Consumption Behaviour on Burgers

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE

Consumption of fast food is becoming an increasingly important component of the food market across the world as more people choose to dine out rather than prepare meals at home because of several reasons. Fast food outlets are located in shopping malls, outside grocery stores and other convenient places and remain open mostly 24x7 days a week for people to buy food at their convenient time and locations which resulted fast food consumption to increase. Prior studies have identified several factors that have influenced people's consumption behaviours. The objective of this research is to investigate factors influencing the burger consumption in New Zealand. The objective of this study will address the following research questions:

1. What characteristics do consumer look for selecting a fast food store?

2. What factors influence the consumption of burger?

3. What form of advertising influences burger consumption?

2.0 BACKGROUND

Hanson(2002) found that quicker meal solution influences consumers living in big cities or having fast paced life. Gluckman (1986) found that familiarity with the brand name, price, quality and taste of burger influence consumptions. Kumar et al. (1987) also observed that consumers were attracted by the brand but at the same time the age, education and income had no influence on consumption. Shanmugsundaram (1990) found that the taste was the main factor for preference of particular brand and television advertise played a vital role in influencing consumers' to go for a particular brand. Technomic (2011) found that women generally preferred purchasing healthier options than men. Park (2004) found convenience, pleasure, entertainment and saving motivate consumer purchasing burgers. SIS (2003) found that the growing number of fast food outlets in malls or outside supermarkets has increased fast food consumption as it is easy for the consumer to go shopping and also purchase a burger when it is nearby. Jekanowski, Binkley and Eales (1997) found that consumers combine meal-time with time engaged in other activities such as shopping, work, or travelling. They also found consistent quality, small time in obtaining product influence customer purchase while Doug Kennedy, Bill Way and Bill Ryan (2003) found that 43% of consumers preferred a drive-thru option at their favorite restaurant. Julia E. Carins &Megan L. Tennant (2011) found out that maximising variety within and across menus can increase consumption or can influence customer consumption.

It is understood from the review of literature that 1) store characteristics e.g drive through or quality of service 2) consumer factors e.g. taste, price etc, and 3) organisational factors e.g advertiseing, brand-name etc.. have influence of burger consumptions. The burger consumption behaviours can be realised from the following model (Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1: Consumption Behaviours Model

3.0 PROCEDURE

There are several approaches that a researcher can take towards data collection, the choice of method depends on the depth, breadth, time span, and objective(s) of the research. Several arguments have been made in the past in support of online surveys including ease of administration, low cost, wider reach, and ability to capture and analyse data quickly. Some disadvantages of online surveys include loss of anonymity, increased complexity of design, limited accessibility or recipients may delete unsolicited messages without reading them, considering them as junk mail or a spam (Dillman, 2000). In terms of the alternatives to web-based surveys, the potential coverage of postal surveys is higher because every individual has some kind of postal address but required more resources to conduct. Telephone surveys are popular because information can be obtained quickly but require more resources than that are available for this study. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of each method has, a web-based survey will be conducted to collect data on consumers' burger consumption behaviours.

Design Questionnaire

Table 3.1 presents the questionnaire items for the variables for this study. The items were adopted from prior studies and modified to suit current study's needs. An introductory section provided information about the survey and its objectives. Following this was a demographics questions, in which answers were optional. The main research questions were mandatory, where participants were expected to choose from a range of possible answers provided for each item. While the items of this study were adopted from prior research, attention was given to content validity, readability and the formatting of the items in order to minimise the chance of the misleading and inaccurate recording of responses. The survey was designed using a frequently used template of SurveyMonkey, the web survey hosting service provider (www.surveymonkey.com).

Variables Research Question

Store Characteristics

Customer service

Rate the characteristics of the fast food store you mostly buy burgers from.

Drive through option

Quality of food

Consumer factors

Price Which of the following affect your decision of purchasing a burger?

How many burgers do you purchase in a month on average?

How many burgers would you purchase at the following prices? (per burger)

Size