Determinants of seafood consumption in Norway: lifestyle, revealed preferences, and barriers to consumption

Little research attention has previously been paid to understand the complementary relationship between the consumption of seafood and variation in lifestyle factors. The present paper seeks to address this question by hypothesizing that the consumption of seafood is strongly influenced both by the variation in lifestyle factors and consumer's experience with available products in the market. Understanding the main lifestyle factors influencing consumption behaviour and seafood demand is important for marketers who want to increase the product values both for the consumers and themselves. A recursive sequential model of the decision-making process is used to evaluate the effect of socio-demographic variables, consumption of other dinner dishes, other lifestyle variables, and attitudes towards seafood on consumption amongst women of three major seafood categories at-home. The most important finding which can be influenced through the marketing process is that product attributes more than beliefs concerning price are important perceived barriers for consumption. The presence of school-aged kids in the household and regional residence influences what kind of seafood is consumed, while total consumption increases with increasing size of the household, increasing age and higher education. This indicates that there is a potential for suppliers to increase the sales value through marketing of high quality products which satisfy experienced and higher educated consumers, while families with kids should be satisfied through marketing of value-added product forms. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.