title: Consumer behaviors towards ready-to-eat foods based on food-related lifestyles in Korea.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine consumers' behaviors toward ready-to-eat foods and to develop ready-to-eat food market segmentation in Korea. The food-related lifestyle and purchase behaviors of ready-to-eat foods were evaluated using 410 ready-to-eat food consumers in the Republic of Korea. Four factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis (health-orientation, taste-orientation, convenience-orientation, and tradition-orientation) to explain the ready-to eat food consumers' food-related lifestyles. The results of cluster analysis indicated that "tradition seekers" and "convenience seekers" should be regarded as the target segments. Chi-square tests and t-tests of the subdivided groups showed there were significant differences across marital status, education level, family type, eating-out expenditure, place of purchase, and reason for purchase. In conclusion, the tradition seekers consumed more ready-to-eat foods from discount marts or specialty stores and ate them between meals more often than the convenience seekers. In contrast, the convenience seekers purchased more ready-to-eat foods at convenience stores and ate them as meals more often than the tradition seekers. These findings suggest that ready-to-eat food market segmentation based on food-related lifestyles can be applied to develop proper marketing strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Nutrition, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, Gyungbuk 712-714, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Joo
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Mi-Jin
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.forename: Kisang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ryu
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