Consumer Behavior towards Halal Food - Research Paper Example

The Influencing Factors In Consumer Behaviour Towards Halal Meat 2 Tasks 1. Measure the effects of exposure to halal foods on consumers for whom this type of foods are not targeted, by testing their attitudes, emotions and behavioural reactions. 2. Find out the roles of self-identify among Muslims in their dietary acculturation in the host culture and describe the characteristics of the halal food market. Discussion The survey to measure consumer behaviour towards halal foods used the 5-point Likert scale, which assigned the views expressed by participants to such positions as strongly disagree, disagree somewhat, neutral, agree somewhat and strongly agree. In the chart recording the survey results, separate measurements were listed for the Muslim and non-Muslim consumers, which showed the glaring disparities in the behaviour and attitudes of Muslim and non-Muslim consumers toward halal foods. For the record, the survey asked Pizza Hut customers whether they agree or disagree with the 22 hypotheses set forth on halal food purchase and consumption. These 22 bases of the survey can be broken down into four separate topics and grouped under such headings as quality, availability, self-identity and adventurousness. Quality The measurement tools in the survey that refer to quality are those suggesting that halal meat is tastier, healthier and safer. As may be expected, the Muslim and non-Muslim participants responded in a contrasting manner regarding the gustatory and nutritional quality of halal, with only slight variations. On the supposition that halal meat is tastier, for example, the non-Muslims respondents strongly disagree at 42.9 percent, 36.3 percent disagree somewhat, 19.8 percent are neutral, and none agree somewhat let alone strongly agree. As expected, none of the Muslim customers totally disagrees or takes a neutral position but 3.3 percent disagrees somewhat. Those who answered agree somewhat and strongly agree are 69.3 percent and 26.4 percent, respectively, which indicates that not all Muslims are convinced that halal meat is tastier. On the proposition that halal meat is healthier, 23.1 percent of the non-Muslim respondents strongly disagree, 56.1 percent disagree somewhat, 66 percent neutral, 19.8 percent agree somewhat, and none strongly agree. As for the Muslims, none responded as strongly disagree and expressed neutrality but 3.3 percent disagreed somewhat whilst 46.2 percent agreed somewhat and 49.5 percent strongly agreed that halal meat is healthier. The same attitudes are more or less evident on whether halal meat is safer, with 26.4 percent of the Muslims agreeing strongly and 0 percent disagreeing strongly even as 13.3 percent were listed as neutral. Again, all the non-Muslims strongly disagreed, with 9.9 percent staying neutral. The finding that halal meat does not appeal to some Muslims as tastier, healthier and safer confirms previous studies that more than religion, Muslim consumption of halal is also dictated by personal attitude, moral norm and perceived behavioural control. For immigrant Muslims, this happens when they have stayed long enough in one country to adopt the lifestyles of the host culture and go through the process of dietary acculturation. In the US, for example, 75 percent of the migrant Muslim population takes to halal (Bonne & Veirmeir, 2007), which means that 25 percent consumes non-halal foods. Gabaccia (1998) noted the same phenomenon in a multi-country study, which found that only 70 percent of all Muslims worldwide follow the halal food standards. According to the theory of planned behaviour, which French authorities use to accommodate halal in the mainstream food market for the benefit of the large Muslim population in that country, consumer food choices are determined by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. Attitude refers to the psychological tendency of people to evaluate something with favour or disfavour, while subjective norm involves social pressures that could influence one into performing certain behaviours. As for perceived behavioural control, it determines to what extent those behaviours can be controlled (Bonne & Veirmeir, 2007). Thus, the 30 percent of Muslims worldwide and 25 percent of those in the US that appear to disobey the halal dietary law obviously rely more on personal attitude and moral norm than on religious beliefs in their food choices. The less a Muslim identifies himself with Islam, as Bonne & Veirmeir (2007) emphasises, the more halal consumption becomes a personal matter without influence from religion or other factors. Now, to the findings that no non-Muslim consumers in the survey strongly agree that halal meat is tastier, healthier and safer. This attitude is balanced by the fact that the "strongly disagree" response was given by 42.9 percent on taste, 23.1 percent on the health benefits, and a similar 23.1 percent on food safety. In effect, there is a proportion of the non-Muslim population that sees some gustatory, health and safety values in halal meat. If this non-ethnic behaviour towards an ethnic food like halal is in the minority, the reason could have something to do with religion and self-identity since halal is strongly associated with Islam. For those non-Muslims who have overcome their prejudices against other religions, halal foods gain acceptance especially when they live in a country with greater openness to new cultures and heavy social interaction with immigrants. Other factors known to sharpen awareness of ethnic cuisine are growth of migration, tourism, international trade and globalisation. As people are increasingly exposed to new food options, they become comfortable with them because of greater convenience in lifestyles, increasing wealth of today's consumers and the growing sense of belonging and self-esteem (Verbeke, et al., 2005). Based on this view, the non-Muslims in the Pizza Hut customer survey that strongly disagreed with the gustatory and nutritional qualities of halal meat could be people with low education and income who are more prejudiced at trying new and strange foods. Verbeke, et al. (2005) believe that the desire for healthier and new-flavour food is another contributory factor to the growth of ethnic foods such as halal. Availability In the survey, the respondents were asked whether they agree or disagree, as measured on the 5 Likert scales, with 9 statements suggesting that halal purchase and consumption are based on availability. These are: 1) halal meat is priced within average, 2) halal meat is available, 3) I buy halal meat from Tesco, 4) Tesco has superior customer service, 5) I trust Tesco for halal foods, 6) Tesco has a wide range of halal foods, 7) I recommend buying halal at Tesco, 8) I buy meat from large stores, and 9) I have no problem with halal if it is the only food available. The responses are mixed to draw any conclusions but on the proposition that halal meat is priced moderately, none of the non-Muslim respondents strongly agreed and only 16.5 percent of the Muslims did so. This means that halal meat is not affordable for average consumers no doubt because of the elaborate methods required for its preparations. For example, the halal dietary law dictates that the throat of a food animal should be cut first so that it is conscious whilst being slaughtered, the knives and other utensils were not used in the preparations for other animals, and the meat should be packed without any preservatives or additives. On the survey statement that consumers eat halal meat because it is available, the responses tend to establish no clear trend. None of the Muslim and non-Muslim respondents answered strongly disagree but 33.3 percent of the Muslims strongly agreed and 16.5 percent of the non-Muslims did the same. The implications are that a sizable number of Muslims consume halal for no other reason than it is available, whereas only a small proportion of the non-Muslims do so. On the proposition that eating halal meat is no problem if there is no other food around, which is obviously addressed more at non-Muslims than Muslims, a large 52.8 percent of the non-Muslim respondents strongly disagreed with just a minuscule 3.3 percent strongly agreed. This indicates that availability is not an influence in halal consumption for both the Muslim and non-Muslim population. Such attitudes may also be deduced from the responses to the given statements referring to the purchase of halal meat from Tesco, the British food chain with a large ethnic food section. Self-Identity That halaI consumption has become more a personal than a religious matter may be gleaned from the responses to the 7 hypotheses in the survey that invoke self-identify. These are: I have close non-Muslim friends, halal is important to me, eating halal is a personal choice, I have control over my eating habits, I consider myself a Muslim, and I have close Muslim friends. On the suggestion that friends influence halal consumption, none of the Muslims strongly agreed whilst 9.9 percent of the non-Muslims did the same. As expected, a high 66 percent of the Muslims indicated that they eat halal because they consider themselves Muslims, with an even higher 82.5 percent saying that halal is important to them and the same percentage admitting that eating halal is a personal choice. This means that they have control over their eating habits, which attitude is also revealed in the responses of the non-Muslims to the same hypotheses. Adventurousness There are 3 survey instruments that explore the consumers' sense of adventure in relation to eating halal, which are: I like to sample new food, I eat halal without rationalisation, and I'm afraid to try new food. On the first instrument, none of the Muslim and non-Muslim respondents answered strongly disagree but 6.6 percent of the Muslims and 56.1 percent of the non-Muslims strongly agreed. The logical conclusion drawn from this finding is that Muslims are less adventurous in food than non-Muslims. In fact, 56.1 percent of the non-Muslims responded strongly disagree to the third instrument about being afraid to try new foodstuff, with only a minimal 9.9 percent strongly agreeing. As for the survey statement about eating halal without reasoning, only 6.6 percent of the Muslims gave a "strongly disagree" response with 49.5 percent strongly agreeing. On the other hand, none of the non-Muslims gave any response in whatever scales, indicating that they want to rationalise every aspect of their eating habits. Conclusion The response of both Muslim and non-Muslim consumers to the proposition that eating halal can be done without reasoning is the most significant finding of the survey because it affirms the influence of self-identify in the dietary acculturation of Muslims in an adopted country. In taking the "strongly agree" position at 49.5 percent with 6.6 percent "strongly disagree," the Muslims in the survey let it be known that religion still play a role in their eating habits although they may eat halal less from blind obedience than a carefully considered personal decision after some period of acculturation in the host country. This supports the study of Bonnie & Veirmeir (2007) that Muslims retain their dietary habits even after a long stay in another country, such that even those born there prefer their parents' dishes from their country of origin. In addition, the findings that halal meat does not appeal to some Muslims as tastier, healthier and safer confirms previous studies that more than religion, Muslim consumption of halal is also dictated by personal attitude, moral norm and perceived behavioural control. When immigrant Muslims stay long enough in one country, they begin to adopt the lifestyles of the host culture and go through the process of dietary acculturation. However, as the Pizza Hut consumer survey indicates, the acculturation process yields different results such that there are Muslim immigrants who begin to distance themselves from halal. This is shown in the survey, in which some of the Muslim respondents disagreed with the majority view of their fellow Muslims. Thus, 25 percent of the Muslim population in the US has begun to take food other than halal with a higher proportion established worldwide. For this reason, Gabaccia (1998) proposes that any promotional strategy for ethnic foods should consider people's beliefs, attitudes, motives and experiences. Based on the selective exposure theory, consumers select which promotional messages they will pay attention to. References 1) Asp, E.H. (1999). "Factors Influecing Food Decisions Made by Individual Consumers." Food Policy, Vol. 50. 2) Bonne, K. & Veirmeir, I. (2007). "Determinants of Halal Meat Consumption in France." British Food Journal, Vol. 109, No. 5. 3) Gabaccia, D.R. (1998). "We Are What We Eat." Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA. 4) Verbeke, W. & Lopez, G.P. (2005). "Ethnic Food Attitudes and Behaviour among Belgians and Hispanics Living in Belgium." British Food Journal, Vol. 107, No. 11. Read More