Discuss about the implication of frozen food marketing of Ausfine Food and its influence on the customer buying behaviour and choices made by them.
Consumers are increasingly becoming more aware and concerned about food quality and consumers’ awareness is the knowledge level about the product purchased and understanding of the consumers’ right. The organisations follow the quality standards while manufacturing and selling the food products. Compliance with the international safety standards is very significant especially for the country like Australia to upgrade the capacity in monitoring and regulation of the food companies. Frozen foods are stored in the manufacturing centres and in the stores; therefore, the customers should make themselves aware when they purchase the frozen food from the stores (Cho, Rha & Burt, 2015). People with higher income are increasingly demanding for high-quality food products those have adapted with the quality as it is obvious that increase in the consumer income can enhance the demand for healthy food products; therefore, the customers’ willingness to pay (WTP) increases subsequently.
In this paper, consumers’ awareness regarding the healthy food will be discussed in light of implication of frozen food marketing. In Australia, increasing rate of disposable income of the people; it is expected to increase the demands of the customers of healthy foods. The organisations dealing with frozen foods show their concern to production technique, personal hygiene and packaging as well as food safety requirement to meet the consumers’ expectations. In the first section, problem statement of the study, objectives and justifications of the proposed topic is given. In the second section, the conceptual framework of the topic is explained. Moreover, in the third section, research methodology is described to show the data collection procedure and data analysis technique.
Frozen food is very important for today’s life and it can be stored in the freezer for a long time. The busy people in their busy schedule try to accommodate with the frozen food as it can be easily prepared. In Australia, the frozen food industry is developing and those sold on the market are not all certified as the government cannot impose the required quality standards for the frozen foods (Saleem, Wasaya & Zahra, 2017). However, the Australians people are literate and they are health conscious. Dietary requirement of the people has an impact on the health of the individuals and rise of the diet-related health problems lead the people to avoid the frozen food in Australia. The inappropriate packaging of the frozen food can make heart disease and it can also lead to the blood pressure. Sometimes, in Australia, the manufacturers use additives; however, FDA (Food and Drug Administration) does not give the permission to use additives (Louie et al., 2014).
Ausfine Foods has maintained a small company structure to ensure that it can adapt to any situation. Ausfine sells mainly frozen food, dairy and meat products. Ausfine realises that it will not operate as the trading company and it needs to deliver the products more to both suppliers and customers. Ausfine wants to reach more customers and suppliers with their products; however; they are aware of increasing demand from South East Asia like India and China. Australian government implemented labelling policy that includes the various nutrients in the frozen food (Ausfine.com.au, 2018). The customers are aware of the health and Ausfine Food wants to influence the buying behaviour of the customers to improve the revenue. In Australia, CAGR stated that frozen food market has grown 6.15% during the period of 2015-2017 (Lovell et al., 2017). Frozen food in Australia is sold to individual customers through the retailers and the manufacturing companies invest in R&D to keep innovating and modifying the new and existing products. Ausfine Food has been facing the issue of increasing competition in the market and to judge the customer buying behaviour towards frozen food (Watson et al. 2015). The small frozen food manufacturers in Australia are looking for a new method to differentiate the brands by making disruptive products and brands. Therefore, the widening of the product line targets at expanding the customer base across the market.
The aim of the research is to determine the implication of frozen food marketing of Ausfine Food and its influence on the customer buying behaviour and choices made by them.
Objectives of the study:
Marketing activities are surrounded by the consumer and the consumers are the contributors to the growth of the organisation. In addition food is basic needs of the human beings and food delivers the nutrition for the body. As stated by Nanda (2017), food consumption behaviour of the customers is complex and challenging to understand as there are diverse factors are available regarding social, science and behavioural discipline. Therefore, the purpose the research is to find out the marketing dimension of the frozen food manufacturing companies and identify the factors affecting customers’ awareness regarding food choices.
Under these circumstances, the following are the advantages of conducting the research proposal:
The outcomes of the paper will give an analytical framework to understand the customers’ awareness of the healthy eating and the consumers’ behaviour regarding the choice of their foods. Over the past few years there have been changes happening in the pattern of the customers’ awareness regarding the choice of food. Frozen food consumption in Australia is not accelerating. The customers make their minds that frozen food is not healthy enough to eat on a long-term basis. Healthier food products entered the Australian market and rapidly these products gained the market share. The food industry reacted to the trend by developing the growing variety of new products in frozen food segment with health-related images. All marketing activities of the organisations of the frozen food markers are done by the consumers’ buying behaviour to do the comprehensive analysis of food consumption. The consumers’ awareness of the food consumption is determined by three main features like food, environmental factors and factors related to the person. In addition, organisations need to understand the marketing strategies so that they can attract the customers through identifying the specific wants and needs of the target market by delivering the desired satisfaction.
Consumer behaviour is the decision-making process and physical activities individual engage in when acquiring, evaluating and using the good and services. The conceptual analysis of the behaviour of the customers regarding the choices of healthy food is greatly featured by nature (Murad, Gill & Ali, 2016). There are many variables and their tendency to interact the consumer behaviour very complex. The food choice of the customers refers to the food selection and the human eating behaviour in terms of what the people will like and choose to eat. There are mainly three factors which influence the consumer behaviour of selecting the healthy food products. The first factor is food products; the elements involving this are nutritional contents and properties. The second factor is an individual factor and the elements are psychological and biological influencers. Lastly, the third factor is external environmental factors; economic, socio-economic and marketing (Rani, 2014). The organisations want to impact on the customers’ food choices to choose the healthy eating. In developed countries, consumers face a wide array of decision-making choice in everyday life; they need to consider basic factors in relation to the purchase decision. As stated by Dupas (2014), a popular approach to consumer behaviour is the behavioural decision where customers are assumed to be rational and the customers do research about the available information. The author further stated that the customers also face the choice while choosing from the competitors; the customers make the assumption that first identity attributes dimensions should be relevant to the decision-making process; after that the customers evaluate each option in light of these attributes.
The customers provide an attribute on each factor of the products when they have choices in the market and the customers are assumed to provide an overall evaluation. Theory of planned behaviour states that attitude toward behaviour can be subjective or it can be perceived. Normative belief is an individual’s perception of it is associated with relevant others’ belief that the persons should not perform the behaviour (Wang, Liauknyte & Kaiser, 2018). Subjective norm is about the individual perception about the behaviour of the persons; this norm can be influenced by the near ones. Therefore, the choice of food products is depended on control beliefs of the persons; these are factors that may accelerate or hinder the performance behaviour of the people. In addition, individuals can face the difficulty in performing the particular behaviour. Immediate particular behaviour is the intention and it is termed as ‘behavioural belief’ or negative consequences of performing (Schwingshackl & Hoffmann, 2015).
The perception of the customers regarding the healthy choices of food often influences their food selection. In addition, as stated by Dassen, Houben & Jansen (2015), nutrition-information on the packet of the food products influences the food selection of the customers. The authors further mentioned that dietary guideline of the Australian Agencies gives the national evidence-based nutrition policies and each of the items comes with the nutrition criteria. Customer awareness is one of the sections of the company’s communication and marketing plan. This process assists entrepreneurs to educate customers about the company and its performance about the products. Therefore, frozen food manufacturers need to educate the customers about the positive sides of consuming the frozen food along with proper communication (Oliver, 2014). Frozen food companies should make a well-designed logo and it must be relatable to the customers. In social media, the customers need to discuss the topic of eating the frozen food as it can increase the positive references through word-of-mouth. On social media, frozen food manufacturers can advertise their food with key components. As opined by Biswas & Roy (2015), the companies should claim the right things, the companies must have the professionalism on the posts and PR team should monitor the customers’ engagement about the brands. Repetition of the same things on the social media increases the memory of the customers about the brand. Therefore, the customers always find the food item that gives health benefits to the customers (Xiang, Magnini & Fesenmaier, 2015). The customers tend to avoid the frozen food as the customers think that it might harm the health of the customers. Eating the diet rich in nutrients gives benefits to the persons and if the people find the balanced diet provides them physical benefits, the customers will buy the same products again. Therefore, frozen food manufacturers need to ensure that the foods contain balanced diet and it will not harm the health of the customers.
In addition, if the customers have any query, the PR team of the organisation needs to resolve the issues through the customers’ services. If the customer’s issues resolved in no time; the customers will make a purchase from the same brand next time. The purchasing behaviour of the customers makes one thing clear that if the customers get the healthy food items; their buying behaviour will change. Self-perception theory tries to describe how the person develops the process of understanding of the motivation behind the behaviour. As opined by Rani (2014), in customer perception, the customers relate the motivations and values that drive the purchase behaviour. Perception is the ability to make some kind of sense that forms the external stimuli for the customers and many factors can impact the perception of the customers through causing the change in certain ways. Repeated exposure to the stimuli creates the attention for focusing on change or the perception of this (Cohen, Prayag & Moital, 2014). The frozen food makers make the branding as it is the attempt to identify the feature of the products that are easily recognisable by the customers. Branding is associated with the image or the set of expectation that leads to the customers to purchase from the same brand. The target of the frozen food makers is to set the products apart from the competitors and it can influence the customers to select the products.
Marketing strategy is used to increase the limited resources of the organisation to maximise the opportunity in sales in order to achieve the competitive advantage (Oliver, 2014). Frozen food manufacturers can do the market research to understand what the customers on and what are their choices of the food. The marketing strategy of the frozen food is associated with the customer behaviour as the marketers expect the success in their sales as higher profit margin can competitive sustainability is the result of the marketing. The advantage of the customer behaviour is to make the marketing strategy are the knowledge that the marketers achieve the values and needs of the target market (Mylona, Kolokotroni & Tassou, 2017). Once the marketers of frozen food understand the consumer behaviour; they try to improve customer awareness to correct the target market. This process brings result in end sale.
Figure 1: Conceptual framework
(Source: Created by the researcher)
Based on problem statement and objectives of the research, research hypothesis is:
H1: Customer awareness of Frozen Food Company can influence on healthy eating habits
H0: Customer awareness of Frozen Food Company cannot influence on healthy eating habits
Literature review
An in-depth secondary data analysis of relevant literature will be conducted in order to gather the information about customer awareness in choice of the food products. The information will be collected from the various web resources like Google Scholar, ProQuest and Science Direct. Mostly relevant journals will be taken for analysis. Thematic analysis of the content will be done to investigate the customer awareness on relevant food choices, mainly frozen food. According to Mackey & Gass (2015), thematic analysis is the common type of analysis of qualitative research. It mainly emphasises, investigates and pinpoints the patterns within the data.
Data collection processes
There are mainly two types of data collection procedures, primary data and secondary data. Primary data are mainly raw data that are collected from respondents of the research. In this research, numerous data will be collected from the series of data. In order to collect the primary data, the research will do the survey. Survey data will be scrutinised to get the information regarding consumer awareness about health products. According to Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault (2015), survey method is preferred method as it is cost-effective, the survey research can be extensive in describing the characters of the population. The researcher will prepare 15 close-ended multiple choice questions based on the consumer awareness on selecting the food products. The questionnaire will have two separate sections, the first section will be demographic questions and the second section will be subjective questions. Some of the questions will be based on Likert Scale. The survey will be done to the customers of Ausfine Food in Australia. The whole sample population will be selected from social media site Facebook where sample population will be selected from Facebook page of Ausfine Food. The sample size will be approximately 100. The researcher will connect the sample population through Facebook and the researcher will give consent form to the respondents about the survey. The questionnaire will be distributed through Facebook and email to the respondents.
Data analysis methods
The researcher will choose two types of data analysis methods; quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Qualitative data analysis process will be used to analyse the data through secondary data like books, journals, articles, online forums, websites and online reports.
Quantitative data analysis will be done by using the figures, excel sheets, pie charts, mathematical and statistical process. The researcher will mainly use the technique of descriptive statistics for the mean, median and standard deviation of the key variables of the research. Quantitative data are the numerical data that are collected from the survey (Silverman, 2016). The researcher will use Excel software to find out the calculation and it will be presented by using table and graphs. Hypothesis testing will be done taking into consideration the likelihood of Type I and Type II.
Therefore, this research process will consider the mix of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis to arrive at the recommendation. In order to find the solution of the problem statement; in-depth understanding of the literature along with findings from the survey will be analysed taken from various factors.
Project timeline
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Activities |
Week 1 |
Week 3 |
Week 5 |
Week 6 |
Week 7 |
Week 9 |
Week 10 |
Week 11 |
Week 12 |
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Selection of the research topic |
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Reviewing the literature |
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Collection of the data |
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Data analysis |
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Drawing the conclusion |
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Recommendations |
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Final submission |
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Table 1: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by the researcher)
|
Task Name |
Start Day |
End Day |
Duration (Days) |
|
Project proposal |
13.05.2018 |
27.05.2018 |
14 days |
|
Literature Review |
1.06.2018 |
23.06.2018 |
23 days |
|
Data collection |
24.06.2018 |
08.07.2018 |
14 days |
|
Data analysis |
09.07.2018 |
24.07.2018 |
15 days |
|
Final report submission |
25.07.2018 |
10.08.2018 |
14 days |
Table 2: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by the researcher)
Figure 2: Milestones and deliverables
(Source: Created by the author)
Aim, objectives, problem statement and significance of the study will be discussed.
Chapter two: Literature Review
Secondary data will be discussed in-depth
Chapter three: Research methodology
Data collection procedure and data analysis technique will be discussed
Chapter four: Data findings and analysis
Findings and analysis of the research data from literature review and survey
Chapter five: Conclusion and recommendations
It will summarise the findings to draw the conclusions. This chapter will recommend about marketing strategies for frozen food
The estimated budget for the proposed research is $1200 to complete the project within desired time; that is within 12 weeks.
|
Purpose |
Estimated spending |
|
Collection of the secondary data |
$500 |
|
Collection of primary data |
$300 |
|
Data analysis |
$200 |
|
Transportation and additional material |
$200 |
|
Total |
$1200 |
During the literature review, the researcher
Reference List
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Cho, Y. S., Rha, H. S., & Burt, S. (2015). The impact of customer awareness of manufacturer name disclosure on retail brand attitudes and loyalty in Korea. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 128-137.
Cohen, S. A., Prayag, G., & Moital, M. (2014). Consumer behaviour in tourism: Concepts, influences and opportunities. Current Issues in Tourism, 17(10), 872-909.
Dassen, F. C., Houben, K., & Jansen, A. (2015). Time orientation and eating behavior: Unhealthy eaters consider immediate consequences, while healthy eaters focus on future health. Appetite, 91, 13-19.
Dupas, P. (2014). Short?run subsidies and long?run adoption of new health products: Evidence from a field experiment. Econometrica, 82(1), 197-228.
Foods, A. (2018). Ausfine Foods // About Us. Retrieved from https://www.ausfine.com.au/about-us
Janssen, A. M., Nijenhuis-de Vries, M. A., Boer, E. P., & Kremer, S. (2017). Fresh, frozen, or ambient food equivalents and their impact on food waste generation in Dutch households. Waste management, 67, 298-307.
Karthikeyan, J.S., Desai, K.M., Salvi, D., Bruins, R. & Karwe, M.V., (2015). Effect of temperature abuse on frozen army rations. Part 1: Developing a heat transfer numerical model based on thermo-physical properties of food. Food Research International, 76, pp.595-604.
Ledford, J. R., & Gast, D. L. (2018). Single case research methodology: Applications in special education and behavioral sciences. Abingdon: Routledge.
Lin, P.Y., Wood, W. & Monterosso, J., (2016). Healthy eating habits protect against temptations. Appetite, 103, pp.432-440.
Louie, J. C. Y., Flood, V. M., Atkinson, F. S., Barclay, A. W., & Brand-Miller, J. C. (2017). Methodology for assigning appropriate glycaemic index values to an Australian food composition database. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, 38, 1-6.
Lovell, R. D. (2018). Product attributes and consumers’ re-purchase decision on frozen ready to eat meals. AU Journal of Management, 9(1), 23-32.
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research: Methodology and design. Abingdon: Routledge.
Murad, M., Gill, S. A., & Ali, A. F. (2016). From Adoption of Products and Services regarding Islamic Banking to Customer awareness in Pakistan. Studies, 5(4), 23-34.
Mylona, Z., Kolokotroni, M., & Tassou, S. A. (2017). Frozen food retail: Measuring and modelling energy use and space environmental systems in an operational supermarket. Energy and Buildings, 144, 129-143.
Nanda, S. (2017). A study on the customer awareness of wearable technology (with a special reference to Delhi/NCR). International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research, 5, 293-298.
Oliver, R. L. (2014). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. Abingdon: Routledge.
Phan, T.T.H. & Vu, P.A., (2015). The impact of marketing mix elements on food buying behavior: a study of supermarket consumers in Vietnam. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(10), p.206.
Rani, P. (2014). Factors influencing consumer behaviour. International journal of current research and academic review, 2(9), 52-61.
Saleem, M.A., Wasaya, A. & Zahra, S., (2017). Determinants of frozen food purchase intentions: Insights from a developing country. Indian Journal of Marketing, 47(7), pp.47-59.
Schwingshackl, L., & Hoffmann, G. (2015). Diet quality as assessed by the Healthy Eating Index, the Alternate Healthy Eating Index, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension score, and health outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(5), 780-800.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. London: Sage.
Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Wang, R., Liaukonyte, J., & Kaiser, H. M. (2018). Does Advertising Content Matter? Impacts of Healthy Eating and Anti-Obesity Advertising on Willingness to Pay by Consumer Body Mass Index. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 47(1), 1-31.
Watson, W. L., Kelly, B., Hector, D., Hughes, C., King, L., Crawford, J., … & Chapman, K. (2015). Can front-of-pack labelling schemes guide healthier food choices? Australian shoppers’ responses to seven labelling formats. Appetite, 72, 90-97.
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V. P., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015). Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 244-249.
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