Why? Why do consumers choose to buy a particular product? Why do they avoid others? What motivates their food-buying decisions? Where are consumers having conversations about food and who is leading those conversations?
In their 2016 study, “Inside the minds of influencers: The truth about trust,” the researchers at The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) tried to find the answers to these questions.
“We know that in today’s environment that if we can reach those who are really shaping conversations and driving consumer interest in various topics surrounding the food system, then we can reach those influential consumers in a much more effective and efficient manner,” J.J. Jones, CFI director of development, said.
As in past years, they continued to monitor attitudinal trends that may influence consumers’ day-to-day decisions. However, this year, they took the study one step further, trying to understand not just how people make decisions, but what motivates them. Motive can be defined as something that causes you to take action or to think a certain way.
“So if we think about how important shared values are in earning trust as demonstrated by previous CFI research, we really come to understand that motive affects our actions and that those are affected by the values that we hold, so it goes really hand-in-hand,” Jones said.
To do this, they began with “Why?” and delved into why consumers ages 18 to 74 make the decisions they make. What motivations do they hold as they put their feelings into actions, whether it’s the food they purchase or the conversations they have?
In the past, people shared information formally with a subject model expert at the center of it dispensing their knowledge to consumers. Now that model is shifted so the consumer is at the center of the equation surrounded by friends, family, experts and organizations, etc. These consumers share information informally, but directly.
In addition, researchers continue to see a rise in digital communication and agriculture-related conversations. Many of these conversations take place online. People are not only sharing food system information online, they’re also gathering it online. In fact, 27 percent of consumers list Google or a website as their number one source for food system information.
These people share the information they find online with their friends and family, impacting not only those who are online, but also those who are not online.
To help understand the data better, CFI grouped consumers into five different categories: food fatalists, wellness seekers, providers, comfort seekers and peak performers. On the one end of the spectrum, there are the peak performers who see their body as a temple and food as a means of self-improvement.
On the other end are comfort seekers who view food as one of life’s pleasures and celebrate life through food. There are, of course, many people who are somewhere in the middle of these two groups. Food is directly connected to whether or not people feel they’re living well or not, Jones said, hence the emotions that often surround food discussions.
Although some of the consumer groups may not make up a large percentage of the population, other groups may look to them for information, giving them a larger voice. For example, peak performers only represent 17 percent of the population, but are involved in 25 percent of the food conversation, so they have a substantial voice and we need to pay attention to them.
Peak performers mostly use YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, blogs and forums to gather and share information. Food is important to them because it is part of their identity. Thus food issues are a threat to their identity and greatly concern this group.
This means answering questions and solidifying their trust in the food system is critical to attaining their support of the food industry and those who rely on them for information.
“It [research] allows us to better identify how we can engage with specific consumer types to support and empower them to ensure that they are using balanced, credible information as they make those very important food decisions for themselves, their family and their loved ones, and then especially if there may be areas where they have a great deal of questions or concerns, we can start to instill confidence, for example, about foods that have value because of further processing or their nutritional value or a host of other attributes that we can authentically engage in conversations with those consumer types, obviously with the end goal to earn their trust in the food system, in specific processes and, in many of your cases, specific brands or products,” Jones said.
Overall, when consumers were asked to rank their top concerns out of all of life issues, keeping healthy food affordable ranked number two, after the rising cost of health care. Moms listed food affordability, keeping healthy food affordable and food safety as their top three concerns in overall life issues, and peak performers ranked food safety and keeping healthy food affordable number one and two on their list.
With these two influential groups and consumers in general this concerned about food, it is even more critical that the agriculture industry share the correct information in a way that consumers find it and understand it easily. However, consumers’ perspectives are not all negative.
The good news is 40 percent of consumers say they feel they have enough information about food, up from 17 percent in 2008 when CFI first started tracking it. However, 80 percent of consumers say they would still like to know more about agriculture and farming.
In addition, consumers overall have a good impression of agriculture, with 25 percent saying they have a positive impression and 43 percent saying they have a somewhat positive impression. Only 11 percent say they have a negative impression of agriculture.
While this is good news for agriculture, it also shows there is still a large portion of the population who have at least a few concerns about agriculture, making it all the more imperative that the agriculture industry continue to share the truth about agriculture and make it easily accessible for them. 
This article is based on J.J. Jones’ webinar presentation, “2016 CFI research results webinar,” on Jan. 19, 2017.
PHOTO: Today’s consumers worry about food safety and modern farming practices, but why, and how can we dispel those concerns? A new study delves into these questions and more. Photo from Thinkstock.
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Jenna Hurty-Person
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