Applied implications for food marketing, quality assurance and control: an approach based on analyzing consumer attitudes and behavior

Abstract

Purposes – This paper presents the idea that food quality management and control should be based on marketing orientation perspectives. It aims to explore the cues, reasons, criteria and sources of perceived quality and food risks, then investigates their influences on consumer satisfaction and consumption toward food (fish) in Vietnam. Finally, it recommends some directions for future research in both food marketing and Quality Control.

Methods – This presentation is based on a range of research studies using different data sets collected across provinces in Vietnam, and using different methods to analyze the data and test constructs, hypotheses and models.

Findings – First, it indicates that nutrition and taste occupy the highest ratio explaining for positive attitudes (positive perceived quality), while safety and negative feelings are dominated to explain negative attitudes (food risks). Consumers with more positive (negative) reasons have a higher (lower) consumption. Second, perceived quality as a a multidimensional construct is found to have a positive effect on consumer satisfaction, while negative feelings have a negative effect on satisfaction. Perceived price has no a significant influence on satisfaction but a significant positive effect on perceived quality. The results also show that there are four groups of reasons causing food risks coming from producers, sellers, consumers and products. Perceived food risk is found to have an indirect effect on consumption via consumer satisfaction, and negatively moderate the satisfactionconsumption relationship. However, the effect of perceived risks is weaker when consumer knowledge increases. Finally, ambivalence is found to have a negative direct effect on both satisfaction and health involvement. Both ambivalence and health involvement are found to moderate the satisfaction–consumption relationship in a complex mechanism.

Managerial implications – Managers and marketers should pay attention to reasons for consumer attitudes and consumption and have a multidimensional view of food quality and risk. Marketing strategies, which reduce consumer risks and educate them with relevant knowledge, may be effective strategies to increase consumption. For Quality Control, it is important that they must understand not only the established sensory standards for product quality, but also know, if possible, consumer expectations of sensory evaluations particularly at target markets pursed by a food company. Quality Control must understand all the traceable systems from raw material sourcing to finished products, and find and prevent all kind of tricks and methods that producers, processors and sellers use to avoid or even go around the specifications for the lack of the right raw material at the right time. It is important to recruit Quality Control Inspectors who can do all this right and have the basic knowledge.

Limitation and future research – This paper focuses on only fish. Future research should expand to other foods and try to answer the following research questions: Do the certainty or stability of perceived quality affect and/or interact with consumer satisfaction to increase consumption/loyalty? Do perceived food quality and perceived price interact to influence consumer satisfaction and consumption? Do perceived food quality and perceived risk interact to influence consumer satisfaction and consumption? What form of risk interacts with what dimension of perceived quality to influence consumer satisfaction and consumption? How can each kind of consumer knowledge help to decrease the negative effects of food risks? How can Quality Control and quality programs be built to solve the problems of fishing vessels, farmers, processors, marketing sectors and the consumers, and to increase the consumer’s security in health and nutritional values.