Recently, in South Korea, social, the number of single-person households has rapidly increased because of financial factors. Since single-person households have characteristics differentiated from general households, many enterprises pay attention to ...
Recently, in South Korea, social, the number of single-person households has rapidly increased because of financial factors. Since single-person households have characteristics differentiated from general households, many enterprises pay attention to them that appear as important consumers. Especially, the food industry draws consumers’ attention, developing and launching various Home Meal Replacement (HMR) products for the changing trends. Thus, it was judged that it would be necessary to conduct a study of HMR preferred by single-person households, so this study was conducted to investigate the impact of each HMR type on preference and purchase intention according to the benefits pursued in dietary life with single-person households.
This study conducted a survey with consumers in their 20s to 60s in sing-person households, nationwide who had an experience of searching or purchasing HMR for five days from March 10 through 14, 2017, and 353 copies in total were used for an analysis of the results. For statistical analysis methods, utilizing SPSS 22.0, frequency analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis and variance analysis were conducted, and utilizing AMOS 18.0, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation path analysis were conducted.
First, to examine the results of the exploratory factor analysis, benefits pursued by sing-person households in dietary life were drawn into four sub-dimensions of the pursuits of nutrition, taste, convenience and price. The three factors of Ready To Heat (RTH), Ready To Eat (RTE) and Ready To Cook (RTC) were drawn as HMR types. One factor was extracted as purchase intention. As a result of a confirmatory factor analysis conducted based on the results of the exploratory factor analysis, the goodness-of-fit index of each potential factor and measurement model was drawn at an acceptable level, so a structural equation path analysis was conducted. The results of this study can be summarized as follows:
First, of the benefits pursued in dietary life, the pursuit of nutrition had a negative (-) impact on RTH type and did not have any impacts on the RTE and RTC types. The pursuit of taste had a positive (+) impact only on the RTE type while it did not have any impact on the RTH and RTC types. The pursuit of convenience had positive (+) impacts on all RTH, RTE and RTC types, while the pursuit of price sought did not have any impact on all types.
Second, of the preferences by each HMR type, preferences for the RTH and RTC types had positive (+) impacts on purchase intention while preference for the RTE type did not have any impact on purchase intention.
Third, of the benefits pursued in dietary life, the pursuits of taste and convenience had positive (+) impacts on purchase intention while the pursuits of nutrition and price did not have any significant impacts on purchase intention. In addition, of the benefits pursued in dietary life, the pursuit of convenience had a significant impact on purchase intention mediated by preference by each HMR type.
Lastly, as a result of a verification of differences according to demographic characteristics, people who pursued taste and convenience were younger generation or spent more food expense while those who pursued nutrition were older generation or had more monthly income. In addition, those who pursued price had less monthly income and spent less food expense.
As a result, taste of HMR and the aspects of convenience act as factors inducing purchases, and products in the various forms of taste and convenience in order to appeal consumers who pursue taste and convenience. On the other hand, since consumers who pursue nutrition and price have a somewhat negative perception about HMR, the HMR industry should set up a reasonable price range that is acceptable for the consumers in single-person households and research and develop products considering nutrition and health.
This study was conducted with single-person households with features differentiated from those of ordinary households and has a significance that it helps the food industry targeting single-person households establish subdivided operating methods and marketing strategies by investigating demographic characteristics and actual conditions of the use of HMR and preference and purchase intention by each HMR type according to the benefits pursued in dietary life and provides academic materials for academic circles in which there are insufficient studies of HMR for single-person households.