CONSUMER SEGMENTATION BASED ON FOOD-RELATED LIFESTYLES AND ANALYSIS OF RABBIT MEAT CONSUMPTION

Market segmentation divides the market into small groups of consumers who share similar characteristics. As all consumers within the same group have a common profile, marketing strategies can be adapted to target a specific type of consumer. Owing to the rapid changes in today's society, consumer lifestyle has become the ideal criterion for market segmentation. In this study, we employed the food-related lifestyle model, which scholars have shown to be suitable and valid in several countries. Using data from a survey (with 3.53% error), we segmented the Spanish food market based on consumers' food-related lifestyles. For each segment, we identified the consumer profile and analysed consumers' consumption of rabbit meat. Factor analysis and cluster analysis yielded 4 segments: (i) 'Unconcerned' (36.8% of the sample) mainly consists of male consumers. Consumers in this segment value neither the freshness nor the price/quality ratio of their food items and consume rabbit meat rarely (39.4%) or sporadically (29.3%). (ii) 'Cooks' (18.4%) predominantly consists of middle-aged women. Consumers in this segment are highly demanding and critical of the quality of food products. They like cooking and are regular consumers of rabbit meat (40.6%). (iii) 'Out-of-home consumers and convenience shoppers' (28.6%) mostly consists of consumers aged between 25 and 34 y old and contains a large proportion of upper-class consumers. Consumers in this segment prefer to eat out and consume convenience products. This segment has the second highest percentage of regular consumers of rabbit meat (36.9%). The segment also has the second highest percentage of consumers who rarely or never eat rabbit meat (43.9%). (iv) 'Rational purchaser with little interest in cooking' (16.2%) has the highest proportion of consumers aged 55 to 74 y old. Consumers in this segment have the least interest in cooking, the most interest in the purchasing process, and the lowest consumption of rabbit meat (51.1% consume little or no rabbit meat).