What DO we want?
I was recently interested by an article published in Refrigerated and Frozen Foods Retailer magazine (www.rffretailer.com) about consumer research done this November (2005) by Insight Express, the Stamford, Connecticut based online market research firm. Insight surveyed 503 shoppers (supermarket and Wal-Mart shoppers). Two specific areas of inquiry particularly caught my attention.
The first item was that 29% of the respondents stated that they would be willing to pay 15% more (than existing prices) for “higher quality” products, particularly when it came to frozen seafood. 20-23% said the same thing about frozen pizza and frozen dinners, respectively.
On a second question, though, supermarket shoppers rated “taste” as the overwhelmingly most important reason to buy a product by a whopping margin over “quality” (49% ranked “taste” as the most important reason to buy, while 29.9% chose “quality” as their most important reason to buy), and the spread was even larger with Wal-Mart shoppers with 54.4% choosing “taste” and 26% choosing “quality.”
My question is this: how do we make the distinction between “taste” and “quality?” Is it by taste, ironically? Is it by the ingredients list? Is it by price, or brand name? Or is there any distinction? Perhaps the simplest equation is that to many consumers, good taste equals quality, nothing more and nothing less. And, despite the numerous food tortures we all put ourselves through in limiting fats, counting carbs, cutting back on calories, etc., at the end of the day, don’t we all want food that just tastes good?
I know that at the Diner people write reviews of their frozen food experiences based upon taste. They’ll deduct a fork or make a negative comment about pricing, or ingredient lists, or the amount of fat/carbs, but they still rate the entrees and meals by how much they like them.
So…I’m curious…what is quality if it isn’t taste?
The first item was that 29% of the respondents stated that they would be willing to pay 15% more (than existing prices) for “higher quality” products, particularly when it came to frozen seafood. 20-23% said the same thing about frozen pizza and frozen dinners, respectively.
On a second question, though, supermarket shoppers rated “taste” as the overwhelmingly most important reason to buy a product by a whopping margin over “quality” (49% ranked “taste” as the most important reason to buy, while 29.9% chose “quality” as their most important reason to buy), and the spread was even larger with Wal-Mart shoppers with 54.4% choosing “taste” and 26% choosing “quality.”
My question is this: how do we make the distinction between “taste” and “quality?” Is it by taste, ironically? Is it by the ingredients list? Is it by price, or brand name? Or is there any distinction? Perhaps the simplest equation is that to many consumers, good taste equals quality, nothing more and nothing less. And, despite the numerous food tortures we all put ourselves through in limiting fats, counting carbs, cutting back on calories, etc., at the end of the day, don’t we all want food that just tastes good?
I know that at the Diner people write reviews of their frozen food experiences based upon taste. They’ll deduct a fork or make a negative comment about pricing, or ingredient lists, or the amount of fat/carbs, but they still rate the entrees and meals by how much they like them.
So…I’m curious…what is quality if it isn’t taste?
posted by Auntie's Food Life at 12:56 PM
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