Using behavioural and motivational thinking in food segmentation

Purpose – Emerging consumer trends within the food industry have increased the need to create market‐oriented products. In order to do so, a future strategy focusing on consumer behaviour and segmentation should be utilised. By identifying how a consumer behaves throughout the purchasing process a company can determine whether what they are offering translates into what a consumer actually needs. This paper seeks to propose that the utilisation of consumer purchase motivation and decision‐making models can help identify specific customer clusters to improve marketing strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed methodology is a combined study of both qualitative and quantitative methods consisting of interviews, focus groups and a consumer questionnaire. Findings – A new conceptual model, which integrates motivation, and decision‐making models in a food context are proposed. Practical implications – By potentially gaining an intimate knowledge of the consumer, such models can optimise food‐marketing effectiveness by assisting the industry in predicting future consumer purchasing behaviour in a more systematic and informed manner. For the purposes of this paper, the research is applied to liquid milk category within the dairy sector in Northern Ireland. The commodity sector of liquid milk has been identified as the research context in recognition of its economic importance within the food industry in Northern Ireland. Originality/value – The paper applies a new theoretical perspective of segmentation techniques to predict consumer purchase behaviour through the development of a conceptual model within a food industry context.