Assessment of milk consumer preferences: Identifying the choice factors through the use of a discrete logistic model
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report a survey in random-selected supermarkets in Italy in order to identify the attitudes and perceptions of consumers toward milk and in particular toward donkey milk.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis was conducted through Google Forms platform of docs.google interviews with a sample of 705 consumers who were given a questionnaire to collect information about their economic status and their attitudes toward milk and special milk consumption.
Findings
The results were analyzed in order to identify the socio-economic and behavioral characteristics of homogeneous groups of consumers. They consume milk mainly because it is not expensive and it is possible to easily buy it in the supermarket. They consume special milk mainly because of food allergies or intolerances. They would like to buy special milk at large-scale retail trade outlets; they underline difficulties in finding and purchasing it. They think that the price of special milk is very high.
Originality/value
The results showed that those who occasionally consume special milk choose it because it is more nourishing or for health reasons; there is also a significant association between the judgment on prices of special milk and the frequency of purchase. The estimation of a generalized linear model allowed to highlight that only age and the presence of health problems/intolerances are significant predictors of special milk consumption.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The work is the result of a full collaboration of the authors. However, Maurizio Lanfranchi, in addition to coordination and setting of the study, wrote the paragraphs “Materials and methods,” “Analysis of the consumption of milk according to its characteristics and to its distribution,” “Some considerations on the consumption of donkey milk” and “Discussions and conclusions,” Angela Alibrandi and Agata Zirilli contributed to the collection and elaboration of data and they wrote the paragraph “Statistical analysis: results;” Carlo Giannetto collaborated in the survey and data collection, in search of bibliographic sources and he wrote the paragraphs “Survey results,” “Analysis of milk consumption” and “Analysis of donkey milk consumption”; while Annamaria Passantino and Carlo Giannetto wrote the paragraph “Introduction”; Maurizio Lanfranchi and Carlo Giannetto wrote the paragraph “Discussion.”
Citation
Lanfranchi, M., Zirilli, A., Passantino, A., Alibrandi, A. and Giannetto, C. (2017), "Assessment of milk consumer preferences: Identifying the choice factors through the use of a discrete logistic model", British Food Journal, Vol. 119 No. 12, pp. 2753-2764. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-04-2017-0210
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited