Exotic fruit and vegetables: a consumer profile.
Robinson T. M., Amack R.
19 tab., OAE
Food Marketing 2 : 14-27
Abstract : The article examines consumers of exotic fruits and vegetables (defined as including aubergines, capsicum, kiwifruit, mangoes, guavas and okras) by regarding exotics as an innovation insofar as they are perceived as a new experience for the individual. Some of the main characteristics of innovativeness as established by previous research are considered and these are then compared with the consumer profile for exotics. A postal survey of 192 purchasers of exotics in major supermarkets located in Kent and West Yorkshire was undertaken. Results indicated that purchases of exotic fruits and vegetables exhibited many innovator characteristics: venturesomeness, informal social participation, education, high social class, high age profile and home ownership. The results tend to disagree with previous findings on the characteristics of cosmopolitanism, mass media exposure and formal social participation. Although it is difficult to prove the original hypothesis, it would appear that the buyers of exotics do possess enough of the innovative characteristics to put them in the innovator category.