Identifying the needs of the consumer market and its meaning measured in attributes that improve the quality of products and services is essential to create and maintain competitive advantages within the food industry. This process is vital for product differentiation, cost reduction, and the development of innovative marketing strategies. As follows, studies that seek to understand consumer behavior are important for building strategies and tactics that increase the competitiveness of the actors from any and all agribusiness production chain. By the purchase decision, customers provide information on the quality attributes they are looking for in a category of products. This work aims to study the behavior of final consumers of pork in the municipality of Sao Paulo in order to gather information to segment this market and support marketing strategies for companies within this sector. To this end, a theoretical analytical model of consumer behavior focusing specifically on meat products was developed. This model provided the theoretical framework used to conduct a survey with 400 individuals in Sao Paulo. Statistical analysis of the collected information allowed the grouping of similar demand explanatory variables, as well as the investigation of the correspondence relations among them. The results show that pork is consumed mostly by male individuals two or three times a month. Individual incomes showed little influence on the frequency of consumption, which indicates the importance of extra-price factors as determinants of consumption. Pork is mainly bought in supermarkets, and the important factors involved in the purchase act are the price, appearance and packaging of the meat. The research identified different consumer behaviors that allowed us to classify consumers into three relatively homogeneous groups: the economical, the conventional, and the demanding. Each one of these groups has its own peculiarities regarding what directs their consumption. By identifying groups of consumers with similar behaviors, this study allows companies to target markets and establish better marketing strategies adapted to these groups.
Consumer behavior; Strategic marketing; Swine meat; Market segmentation
Thumbnail
Thumbnail
