Study On Chengdu Functional Foods Market Segmentation Based On Consumer’s Attitude

Functional foods industry in China starts late, compared with that in the West. While as economic development and consumption structure upgrading, the expense of Chinese in Functional foods has increased substantially and Functional foods industry has become one of the most vital and promising industry in China. Roughly estimated, the gross value of Functional foods industry has been over280billion Yuan till2012. It is supposed that in2015, the market size of Functional foods industry in China, which will exceed that in the US, will be the largest in the world. Functional foods industry in Chengdu, one of the biggest cities in Southwest China, has developed enormously in recent years. Yet consumer attitude to Functional foods in Chengdu is complicated.Domestic research on Functional foods focuses on development trend, marketing strategy and problems in this field, and theory on consumer attitude to Functional foods is immature. Research on Functional foods market segmentation is more about product orientation rather than about consumer orientation. Thus, author of this thesis pays attention to consumers, tries to build up an attitude index system for evaluation and probes into Functional foods market segmentation through combining qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis. Deepening the research on consumer attitude, psychology and behavior will not only lead consumers to comprehensive and rational consumption, but also guide Functional foods producers to more efficient marketing strategy.This thesis is divided into six parts. The first one, introduction, is mainly about topic background and meaning, about research method, literature review and innovation in this thesis. In the second part, I try to definite the conception of Functional foods and to analyze current situation of Functional foods in Chengdu in accordance with Chengdu Statistical Yearbook. The third part is empirical research:build up attitude index system, design questionnaire, analyze the data and then complete market segmentation of consumer groups in this field. The fourth part is aimed at problems exiting in Chengdu Functional foods market through combining theory with data analysis, at comparing Functional foods market of Chengdu with that of other cities and at forecasting tendency of it. The fifth part is about policy suggestions from the perspective of the government, the enterprise and the consumers. The last part reviews deficiencies and expectations of this research.The following are main conclusions of this thesis.1. Rather than using traditional indexes, attitude cognition, emotion and intentional behavior, three new indexes, cognition and emotion, perception of value, and intentional behavior are adopted in this thesis in consideration of characteristics of Functional foods consumers in Chengdu, reflecting that they extremely care about price and value of Functional foods.2. Using attitude as segmentation descriptor, Functional foods consumers in Chengdu could be divided into four groups:advocators, objectors, potential supporters and the unconcerned. Advocators and potential supporters keep optimistic to Functional foods while objectors and the unconcerned are passive to it.3. Through factor analysis, it is concluded that consumers with different attitude to Functional foods behave very different. Advocators and potential supporters buy it for more times, objectors less and the unconcerned the least. Thus, the relationship between consumer attitude and consumption is positive,4. In this thesis, Chi-square Analysis is adopted to discover the influence of age and education background on Functional foods consumers’attitude. Consumers over45are optimistic to Functional foods and those under45passive to it Secondary technical school and even below graduates are optimistic to it while junior college and above graduates keep passive to it. Yet gender, household registration, source of income, level of income and physical condition have little effect on consumers’attitude towards Functional foods. Consumers with distinct gender, household registration, source of income, level of income or physical condition might show same attitude towards Functional foods.5. For sound development of Functional foods market, actions based on market segmentation research above should be taken by the government, the enterprise and consumers. More government support is needed and function assessment system for Functional foods should be completed. The enterprise should invest more into research and development and take efficient market strategy towards target consumers according to new market segmentation method. Consumers should treat Functional foods fairly and rationally as well as strengthen self health care awareness for prevention from chronic disease.Deficiency and expectation:1. Data of this thesis comes from survey on Chengdu urban and rural residents’ consumption condition in2012. Thus, error is inevitable since Functional foods consumption in these two years in Chengdu developed substantially.2. When analyzing development of Chengdu Functional foods market, data of Chengdu healthcare expenditures in Statistical Yearbook is adopted because data of Functional foods expenditures is comparatively scanty. So stage differentiation to Chengdu Functional foods market is not that accurate.3. It is found that part of consumers’ attitude is not in accord with their consumption behavior. Though Consumer Behavior has given some reasons for this phenomenon, this discrepancy is not explored in depth in this thesis, or valuable find would be achieved.4. Theories of Attitude Change are not involved. Consumers’ attitude may change significantly in these two years. If certain consumers are tracked and change of consumer’s attitude is probed, it would bear fruit.5. Data in this thesis is limited to Chengdu. Whether conclusions based on it could be applied to the whole country is still a question. Hence comparative studies between situation in Chengdu and that in other pars of China could make the conclusions more truly universal.