Dairy purchase behaviors: Increasing understanding of Chinese consumers using a consumer involvement segmentation approach

Abstract

Understanding consumers' purchase behaviors is fundamental to the success of the dairy industry. With its economic importance, the Chinese market is critical to dairy producers in most countries around the world. However, understanding consumers in this market is particularly challenging as these consumers often have a different relationship with dairy products to consumers elsewhere in the world, given the country's historical dairy-related scandals. This special relationship can be characterized by what consumer behavior researchers call "high involvement," indicating that Chinese dairy consumers often attempt to reduce the level of risk associated with buying dairy products. Surprisingly, while this relationship impacts several important aspects of purchase behavior, examination of the concept of involvement in the dairy sector has not been widely considered. Of note, there is no understanding of how Chinese consumers vary in their involvement levels and their implications on their dairy purchase behaviors. Nor have there been involvement-based insights provided on how dairy companies can position their marketing mix to suit the needs of these consumers better. Thus, this study proposes a new approach to understanding Chinese consumer dairy decisions by introducing "consumer involvement" as a segmentation tool through which individuals' behavioral consequences can be predicated according to their involvement profile. Based on an online survey administered in Shanghai using 1,073 dairy consumers, principal component analysis confirmed involvement with dairy is a multidimensional construct, which has 4 factors: pleasure value, symbolic value, risk importance, and risk probability. A 2-step cluster analysis identified 4 consumer clusters based on their involvement profile: face-concerned dairy lover, carefree dairy consumer, cautious dairy lover, and confused dairy consumer. According to a one-way ANOVA test and cross-tabulation with χ 2 test, these consumer segments behave differently in relation to the extensiveness of decision making, cue utilization, trust of information sources, and consumption behavior. The outcomes of this paper further explain why measurements aiming to restore consumers' trust for dairy products do not work among some consumers, as individuals may exhibit diverse attitudes toward such information due to their heterogenous involvement levels. The study also provides suggestions for market practitioners and organizations to develop effective target market strategies and policies according to different consumer clusters.

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