Consumer Behavior Towards Delicatessen Products and Branding Influence

Introduction

Modern marketing, based on a concept of generalization and a mass marketing approach to markets and consumers (Brown, 1995) is being challenged by its postmodern transformation oriented towards the individual. Plurality, diversity, and originality characterize the consumer behavior patterns, or rather the absence of regular behavior patterns. Consumers are changing and radically creating new market opportunities (Firat and Venkatesh, 1995). Contemporary consumers of delicatessen products seek premium quality, uniqueness and superiority in their product. Distinctive features can be created in delicatessen products through their physical, sensory and aesthetic attributes such as raw material quality, the technology used, presentation and packaging, organoleptic properties, identification and association of geographic origin with product image, and by selection of distribution channels (Kupiec and Revell, 1998).

Postmodernism can provide a marketer with a practical and “meaningful insight into the consumption behavior of postmodern shoppers” (Brown, 1993). Consumer choice behavior and decision-making processes depend on product “image” created by the consumer prior to purchase and the act of consumption. This a priori perception of a product is based on consumer expectations and is referred as “quality expectation” in the quality perception process (Steenkamp, 1989).

Quality expectation is influenced by “informational stimuli” i.e. extrinsic (color of the product) and intrinsic (store name) quality cues, as opposed to the quality attributes that are experienced directly as functional benefits supplied by the product (experience attributes, e.g. flavor, texture, shelf life) or indirectly as psychological benefits (credence attributes, e.g. self-satisfaction with choice) when consuming. The “informational stimuli” include elements that are strongly related to social values and can change with changing culture and social environment. In the light of the emergence of the postmodern consumer, these stimuli are strongly affected by language, aesthetic values, narratives, symbolism and literary expressions. On the other hand, individual and distinctive characteristics of delicatessen products produce effective extrinsic quality cue beliefs (e.g. Intensive smell, especially in comparison with industrial products generally shrink-wrapped in plastic. Perception of quality by delicatessen product consumers is also strongly dependent on the person factor (Ophuis and Van Trijp, 1995) which is determined by experience level, psychological attributes, as well as demographic considerations affecting attributes to price.

Quality guidance models connect product physical characteristics with judgments that influence product perceptions (Poulsen et al., 1996; Steenkamp and Van Trip, 1996). They are primarily designed to quantify the relationships between the physic-chemical characteristics of a product and its intrinsic quality cues, which when integrated with quality experience determine final quality perception. However, extrinsic cues such as price, brand name, origin and type of outlet also play a very important role in consumer choice, especially when a product is to be purchased for the first time. There is a range of market-related and behavioral phenomena, which interact, thus, can be hypothesized that they contribute to the growing interest in special/premium food products (Firat and Schultz, 1997). Specifically, the niche character of special food markets focuses more on product uniqueness and aims to fulfill the particular needs of individuals. It, thus, fits into the postmodern marketing paradigm in which each consumer should be treated individually. Additionally, this leads to increasing market fragmentation and diversification as well as to consumer experimentation and adventure in eating.