Consumer awareness and buying behaviour towards convenience food: Evidence from Himachal Pradesh

The growth in the consumption of the convenience foods is a sign of radical change in the food systems and lifestyles and in consumer choice, especially in the emerging regional markets. The paper examines consumer awareness and purchasing behaviour of convenience food in Himachal Pradesh, India, and how awareness interacts to influence the purchase decisions in a geographically different and socio-culturally unique setting. The primary data was gathered using a structured questionnaire that was given to the consumers in the selected urban and semi-urban locations. Awareness rates and the determination of important behavioural determinants were done using descriptive statistics and inferential analyses. The results show that there is medium to high consumer awareness, which is mainly determined by the lack of time, convenience of preparation and availability in the retail outlets. Nonetheless, health concerns, nutrition perceptions as well as food safety factors influence the frequency of purchase and brand choice greatly. The research confirms the statistically significant correlation between consumer awareness and purchasing behaviour, implying that the more the consumer is aware, the more selective and brand-sensitive is the buying behaviour pattern. The study contributes to the food consumer behaviour literature and provides practical implications to food manufacturers and policymakers willing to strike the balance between convenience and nutritional responsibility in the new food markets through the provision of empirical evidence in a hilly state with changing patterns of food consumption (Kotler and Keller, 2016; Grunert, 2017) [10, 7].