Applying eye-tracking technology to investigate red meat consumer's purchasing preferences: a case study of the Mangaung Municipality

[摘要] South African consumers are very fond of meat products, as seen from the large share this industrycontributes to the total retail value of the country. A shift of power has been seen in the red meatindustry whereby the market has become more consumer driven. Consumption statistics for beefand mutton/lamb have shown an increasing trend in recent years, with the trend being stronger forbeef. Consumer preferences with regard to red meat products in South Africa have beeninvestigated by researchers in the past, but without the use of eye-tracking. To become moreconsumer 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. Theprimary objective of this study is to use eye-tracking technology to analyse and determine red meatconsumers' preferences in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality area of South Africa.Red meat consumers in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality were tested at nine differentlocations throughout the municipality. This was done to ensure representativeness in the data and350 consumers were tested in total. During the test, the participants were first asked to completethe eye-tracking test where they were shown different images of red meat products for a period offive seconds each. The product aspects on the images were manipulated in order to test theattention that consumers pay to different aspects. Product aspects that were altered included redmeat aspects (e.g. colour and fat), price label information (e.g. price of the pack and packagingdate), and quality indicators (e.g. brand and origin certified). After completion of the eye-trackingtest, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that contained questions regardingaspects such as monthly red meat budgets, meat consumption trends, and their red meatpreferences. By making use of these two sources of data, it was possible to determine whatconsumers thought was important when selecting their red meat products and comparing it to whatconsumers actually paid attention to when presented with red meat products. The preferencesidentified from the post-test questionnaire were ranked against eye-tracking data by making use ofKendall's coefficient of concordance tests.The results showed that red meat consumers in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality place ahigh value on the brand of meat that is presented to them. They not only indicated this importancein the questionnaire but also showed it when presented with the test images. Labelling that indicatedthe nutritional information of the products and certified the breed and different production practicesproved to enjoy higher levels of attention than the self-reported data's ranking would suggest. Theopposite was found, however, for labels indicating traceability and after-slaughter practices. A labelguaranteeing quality was identified as the most important after-slaughter practice labelling.Production practice labelling that proved to be more important and thus more preferred amongconsumers were the labels that certified that the meat was produced 'greener. 'No antibioticslabelling 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 ofattention from the participants; this was found while the participants indicated that price per kilogramwas the more important aspect of the two. The meaty area of red meat products enjoyed the highestlevel of attention from the participants and was also ranked as the most important. Fat on the meatwas 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 meataspects that were identified with the assistance of eye-tracking than indicated by the self-reporteddata. The questionnaire and eye-tracking data confirmed that the brand of meat sold at retailers isimportant to consumers. If no brand label is provided, consumers will make use of the butchery'sname to determine the value of the presented red meat product. It was determined that consumerswere aware of their health and wanted to know how their red meat was produced, where it camefrom, and what the nutritional value of the meat was. The price of the pack was also identified asthe most important aspect on the price label that the participants consulted when presented with ared meat product. While it was confirmed that the meat-only area of both high- and low-fat packs ofmeat enjoyed the same level of attention from the participants, the total package area (including fatand bone) of lower-fat packs of meat enjoyed higher levels of attention. The findings confirm theimprovement that eye-tracking provides in traditional research methods when investigating redmeat preferences. An important advantage of the technology is that it shows exactly whatconsumers pay attention to and for how long when selecting red meat products, and the results arenot only based on what consumers say they look at when buying red meat products. Eye-trackingresults can therefore be used in various ways to give the producer or retailer a competitiveadvantage in terms of customers and prospects.

[发布机构] University of the Free State