Traditional Food Products: The Effect of Consumers’ Characteristics, Product Knowledge, and Perceived Value on Actual Purchase

The study demonstrates the importance of customer orientation in markets dominated by small food and drink manufacturers. The study evaluates the effect of consumers’ personal characteristics and perceptions on purchase and provides better understanding of their role in business development in specialty food markets. The United Kingdom’s Mediterranean food market was chosen as a context, focusing specifically on Greek feta. Two hundred seventy-three UK specialty food shoppers were surveyed online to determine what aspects of consumers’ cognition and what personal characteristics would affect purchase decisions. The findings reveal, through 3 models (R2 = .26/.20/.19), that product knowledge (p <.01), country of origin (p <.10), perceived transactional value (p <.10), consumers’ life stage (p <.05), and available income (p <.01) are 5 critical factors affecting decision making. The managerial implications for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) lie in the need to create and deliver value to consumers by informing production decisions on consumers’ insight rather than on customers’ (wholesalers, retailers) specifications.