Chinese consumers and European beer: Associations between attribute importance, socio-demographics, and consumption
Introduction
China is one of the most important emerging markets and the largest East-Asian country, as it has 20% of the World's population and is experiencing rapid growth in personal income (World Bank, 2014). An enormous number of Chinese study, work or travel in western countries and bring back their experiences of western foods (Netease, 2013, Yan, 2014). The dietary consumption pattern in China is also becoming more inclined towards westernization (Pingali, 2007). Together, these factors have led to the recent dramatic growth in demand for imported Western food products (Curtis et al., 2007, Gale and Huang, 2007, Hu et al., 2007, Liu et al., 2011, Wang et al., 2015, Wang et al., 2015). In particular, there is a huge demand for western alcoholic beverages, especially originating from Europe. China now represents the largest export market for wine from the European Union (EU), and above 70% of its imported beer comes from European countries (Alinna, 2013, Chen, 2015, Lu, 2014). This new trend brings an increased importance to the research areas in relation to East-Asian (especially Chinese) consumers' attitudes, perceptions and behaviours towards local western alcoholic beverages.
Many empirical studies exploring East-Asian consumer behaviour, attitudes and perceptions towards western alcoholic beverages have used wine as their focus (Balestrini and Gamble, 2006, Bruwer and Buller, 2012; Bruwer, Buller, John Saliba, & Li, 2014; Camillo, 2012, Goodman, 2009, Hu et al., 2008, Lee and Chang, 2014, Pan et al., 2006, Somogyi et al., 2011, Wen et al., 2010, Wilson and Huang, 2003, Yoo et al., 2013, Yu et al., 2009). However, there is still a lack of understanding with regard to East-Asian consumers' (especially Chinese consumers') behaviours, perceptions and attitudes towards another typical western alcoholic beverage – European beer.
European beers have a vast range of tastes, appearances and other sensory characteristics, that are due to the different local ingredients and brewing traditions used (Persyn et al., 2011, Poelmans and Swinnen, 2011, Swinnen and Vandemoortele, 2011, Tremblay et al., 2011). This resulting assortment of beers is very different from China's domestic beers that have a relatively homogeneous range of pale lagers sharing the characteristics of mild taste, pretty meager alcohol content, large bottle size and low price (Bai et al., 2011, Vernon, 2013).
The present study focuses on a previously unexplored area, namely associations between attribute importance, socio-demographics, and European beer consumption in China. Because of their role in shaping consumers' beer choice as shown by previous studies, our study will focus on general beer consumption frequency and the perceived importance of the attributes Price, Brand, Origin (local, national or international), Varied assortment, Alcohol content, Calorie content, Appearance (e.g. package and bottle), Colour, Taste, Availability, Smell, Hangover effect (hangover in the next morning or not) and Texture (the weight of a beer as perceived in the mouth, such as thin or full texture) (Empen and Hamilton, 2013, Guinard et al., 2001, Makindara et al., 2013, McCluskey et al., 2011, Mejlholm and Martens, 2006, Phau and Suntornnond, 2006, Wright et al., 2008, Yang et al., 2012). In addition, socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, income and regional groups (Colen and Swinnen, 2015, Gabrielyan et al., 2014, Guinard et al., 2001, Makindara et al., 2013; Yang et al., 2012; McCluskey et al., 2011, Millwood et al., 2013) will be taken into account. Furthermore, as country image or country-of-origin has a strong effect on purchase intention towards foreign products among Chinese consumers (Wang, Li, Barnes, & Ahn, 2012), our study will also explore the countries linked to European beer in our Chinese study sample.
Section snippets
Participants and procedures
A questionnaire was developed in English and translated into Chinese. Two rounds of online pilot tests were undertaken with Chinese participants living in China and working in Belgium to improve the survey design and the language translation. The final version was programed to a web-based questionnaire and sent to registered members of a consumer panel maintained by a Chinese market research agency, using strict identification verification and a financial incentive. Data collection was
Description of variables
The description of the different variables used in this study is presented in Table 2. Firstly, the mean values for product attribute importance ranged from 4.67 to 5.96 on the 7-point scale. The highest mean values are observed for Texture and Taste; while the lowest mean values are observed for Calorie content and Colour. Secondly, overall beer consumption frequency was recoded into an ordinal variable with six categories, due to the low number of participants reporting a consumption
Discussion
This study contributes to an improved understanding of the personal factors (notably perceived attribute importance, general consumption frequency, country associations and socio-demographics) that associate with European beer consumption among Chinese consumers. The following factors were found to be associated with European beer consumption across the total Chinese sample in this study: importance attached to Price, Origin, Colour, the socio-demographic characteristics Gender, City, Financial
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