Consumer Buying Behavior

The word food refers to any nutritious substance that our body intake to sustain life, therefore, each and every human needs it. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943), in the physiological needs stage, food is one of the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person’s search for satisfaction. However, despite of the fact that food is a basic need, people still have their own picture of choosing what they want to eat.

Food is not just a food – the selection and consumption of food has always been a matter subject to a complex network of cultural and individual factors. These factors were affected by the consumers buying behavior. According to Kardes (2011), consumer buying behavior is a study of how consumers decide to buy a product. It entails all the consumer activities associated with the purchase, use, and disposal of goods and services, including the consumer’s emotional, mental and behavioral responses that precede, determine or follow these activities. This buying behavior could be a big part on how consumers choose what food to eat.

Buying behavior explains why people do have differences in buying food. This happens because of the factors that affect the human needs or wants and how the foods are presented to them. The study will be completed to determine what factors that affect the consumer buying behavior towards food consumption, what could be the significant relationship between the factors affecting the consumer and the factors affecting the food itself. B. Statement of the Problem This study will help to understand how people were affected by their buying behavior towards food consumption. Specifically, this study will require answering the following questions:

What is the profile of the consumer in terms of:

• Gender
• Age
• Marital Status
• Religion

What is the consumer’s buying behavior towards food consumption in relation to: 

• Nutritional Value of Foods
• Taste of Foods
• Aesthetic Appeal of Foods
• Price of Foods

What are the significance relationships between the profile of the consumer and their buying behavior towards food consumption? C. Conceptual Framework Figure 1. Research Paradigm of the Study The Figure 1 illustrates the research paradigm of the study which specify the input, process and output that will be pondered in conducting in the study.

In the input box, it presents the profile of the consumers in terms of gender, age, marital status, and religion that have a significant relationship with the customers buying behavior towards food consumption in relation to the nutritional value, taste, aesthetic appeal and price of the food. In the process box, it reveals how the study will gather its data which is through a survey questionnaire that will be answered by the respondents and it will be interpreted and analysed. In the last box, the output box, presents the significant relationship between consumer’s profile and their buying behavior towards food consumption.

D. Significance of the Study The researcher will intend to give information about the buying behavior of consumer when it comes to ingestion of food. Moreover this study will address itself to: researchers and other interested practitioners, who are also searching some answers and related references on their researches, may this study help them to widen the results they need; owners of food-related establishments, who need more information about their customers buying behavior ; students and other individuals for them to gain some understandings. E. Scope and Limitation

The study will revolve around the city of Tanauan and the citizens will be the respondents of the said study. They will be given survey questionnaires as part of the data gathering procedure. However, not all will be given a chance to answer the questionnaire. There will be sample from the total population of Tanauan City. It is limited on how honest the respondents would answer the questions. The results will portray how successful the study will be. The study will run for about five months. F. Definition of Terms

Aesthetic Appeal

• It concerns with the appearance of the food. Consumer- A person or group of people who are the final users of products and or services generated within a social system.
• Consumer Buying Behavior- The process by which individuals search for, select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods and services, in satisfaction of their needs and wants.
• Food- Any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body.
• Food Consumption- The ingestion of food to provide for all humans and animals nutritional needs, particularly for energy and growth.
• Nutritional Value of Foods- It refers to its capacity to nourish the body with the substances needed to live and grow. II.

Review of Literature Consumer Buying Behavior According to Kuester (2012), consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. There are a lot of things that affects customer buying behavior. According to Perner (2008), consumer behavior includes the psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, making decisions, interpret information, make plans and implement these plans.

Food Consumption

As part of human’s basic needs, food has been a huge segment in people’s life. Filipinos, as a portion to their culture, they really love to eat. Daez (2012) stated that Filipinos love food and it has become commonplace for Filipino households to serve their guests a “mini-fiesta” whether they are hungry or not. Filipinos have a huge variety of cuisine that originated from its 7, 107 islands. Having colonized by different countries, the cuisine of the Filipinos evolved through time. Though, Filipinos eat too much unhealthy foods, like street foods and most likely fast food chains’ foods.

Nutritional value of foods has never been one of the major factors in Filipinos’ eating lifestyle. It is always been the taste that they look forward. Demographic Factors affecting Buying Behavior Demographic variables are the most common means to define segments because such customer segments can be easily identified and accessed. Gender. According to Levy (2001), gender is a good predictor of shopping behaviors. Men show little ability or interest in honing their shopping skills, while women view the supermarket as a place where they can demonstrate their expertise in getting the most value for their money.

Men and women even buy different products. Age. Most of the time, age defines the need of an individual. However, it depends on different aspects. Piddock (2010) stated that growing children seem to be forever hungry, while older, retired people eat less than working men and women. Marital Status. People’s buying behavior may even change if he or she was already married. Having a family plays a big role on how consumers buy foods. According to Weitz (2001), when families make purchase decisions, they often consider the needs of all family members. Not like if a person is single, he only thinks of himself.

And how more if there is a kid at home? Children were the biggest factor in family when it comes to buying behavior. Weitz (2001) also stated that children play an important role in family buying decisions. It’s estimated that children between ages 4 and 12 themselves spend or influence their parents’ purchases. Religion. As part of the culture, religion greatly affects how consumers buy their foods. According to Waibel, religious leaders of the day developed rules about the consumption of foods and drinks, and religious practices, restrictions, and laws evolved.

Specific laws about what can be consumed remain in most religions today. The lack of mechanisms to refrigerate or preserve foods led to certain rituals, such as the draining of blood from slaughtered animals, while restrictions on the eating of foods known to spoil easily, such as eggs, dairy products, and meats, were devised for safety reasons.

Research Methods

This chapter includes the discussion of research design, the data gathering instrument, the participants of the study, the data gathering procedures essential for the collection and elucidation of data.

It also discusses how the data will be collected and treated. A. Research Design Triangulated Research. A method that is a combination of quantitative and qualitative research. According to O’Donoghue and Punch (2003), triangulation is a “method of cross-checking data from multiple sources to search for regularities in the research data. ” It is a quantitative research since the study will collect the demographic data of the consumer like gender, age, marital status and religion. It is also a qualitative research since it will also focus on the consumer buying behavior towards food consumption.

This method was chosen by the researchers for the reason that according to Altrichter et al. (2008) contend that triangulation “gives a more detailed and balanced picture of the situation. ” Descriptive-Correlational Study. A design used to describe the statistical association between two or more variables. The study will look for the significant relationships between the consumer’s profile and their buying behavior towards food consumption. B. Participants of the Study The participants of the study will be the residents of Tanauan City. For the researchers to come up with the total number of respondents, stratified sampling will be used.

The researchers will create subgroups of the respondents and draw samples from each group. C. Research Instrument A research instruments plays a big part in gathering data. It is the mirror of the statement of the problem. To gather information, survey questionnaires will be answered by the respondents. It will be the main data gathering instrument for the study. D. Data Gathering Procedure E. Data Analysis Procedure In this study, the data and information that will be gathered, collected and organized will be assembled for review of statistics as follow; Weighted Mean.

It is the central tendency of a collection of numbers taken as the sum of the numbers divided by the size of the collection. This process will be used in taking the average for the profile of the consumers. Z-test and F-Test. This process will help in determining the consumer buying behavior towards food consumption. Frequency Distribution of percentage formula. This formula will be used to show the consumer’s profile and the factors that affect their buying behavior towards foo consumption.

References

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2. Teachers investigate their work; An introduction to action research across the professions. Routledge. p. 147. (2nd edition).
3. Daez, M. (2012, November 18). Eating for the Right Reasons. The Philippine Star. Retrieved December 28, 2012, from http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2012-11-18/867921/eating-right-reasons Kardes, F., Cronley, M., Cline, T., (2011).
4. What is Consumer Behavior? Consumer Behavior. Cengage Learning. p. 8. Kuester, Sabine (2012): MKT 301: Strategic Marketing & Marketing in Specific Industry Contexts. University of Mannheim. p. 110. Levy, M., Weitz, B., (2001).
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8. University of Southern California Marshall. Retrieved December 6, 2012, from www.consumerpsychologist.com/intro_Consumer_Behavior.html Pidock, S., (2010, August 27).
9. Factors that affect Food Intake. Retrieved February 11, 2013, from http://www.helium.com/items/1930235-factors-that-affect-food-intake Waibel, R.,
10. Religion and Dietary Practices. Retrieved February 9, 2013 from http://www.diet.com/g/religion-and-dietary-practices