Consumer preferences and buying criteria in rice: a study to identify market strategy for Thailand jasmine rice export.

摘要

Rice consumption per capita in many Asian countries has decreased, but more is now consumed in non-rice-eating countries. This study aimed to investigate consumer preferences and attitudes toward jasmine rice among consumers in target rice export countries to identify opportunities and strategic implications. A quantitative study with 1128 consumers of target nationalities was conducted in combination with focus group discussions. Factor analysis of consumers buying decision criteria yielded 4 factors: marketing activities (explained variance 26.8%), quality (13%), price (10.5%) and country of origin (7.7%). Discrimination analysis was performed to investigate differences in buying criteria between traditional rice-eating and non-rice-eating countries (P = 0.000). Marketing activities, price and country of origin were the best discriminators, whereas quality was a poor discriminator. Rice was not a substitute to other staple foods due to price change. Product quality, differentiation, and price play an important role. Building a reputation by using a clear statement on the country of origin should be a priority for Thailand. On the basis of their preference, consumers were segmented into 3 groups and marketing strategies proposed.