Secondary Data and Marketing Research
Introduction
The past few years have been characterised by a remarkable change in consumer behaviour. One of the issues that denote the change in consumer behaviour relates to a growing recognition among consumers on the need for healthy living (Aune et al. 2016).In their pursuit for healthy living, consumers are increasingly making healthy choices with reference to nutrition. Nikolova and Inman (2015) affirm that nutrition is progressively becoming an important driving factor amongst consumers while making shopping decisions for food items. According to the World Health Organisation, healthy eating improves a person’s mental, social, and physical wellbeing (Romero & Biswas 2016). The need for healthy eating has led to emergence of ‘clean eating’ trend. Emma, Stanton and Jamil (2016) are of the view that the popularity of the concept of clean eating has grown significantly over the past decades. Traditionally, the main concern of the concept of clean eating was elimination of pesticides in food products. However, the concept has increased to include other aspects such as growth hormones, genetically modified products, preservatives and artificial colours (Dennett 2016).
The foundation of clean eating entails consumption of whole foods, which means that processed foods should be avoided. Despite the increase in consumer’s knowledge on the importance of developing healthy eating habits, Cornish and Moraes (2015) argues that consumers are confused with regard to nutrition information and healthy eating. The increase in consumer awareness on the need for healthy eating does not commensurate with development in dietary eating habits amongst consumers. Thus, provision of dietary food products presents a viable business opportunity that investors in the food industry such as Nutri Deli-Café/Restaurant should on exploiting.
Research objectives
Considering the prevailing gap between consumer knowledge on healthy eating and dietary consumption, this paper intends to address the following objectives.
Research questions
To fulfil the above research objectives; the following questions will be addressed.
Secondary data analysis
In the process of establishing business operations in the food industry, it is imperative for Nutri Deli Café/Restaurant to understand whether its concept of clean eating is viable in the target market, Cardiff, UK. A study conducted in 2012 in Europe by the World Health Organisation shows that the European countries is experiencing a significant growth in the rate of consumption for whole food products. The UK is amongst the countries experiencing considerable growth in the number of households consuming healthy and whole food products such as vegetables and fruits (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs 2015).
Despite the growth in trend with reference to development of healthy and nutritional eating patterns, consumers in the UK are yet to embrace the concept of clean eating. This aspect is underlined by a national analysis conducted in 2013 on consumption of food in the UK (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs 2014). The analysis involved a comparison on the recommended dietary composition per meal and the actual dietary composition per meal consumed by households in the UK. Table 1 and graph 1 illustrates the study’s findings.
|
Dietary composition |
Eat-well plate ideal (Recommended) |
Actual dietary consumption |
|
Milk and dairy products |
33% |
19% |
|
Food and drinks high in fat and sugar |
8% |
22% |
|
Fruits and vegetables |
33% |
24% |
|
Meat , fish, eggs, beans & non dairy protein sources |
12% |
13% |
|
Starchy foods |
33% |
19% |
Graph 1
Source: (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs 2014)
In addition to the above finding, a study conducted by Mann et al. (2015) indicate that the UK is characterised by a considerably low level of whole grain intake compare to countries such as US, Canada, Australia and Canada.
Factors contributing to development of clean eating habits
The UK has over the past few years experienced a considerable increase in prevalence of diseases associated with poor lifestyle amongst households. One of the notable health conditions associated with poor eating habits entails obesity (Talukdar & Lindsey 2013). For example, between 1993 and 2014, the prevalence of obesity amongst adults in England increased from 14.9% to 25.6% (Public Health England). The condition is not only prevalent amongst adults but has also affected the youth. The graph 2 and 3 below illustrates the trend in prevalence of obesity amongst individuals aged 16 years and above.
Ratings
