Technology And Consumer Behaviour In The Uk Food Industry

1. Introduction

Food and Beverage industry is seen to have an effective role in creating economic opportunity as it is universally required by all to ensure health and life. The industry is involved with multiple levels of society where people are selling, transforming and growing goods in different ways to provide and distribute them to the consumers. In this report, the way the food and beverage industry is using technology and the benefit of customer motivation and positive behaviour in the industry within the UK is to be explored.

In food manufacturing business, the Flow-Through sortation system is used as a form of operational technology in the inventory and logistics management of produced goods. In this process, the system after food products are manufactured store and retrieve them with the help of automated vehicles and robotic depalletizing and palletizing to ensure flexibility, scalability and modularity in their transportation (Samanian and Mohebbi, 2016). Thus, using this technology saves time as well as improves efficiency in quicker replenishment of manufactured products. In contrast to this, the managers in the food manufacturing business are also promoting the use of AGV (automated guided vehicles) as operation technology to execute warehouse operations (Bechtsis et al. 2017). This is because the AGV’s are able to perform in a potential way to pick any food product packages from the warehouse and transport them to exact location on distribution vehicles. In contrast, the restaurant businesses are using robotic technology in distribution of food from the kitchen to the tables as well as in cooking foods (Das and Pasan, 2016). Moreover, restaurants are referred to be using 3D technology in preparing food (Sun et al. 2015). These are done with the intention to provide foods within less time and serve increased number of consumers at the same time.

In marketing food and beverages, the businesses are using various forms of media. It is evident as the catering businesses are using social media such as Facebook, YouTube and others to promote their services in different areas to the target customers. This is done with the intention to promote their services to different areas without any geographic barriers to ensure them greater expansion of their business (Kelly et al. 2015). The restaurant businesses to market their products are using internet and different media to advertise detailed information about their cuisines and location to target consumers (James et al. 2017). The food manufacturing businesses are seen to use social media and internet to advertise video of their food manufacturing process to inform customers about each and every detail they focus in providing them the final product (Furtado et al. 2017). This is done with the intention to develop direct connect with the customers in marketing their products.

The different factors that influence the consumer’s decision for choosing food and beverage outlets are as follows:

• Location: The location of the food outlet is essential because in case the outlet is located at a remote place the consumer finds it difficult to locate and access. This makes the consumer decide to avoid availing food from the outlet as they are not visible to them and makes them face hindrance in reaching the place when in need (Houghtaling et al. 2019).
• Food quality and price: The price and quality of the food served by the food and beverage outlets act to influence the consumer decision in availing services from them. This is because low-quality food makes the consumer perceive dissatisfied sense and high priced foods with lower quality served by outlets are often avoided to be chosen by consumers as they feel it would be wastage of money (Hee and Yen, 2018; Caspi et al. 2017).
• Surrounding environment: The food outlets those have an unhygienic surrounding environment are often decided by consumers to be avoided. This is because unhygienic environment makes the customer feel that the food prepared is infected and by having it would ensure them to face ill health (Campo and Breugelmans, 2015). Thus, hygienic surrounding of the place where the food outlets are developed is required to attract consumers in making purchase from them.
• Space Size: The space size of the food and beverage outlets influences the consumers to decide the outlet from which they are to avail food. It is evident as the consumers who are trying to enjoy their meal in the restaurants wish to choose the outlet that has increased place for them to eat. This is because eating within confined and small spaced outlet would make them suffocated and feel hindrance in enjoying their food (Narayan and Chandra, 2015).
• Nature of food served: The nature of food served by the food and beverage outlet influences the decision of the consumers. This is evident as the consumers who are trying to avail fast-food would like to choose fast-food outlets whereas consumers who are trying to taste certain specific cuisine of any nature would select specific outlets that server the type of cuisine wished to be tasted or eaten by them (Bashir et al. 2019).

The restaurant business in the food and beverage industry is seen to use the strategy of "Happy Hour" for attracting consumers and increased sales in slowest time in the day. The "Happy Hour" is referred to certain time period indicates by the restaurants during which they offer different attractive discounts on drinks and meals to let the consumers pay less for availing certain services (Scarpat et al. 2017). The strategies act to attract consumers as the individuals feel that with less investment of money they can enjoy more meals and drinks of their preference. In food and beverage industry, many restaurants are seen to offer discounts on food and beverages for consumers who frequently buy from them or are availing from them the first time (Freire et al. 2017). This is because discounts make the customers feel rewarded for their investment which in turn helps the restaurant to show value for their investment making the consumers become loyal to them out of feeling of being valued.

The offering of free services or products by food and beverage outlets helps them to attract increased number of consumers (Hunter et al. 2015). This is because free services or products acts as incentives for the customers for the investment they made to visit and purchase from the outlet. The food and beverage outlets use the strategy of accessing feedback regarding their food products from the customers and accordingly make changes to build customer loyalty and attract more customers (Ryu and Lee, 2017). This is because the feedback allows the food outlets to understand the way they are to be developed to make themselves more customer-friendly and deliver satisfactory food to be able to attract more customers. Moreover, the changes as per feedback make the customer feel valued by the food outlet in the sense that they opinion are accepted making them loyal to them. The food outlets are seen to use the strategy of celebrating special festivals and occasions and arrange special foods in such situations as per order of the customers which help them to build loyal customers as well as attract new customers (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017). This is because celebrating special occasions and festivals makes people attracted to visit the place to have fun, in turn, drawing more customers to the outlet. Moreover, offering special foods on such occasions in the outlets makes the consumers feel they can enjoy their moments in the best possible way which in turn drives satisfaction making the customer loyal to the food outlets.

The digital technology has impacted in a positive way for operations of food and beverages businesses as it has resolved geographic barriers (Furtado et al. 2017). This is evident as through the use of digital technology the food and beverages businesses use social media and websites to connect with any consumers in any region to receive orders and deliver products to ensure the smooth operation of business. The digital technology has also influenced the food and beverages businesses to easily learn about the activities of the competitors as well as their performance in the industry ensuring execution of fruitful market research (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). This helps the food and beverage companies to make required changes as per the researched information to operate their business by remaining in competitive position. Further, the use of digital technology has reduced the time and effort required by the food and beverage businesses to communicate with employees to operate their business. It is evident as through the use of intranet facility the food and beverage companies are directly communicating and clarifying the objectives to be fulfilled by the employees ensuring smooth operation of business (Zeng et al. 2017). This is because having clarified information about the objectives to be fulfilled makes the employees work in a proper manner that is required in operating the business in successfully way.

The digital technology has made the consumers in the food and beverage industry to become aware of the health quotient of the food they consume (Bashir et al. 2019). This is because digital media has led customers to get feedback regarding health quotient of the products from various areas and individuals who have already use or have it. Thus, it has influenced the customers develop the behaviour to buy food products of those nature that are of healthy nature compared to unhealthy ones. The digital technology has impacted the consumers in the food industry to develop polygamous buying behaviour. This is because the technology now and then makes the customers get informed of similar good products by different brands and companies which they wish to avail to experiment which the best ones, in turn, making them polygamous.

6. Conclusion

The above discussion informs that Flow-Through sortation system, AGV (automated guided vehicles), 3D technology and digital technology are being used in food and beverage industry. The Food quality and price, surrounding environment, space size and others influences consumer’s decision in choosing food and beverage outlet. The strategies such as discount, free products, happy hour and others are used to attract customers and build loyal customers. The digital technology has made customers more aware to buy food products.

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