Food-related lifestyles and the online sharing of food experiences

Abstract

Introduction Segmentation is a useful tool in social marketing and enables marketers to target consumers for specific interventions. This is notable in promoting food-related interventions that shift consumer behaviour towards better dietary behaviours for both the planet and its people (Kolodinsky & Reynolds, 2009). The food-related lifestyles (FRL) instrument, like lifestyles more generally, is useful for segmentation in consumer marketing. Specifically, the FRL approach considers lifestyle a mediator between consumers’ values and perceptions of—and behaviour towards—food-related objects (Brunsø et al., 2021). Whereas consumer values are a central factor in successful social marketing and behaviour change campaigns (Kolodinsky & Reynolds, 2009), FRL captures the relationship between food products and their role in actualising consumer values. The FRL instrument consists of three dimensions: food involvement (the degree of involvement a consumer has with food), innovation (consumers’ interest in exploring novel foods), and responsibility (the importance placed on the sustainability and ethics of food production) (Brunsø et al., 2021). Moreover, this instrument can be augmented with additional supplementary life values to explore specific themes of responsibility (Brunsø et al., 2021). This is particularly important within the context of social marketing where understanding other life-related values that influence behaviour in relation to food responsibility is very useful.