5.2.3 Habitual behaviour

Habitual behaviour is common in food buying - people go to the same supermarket, the same restaurant; shop in the same way - only buying specials, buying at the same time, buying the same brand.

Over the years there are trends in buying foods, sometimes because of the availability of new products, and sometimes because of changes in life style. It is important to follow developing trends; for example the sales of frozen foods changed over 15 years in the UK with a gradual decrease in the pioneering frozen products, peas and beans, and the growth of potato products and convenience foods as shown in Table 5.3.


Table 5.3 Frozen food consumption in the UK 1974–1989

1974 1979 1984 1989   ounce per person per week* Convenience meats 0.73 1.31 1.85 2.26 Convenience fish products 0.68 0.81 1.02 1.02 Peas 1.29 1.75 1.70 1.63 Beans 0.44 0.56 0.47 0.49 Chips/potato products 0.48 0.80 1.87 2.82 Other vegetables 0.45 1.01 1.15 1.76 Fruit/fruit products 0.05 0.08 0.03 0.03 Convenience cereal products 0.19 0.44 0.78 1.19 * 1 ounce = 28 g.

Source: From Consumer Behaviour in the Food Industry by J. Bareham, 1995. Reprinted by permission of Butterworth Heinemann.


These trends of course are caused by many factors such as availability, life- style changes; but they do show how consumers change their habits gradually over time in the types of food they buy. These trends, for example the buying of frozen potato products instead of fresh potatoes, have occurred in many Western countries such as the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Habits in food choice do change and the important thing in new product development is to identify what causes them to change - poor products, boredom, new foods which better satisfy consumer needs and wants or new information.