leme show test for model’s adequacy guaranteed that the estimates provided by the model are not significantly different from the observations. © 2016 Carlo Giannetto, Angela Alibrandi, Agata Zirilli and Maurizio Lanfranchi.
- Compared to other protein-rich foods, eggs are of soft texture, easy to cook, and low cost, and may be useful in increasing protein intakes in older adults. Focus groups and interviews were used to explore all reasons for consuming and not consuming eggs in older adults. Forty-two individuals (20 males, 22 females, aged 56-96 years) took part in one of eight focus groups or two individual interviews. Thematic analyses revealed 69 different reasons for eating or not eating eggs in this population. Reasons were related to: hedonics, properties of the food, preparation style, convenience, physical environment, variety, physical health/abilities, nutrition and health knowledge, food safety, social environment, morality, emotion, and habit. Some of these reasons are likely to be specific to egg consumption in older adults, e.g. properties of the food and convenience combined with physical health/abilities. Some reasons are also likely to be more relevant to older than younger individuals, e.g. medical factors. Investigation of the reasons most related to intake on a population-wide scale would aid the development of interventions.
- To understand the market for sustainable foods, it is important to allow for heterogeneous preferences. However, most studies of consumer preferences for sustainable foods only investigate average consumer preferences. They do not take into account that some consumer segments attempt to purchase as much sustainable food as possible, others are almost indifferent to the notion of sustainable food, and still others consider sustainable food a complete hoax. The aim of this study is to explore the preferences for various types of premium eggs across three consumer segments. We conduct a choice experiment including 900 Norwegian consumers and perform a behavioural segmentation based on the frequency of organic food purchase. We find that the segment purchasing the most organic food is, as expected, willing to pay a significant premium for organic eggs over eggs displaying only enhanced animal welfare. However, most consumers, who only occasionally purchase organic products, are unwilling to pay more for organic eggs than for enhanced animal welfare eggs, suggesting diminishing marginal utility for additional attributes. We find that a third consumer segment attempts to avoid organic eggs, even when they cost the same as other eggs. Our findings suggest that organic products will be unsuccessful in acquiring a larger share of the market as long as most consumers are unwilling to pay a premium for organic products with all their cost increasing sustainable attributes over products that have only a single sustainable attribute, in our case enhanced animal welfare.
- Better knowledge of the consumer is the presumption for preparing the efficacious marketing concept. This article focuses on the preferences, requests, habits and attitudes of the consumers, which are buying fruit and vegetable on city markets in Croatia. The main goal of this study is identification and description of the different market segments based on the relevant buying characteristics of the consumers, their psychological, geographic and socio-demographic characteristics. The results are based on a survey that was made in June 2000 on city markets in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Osijek. 93% of the consumers buy fruit and vegetable on the city markets. The consumers are mostly satisfied with the fruit and vegetable choice, and unsatisfied with the price/quality ratio on the city markets. Four consumer segments were identified, based on their psychological characteristics. In order to describe these segments we detected differences between these segments according to the geographic, socio-demographic and buying characteristics of the consumers. The results of this research could be a starting point for the domestic producers to define a marketing strategy for fruit and vegetables on city markets or in any other distribution channel.
