How Consumers Use Social Networks to Connect with Food Retailers: Consumers’ Expectations of Connecting With a Food Business via Social Networking

In today’s installment, we provide a more detailed view of the types of information that consumers expect to obtain from a food business. We also look at a few differences in expectations across demographic groups.

We asked respondents to tell us what they expected from a food producer or retailer if they joined the business’s social network.  Table 1 shows responses ranked from most to least desired.  As you can see, about two-thirds of our respondents expected notices of price promotions such as coupons and sales.  A majority of respondents also expected recipes and preparation instructions while just over 40% expected news about nutritional information and special events. 

Table 1.  Percent of respondents who desired specific information from a food producer or retailer via social media.

Desired information or notices	Percent response
Notice of price promotions	66.9%
Recipes	58.7%
Preparation instructions	55.7%
Notice of special events	40.9%
Nutritional information and serving size	40.9%
Serving suggestions	35.8%
Health claims	33.9%
Storage suggestions	31.8%
Responses to questions	27.4%
Links to industry sites	14.2%
Links to related businesses	13.1%

Statistical differences were found in how people with different income levels respond to price promotions.  Table 2 shows that some groups find these more appealing, but no clear trend can be identified.  On the other hand, Table 3 shows there is a clear positive trend in the relationship between education level and interest in notices of events.  This may be an indication that those with higher levels of education are more interested in connecting with your food business by attending special events. 

Table 2.  Percent of respondents by income level who desire price promotion notifications.

Income level	Percent response
$24,000 or less	57.5%
$24,000 to $49,999	66.5%
$50,000 to $74,999	72.4%
$75,000 to $99,999	63.3%
$100,000 o $149,999	71.8%
$150,000 or greater	64.6%

Table 3.  Percent of respondents by education level who want to receive notices of events.

Education level	Percent response
High school graduate or less	33.8%
Some college	38.3%
B.S. degree	43.1%
M.S. degree or later	52.1%

These results allow us to draw a few conclusions.  First, many people join a network to learn about the food.   This is indicated by the relatively high average expectations for items such as recipes, preparation suggestions, nutritional information, and serving suggestions.  Second, the top responses participants selected as to why they join a business’s social network was to learn about coupons, sales, and other price promotions.  Finally, there were some subtle differences across demographic groups.  For example, those with higher education levels were more interested in learning about events. Knowing your customer base will help you connect with your target market in the most appropriate way.

In the next article, we will present data that discusses how people are finding food retailers’ social networks online.  To view the entire YouTube series, please visit http://bit.ly/wWIXto.