A Consumer Segmentation Study for Meat and Meat Alternatives in Switzerland

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify consumer groups regarding meat and meat alternatives, which are homogeneous in themselves but very different from one another. To date, the literature has analysed the attitudes towards, and the motives behind, the consumption of meat and meat alternatives. However, segmentation research portraying homogeneous consumer groups that are consuming or willing to consume meat alternatives is lacking. This study closes this research gap and, in doing so, also shows how meat consumption is related to the consumption of alternative products. A questionnaire was sent out to a random sample in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, resulting in 561 responses. A hierarchical cluster analysis using seven scales revealed six distinct consumer groups, which covered all types of consumers, from the uncompromising meat-eater to the health-conscious meat avoider. The results show that meat alternatives are not always consumed as a substitute for meat but can also be a complementary component in one’s diet. This study contributes to the scientific literature by providing useful information for the food industry involved in producing and marketing meat and meat alternatives to different target groups.

PLANTS: A scalable survey tool for identifying groups willing to adopt plant-based diets

“…Although being aware of the environmental implications of meat consumption tends to be associated with a stronger willingness to reduce it (de Boer et al, 2016), meat-reducers are not always motivated by environmental concerns (Apostolidis & McLeay, 2016;Lund et al, 2016). The perceived health benefits are often more important than the perceived environmental benefits, especially for moderate or occasional meat-reducers (Götze & Brunner, 2021;Lacroix & Gifford, 2019). Similarly, we find that perceived health benefits primarily motivate plant-based food purchases for the Health-conscious group.…”

“…However, looking at trends evident in the literature, some similarities emerge. Like previous studies (Götze & Brunner, 2021;Lacroix & Gifford, 2019;Vainio et al, 2016), we find that groups that have already reduced or are willing to reduce their consumption of meat are usually motivated by a combination of three factors: health, environment, and ethical considerations (Janssen et al, 2016). These factors are included in the PLANT-based diet Segmentation (PLANTS) tool we have developed.…”

“…Several segmentation studies have classified groups using either measures of people's current dietary behavior (Reipurth et al, 2019;Vainio et al, 2016), their attitudes and beliefs (Apostolidis & McLeay, 2016;Lacroix & Gifford, 2019;Pohjolainen et al, 2016), or a mix of attitudes and behavioral intentions to reduce meat consumption (Götze & Brunner, 2021). However, few studies used nationally representative samples, which limits generalizability of the findings.…”

The Individual Differences in the Perception of Oral Chemesthesis Are Linked to Taste Sensitivity

“…The method has been used before in chemesthesis-related studies that focus on the association between taste and chemesthesis [12,31,32]. Beyond chemosensory science, hierarchical clustering has been the more common statistical approach to consumer segmentation in marketing and consumption research [33][34][35][36].…”

Millennials’ Consumption of and Attitudes toward Meat and Plant-Based Meat Alternatives by Consumer Segment in Finland

“…Furthermore, Lemken et al [42] searched for clusters within consumer data from Germany and New Zealand using a latent class analysis and identified five clusters in each country (three clusters were common to both countries, while two were unique for each country). Recently, Götze and Brunner [45] segmented a sample of Swiss consumers into six segments via a hierarchical cluster analysis.…”