Dissertation Overview: Consumer Behavior in US and UK Food Markets

This dissertation overview investigates consumer behavior in the food industry, with a specific focus on comparing and contrasting consumer preferences for food, particularly the red king crab, in the United States and the United Kingdom. The research explores the dynamics of consumer choices, considering factors such as age, lifestyle, perception, culture, socio-economic background, and customer experience. The study begins with an introduction to consumer behavior and provides an overview of the food industries in both the US and the UK. It then delves into a literature review, research methodology, findings, and conclusions, culminating in recommendations for improving customer retention strategies in restaurants. The research aims to determine whether similar environments lead to similar taste preferences, considering the similarities between the US and UK societies. The dissertation analyzes various themes, including the influence of age and lifestyle, perception, culture, socio-economic background, and customer experience on food habits and preferences. The findings are then analyzed with reference to the research questions and hypothesis, providing valuable insights into the complex nature of consumer behavior in the food sector.

Running head: DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
Dissertation Overview
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
Abstract
Consumer behavior refers to the type of behavior that customers are seen to exhibit towards a
particular product or service in the market. Consumer behavior around the world is governed by
a wide range of factors and as such is seen to vary from one particular industry to another.
Consumers tend to be conscious about what it is that they do or don’t purchase and to cater to the
needs and requirements of consumers can prove to be a tricky affair, given how competitive
every industry is becoming in today’s day and age. It is worth pointing out in this respect that the
food industry is growing and expanding and consumer behavior with respect to food is ever
changing. More and more food outlets are coming up in the cities and towns of the world, and it
is becoming increasingly hard for restaurants and food businesses to engage in the act of
customer retention. For customer retention to be carried out in a feasible manner, customer or
consumer approach to food is something that needs to be well understood. This particular
research concentrates on understanding the dynamics of consumer behavior towards food with
special reference to the countries of the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The
aim of the research is to find out whether or not similar environments are seen to induce similar
taste or preference for food in consumers, given that both the USA and the United Kingdom have
societies that are characterized by a vast number of similarities. The red king crab is a food item
that has been chosen as a focus of this research study, given that it is quite popular in every part
of the world and is readily available at the best dining destinations in both the USA as well as in
the UK. The first chapter of the research study provides an overview of the food industry in the
United Kingdom and in the USA after which the research questions, the research aims and
objectives as also the research hypothesis have been outlined. The second chapter of the research
provides an in-depth literature review on the subject of consumer behavior. The third chapter

2DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
mentions in detail the research methods, designs and philosophy that have been deployed in
order to carry out this investigation. The fourth chapter discusses the results of the research and
analyses the results with reference to the research question and the research hypothesis. The final
chapter concludes on the subject of the research and provides a number of useful
recommendations on how consumer behavior to food can be significantly improved so as to
facilitate customer retention by restaurants.

3DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction...................................................................................................................5
1.1. About Consumer Behavior – A Brief Overview...............................................................5
Research Hypothesis –...............................................................................................................10
2. Chapter 2 - Review of Literature...............................................................................................11
2.1. General Understanding of Consumer Behavior..................................................................11
Measuring Taste Preferences among Consumers......................................................................15
2.3. Understanding Customer Perceptions of Products, including Food Products....................20
2.4. Gaps in the Literature.........................................................................................................20
Chapter 3 – Research Methods......................................................................................................21
3.1. Research Philosophy...........................................................................................................21
3.2. Research Design.................................................................................................................22
3.3. Data Sampling....................................................................................................................22
3.4. Data Collection...................................................................................................................24
3.5. Data Analysis......................................................................................................................24
3.6. Ethical Considerations for the Research.............................................................................25
3.7. Limitations of the Research................................................................................................26
Chapter 4 – Research Findings......................................................................................................27
4.1. Theme 1 – Age and Lifestyle in the United Kingdom and the USA and its Influence on
Food Habits and Food Preferences............................................................................................27

4DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
4.2. Theme 2 – Perception, Attitude and Personality................................................................29
4.2. Theme 3 - Culture and Consumer Behavior.......................................................................32
4.4. Theme 4 – Socio-economic Background and Experience of Customers...........................35
4.5. Theme 5 – Experience of Customers..................................................................................37
4.6. General Analysis.................................................................................................................40
Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................44
5.1. Recommendations...............................................................................................................45
References......................................................................................................................................48

5DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.1. About Consumer Behavior – A Brief Overview
Consumer behavior refers to the process by which a study or investigation is carried out
of how groups, organizations or individual customers buy, use, select, as well as dispose goods,
services and ideas for satisfying their wants and needs. Consumer behavior refers to actions
undertaken by customers in the market place as well as the underlying motives behind such
actions. It is expected by marketers that by arriving at an understanding of what it is that
motivates consumers to purchase specific products and services they can determine types of
products existing in the marketplace which are no longer in demand or which are obsolete while
also understanding how goods can be presented to customers in the most attractive way possible.
When consumer behavior is studied in detail it is assumed that consumers are the primary
actors in a marketplace. Role theory for instance is a perspective that is often applied to the study
of consumer behavior. According to role theory, in the marketplace, customers or consumers are
seen to perform a variety of roles. From being information providers to users, payers and
disposers, customers play quite a few roles in the decision making process in the marketplace.
The roles that are performed by consumers are also seen to vary quite a bit in different types of
consumption situations.
There are a number of specific characteristics that consumer behavior is associated with.
These include marketing factors along the lines of product design, promotion, price, positioning
in the market, as well as the distribution of the product, personal factors such as education,
gender, income level and age, social factors like family, reference groups, and social status,

6DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
situational factors such as time, social surroundings and time of purchase, and psychological
factors like attitude towards the product that is being marketed, product perceptions and buying
motives.
The restaurant business is growing at a slow and steady pace in each and every part of the
world. Restaurant owners are being compelled to come up with new ideas, innovations and
techniques of cooking and presenting food, in order to cater to the increasingly changing tastes
and preferences of consumers. Restaurant goers have become quite particular about the food that
they like to eat, something that has been facilitated by the emergence of gourmet dining
destinations in most cities and towns of the globe. This research project is aimed at
understanding more about consumer behavior and consumer preferences when it comes to food,
and this subject shall be investigated by specifically focusing on the red king crab, an ingredient
that is used more often than not in gourmet cuisine and which is renowned for its exotic taste.
The study will entail cross country research, with the USA and UK being chosen as countries of
comparison and contrast with the primary purpose of the research work being to detect whether
or not customers have similar preferences when it comes to consuming the red king crab, in
restaurants of the US and the UK. It is important to remember that consumer behavior is not
static in its nature and that it varies considerably from one consumer to another consumer.
Consumer behavior is also seen to vary quite a bit across countries and regions. Differences arise
on the basis of level of development, lifestyles and upbringing of customers for the most part.
1.2. US Food Industry – An Introduction
The food industry in the USA is comprised of food service providers of various different
types such as self service restaurants, full service restaurants, street stalls, kiosks, fast food

7DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
outlets, bars and cafes. There are hundred percent home delivery restaurants which are in
operation in the USA as well. Restaurants in the USA have been increasingly making use of
online food delivery services. Food service providers, especially restaurant owners have focused
greatly on the digitalization of their operations and this has been accompanied by a significant
rise in the number of customers who are interested in ordering for their food online, a number
that is expected to grow in leaps and bounds in the coming years. Home delivery systems are
availed in the USA primarily for delivering products such as pizza. Online food delivery and
food purchase systems are being largely favored by customers because of the fact that these are
characterized by convenient payment procedures and also because of the fact that customers get
a wide range of food products to choose from.
Some of the major players in the food service market or industry of the US are fast food
outlets like Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Papa John’s, Starbucks Corporation, Dunkin
Donuts, Doctors Associates Inc, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Yum Brands Inc. The segment for
chained consumer food service is one that has been growing at a particularly rapid rate due to an
increased amount of investment being made by a number of international brands from China and
the United Kingdom, over and above restaurants in the USA. Food companies are adopting food
strategies such as the introduction of exotic new mixes and flavors and even organic food
products have been introduced into the USA market of late, and which is likely to improve
prospects for companies that deal in organic foods and products, as a result.
When it comes to seafood and the love for it in the USA, two popular categories of shell
fish that are in circulation in the market are clams and crabs. The most consumed and most
well-known crabs are the Blue Crab, the Dungeness and the Snow Crab and the King Crab
or Red King Crab as it is commonly referred to. Such crabs are capable of being purchased

8DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
live, or in frozen or canned form depending on the needs, preferences and requirements of
customers. Crabs in particular rank at number nine on a scale of 10 when it comes to popularity
among consumers.
1.3. Food Industry in the United Kingdom: An Overview
The Food and Drink Sector in the United Kingdom is one of the largest sectors in the
country as far as economic contribution is concerned. It is a sector that is continuously growing
and developing and has grown by as much as twenty seven percent in the years between 1997
and 2015. Business turnover with reference to the food industry is also something that appears to
have grown at the rate of twenty eight percent in the years between 2010 and 2015, with the
profit margin in this period being around ten percent. This is also a time when the employee
population in the country was seen to grow at a rate of six percent. Such a figure is far higher
than the figure of one percent which was the growth that had been experienced by the
manufacturing sector as a whole in the United Kingdom in the same time period. The food and
drink industry in the United Kingdom is seen to contribute as much as twenty eight billion
dollars in terms of revenue to the economy of the country, and it employs as many as four
hundred thousand people at a time, making it one of the most prosperous and thriving sectors in
the country. The market environment however in which the food and drink sector is seen to
operate in the UK is something that remains quite uncertain until now and some of the challenges
that are faced by the food industry in the UK appear to be unparalleled.
There is plenty of growth opportunity when it comes to the food and drink sector in the
United Kingdom, in spite of the fact that the nation is faced with an ageing population and the
fact that new types of jobs are emerging in the industry which require the deployment of new

9DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
types of skills in order to perform such jobs. The use of innovation in particular is something that
is appearing to become increasingly important for the growth of the food and drink sector in the
United Kingdom and the need to understand customer behavior is becoming more and more vital
with every passing day. Customer behavior continues to grow and evolve and the trends in
customer behavior have to be identified if new food and drink products are to be developed and
commercialized in order to ensure successful sales in the market.
It is worth pointing out that some of the major players in the UK food industry are
McDonalds, KFC and Burger King, Subway and Pizza Hut, in addition to a variety of Michelin
star restaurants such as chef Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italian and The Fat Duck in Berkshire which
is owned and managed by Heston Blumenthal. When it comes to seafood in particular, it can be
said that crayfish of various types including the Red King Crab are quite popular and favored by
consumers of all ages. The Red King Crabs are already quite popular in the USA and they are
now gradually invading the country of Britain as well. The Red King Crab in the UK is a product
that is exported mostly from the Arctic region as also from the Russian Federation and
constitutes a popular dish on the menu of many restaurants in the country.
1.4. Research Aims and Objectives
The above discussion demonstrates that the food industry in both USA and in the United
Kingdom is flourishing and the Red King Crab is quite popular among consumers in USA and
UK. Against this particular backdrop, an investigation will be carried out to understand
consumer behavior towards a food product like the Red King Crab. USA and United Kingdom
are being chosen as the countries of study or investigation for this dissertation largely because of

10DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
the similarities that persist in terms of culture, society and economy of the two countries. The
specific aim of the research is as follows -
 To detect if similar consumer environments are likely to lead to a similar taste in or
preference for food
Primary Research Question
Are similar consumer environments likely to lead to a similar taste in or preference for
food?
Research Hypothesis –
Hypothesis 1 – Similar consumer environments generate a similar taste in or preference for food
Hypothesis 2 – Similar consumer environments do not generate a similar taste in or preference
for food

11DISSERTATION OVERVIEW
2. Chapter 2 - Review of Literature
2.1. General Understanding of Consumer Behavior
Zhang and Beyouncef (2016), have undertaken an investigation on the factors that are
seen to influence consumer behavior in the domain of social commerce. A literature review has
been carried out on the part of the researchers wherein the research methods, theories as well as
contexts of all of the selected studied or scholarly works, were evaluated, in detail. Upon
conducting the evaluation, a framework was proposed by the researchers to elicit all of the
important factors that have a role to play in shaping the consumer decision making process. A
number of novel insights have been provided on the part of this framework into how the behavior
of consumers takes form or manifestation when engaging in buying and selling transactions over
the domain of social media. What Zhang and Beyouncef (2016), are specifically seen to argue
that the emergence of an institution such as social commerce is something that has brought rapid
and substantive changes to the way by which both consumers as well as businesses are
approached in today’s day and age. It is critical for companies to understand what consumer
behavior is like, in the social commerce context, if they want to influence all their customers
better and also establish long standing social partnerships and relationships with them at the
same given time. The integrative framework that is proposed by the researchers to understand
consumer behavior in social commerce better, is one that is comprised of what may be termed as
stimulus organism response model as well as a five stage consumer decision making process
with the argument being made on their part that this could serve as a useful and legitimate basis
for any further research that is carried out on consumer behavior in the area of social commerce.