Exploring consumer constructions of local food: meanings and influences

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to focus on local food consumption and specifically seeks to explore how consumers construct the meaning of local food and the nature of relationships between key influences on the local food purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage qualitative methodology was adopted consisting of five focus group discussions and 25 semi-structured interviews with consumers in Northern Ireland. Focus groups explored consumer meanings of local food. Semi-structured interviews sought to explore in more depth the inter-relationships between the influences on the purchase intention and the role of moral norms. Findings Five key influences on the purchase intention are identified (quality attributes, experience and familiarity, emotional attributes, the setting, support for the local economy). These influences are connected with a range of self-interest, altruistic and moral factors. Research limitations/implications This study was undertaken in a specific geographical setting and thus the generalisation of the findings is limited. Future research should ascertain the views of stakeholders (producers and retailers) to provide multi-actor constructions and understandings of local food. Practical implications There are a number of practical implications for marketers from this study that provide considerable scope to differentiate local food products. A more nuanced understanding of consumer motivations and their understanding of local food will help marketers to develop brand image linked to the themes identified here such as product familiarity and rural connections. Furthermore, the local food servicescape or setting should be managed carefully to construct an emotional attachment and positive consumer experience, whilst promoting trust and perceptions of quality. Originality/value Previous studies on local food consumer behaviour have considered the influences on local food consumer behaviour in quite binary terms (self-interest and altruistic factors). This study unpicks the key influences on the purchase intention, based on a thematic analysis, and proposes a new categorisation and set of interrelationships around five key themes.

Rural space and the local food landscape: consumers’ construction of food localness through the politics of belonging

“…Thus, food localness has overall, developed a positive "alternative" connotation (Hinrichs, 2003), which is built within food's traceability and "re-localisation" (Feagan, 2007;Harris, 2010;Hinrichs, 2003;Kneafsey et al, 2021;Sonnino and Marsden, 2006). Additionally, local food products and brands have developed a multifarious set of differentiating attributes (Banerjee and Quinn, 2022), including "place/ origin", "rurality", "tradition", "freshness/seasonality", "safety/healthiness", "greenness/ sustainability" and "social welfare" in terms of consumers' support of the local community and economy (McEachern et al, 2010).…”

“…Hence, rural space is often considered as "a 'virtual' structure of rurality" (Mahon, 2007, p. 346), which establishes a representation of the countryside (Mahon, 2007). From a consumer perspective, rural space is a "consumer space" (Woods, 2011), namely, a repository of romantic experiences of the past (Autio et al, 2013), childhood/family memories (Banerjee and Quinn, 2022;Goszczy nski and Wr oblewski, 2020), recreational/ educational activities in farms (Bessière, 1998;Morgan et al, 2006) and retirement migration (King et al, 2019). Thus, the "material" features of rural localitiesnamely, the physical features of the countryside, such as climate and soil (Morgan et al, 2006) abstract away and become "hyperreal" (Halfacree, 1993).…”

“…When participants Rural space and the local food landscape were asked to describe what local food means to them, they focussed mainly on the description of the personal impact that their upbringing in the region of Marche had on the development of their "knowledge" of local food. This knowledge developed mainly through their direct experience of local food culture of the region, which the rural, older generation of relatives had passed on to them and through different affectionate rural experiences of "tasting", "seeing" and "smelling" local food (Banerjee and Quinn, 2022;Goszczy nski and Wr oblewski, 2020). Thus, an orthodox representation of food localness is constructed in relation to participants' experience of rural space through a set of socio-spatial meanings by which local food and the countryside are tied together and develop normative characteristics, which arise when threatened (de Olde and Oosterlynck, 2022;Trudeau, 2006).…”

“…Thus, rural space refers to contested sites of origin and belonging, clashing with the "urban" symbols and values of globalisation, as exemplified by the urban-rural dichotomy (see for example, de Olde and Oosterlynck, 2022;Gillen et al, 2022b;Goszczy nski and Wr oblewski, 2020;Hogan, 2004). In the local food consumption context (see, for instance, Autio et al, 2013;Banerjee and Quinn, 2022;Bildtgård, 2013;Ducros, 2018;Fonte, 2008;Goszczy nski and Wr oblewski, 2020;Kneafsey et al, 2021;Palladino, 2020;Tellström et al, 2006), local food products and brands referring to "rurality" satisfy local consumers' place-belonging needs (Rodriguez, 2020) namely, place attachment and identity (Antonsich, 2010;Warnaby and Medway, 2013). Hence, rural space, food localness, belonging and place are intertwined spatial concepts (Banerjee and Quinn, 2022;Feagan, 2007;Harris, 2010;Ilbery and Kneafsey, 1998;Kneafsey et al, 2021).…”

“…Drawing on Trudeau's (2006) politics of belonging as an analytical framework, we respond to Banerjee and Quinn's (2022) recent calls for further investigation into how local food consumers construct "their relationship with rurality" (p. 1288). More specifically, we investigate how local food consumers discourses and practices construct an orthodoxy regarding what "local" food should be in relation to rural space; draw (and maintain) a boundary between local "rural" and non-local "urban" food, and hence construct a local food "landscape"namely, a constellation of spatial rural (vs urban) meanings whereby food acquires "localness" (vs non-"localness") status.…”