Consumption of salmon. A survey of supermarkets in China

Abstract

To keep up with the recent trends in consumer demand for salmon product in supermarkets, an understanding of the relationship between consumption and variation of lifestyle is needed. The present paper seeks to address this question by hypothesizing that consumption is strongly influenced by consumers’ sociodemograhic status, experience of salmon, beliefs with salmon’s attributes and preference for the preferred type of salmon. Understanding the main lifestyle factors influencing consumer behaviour is important for marketers who want to increase demand of Norwegian salmon in supermarkets. A recursive sequential model of decision making process is used to evaluate the effect of socio-demograhic, experience, preference, belief variables on salmon demand in supermarkets in China. The important findings lead to suggestions for the marketers, such as, ‘ try taste’ activity could be carried out through in store promotion; marketing campaign should be taken around fish counter; promotion should be taken in supermarkets that have consumers of middle and high income; making salmon into nicely packed sashimi with kinds of sauce could possibly increase demand; cooking skill should be demonstrated in store or through media; Marketing activities should be carried out more frequently in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Moreover, the impact of hygienic standard of the supermarket and advertisement are suggested to be investigated and evoked set to be applied in the further studies.