Consumer behavior for Chinese or Taiwanese food products is explored through questions about their preference, consuming motivation, frequency of consumption, place of consumption, monthly spending on such products, and product selection.
Furthermore, each question is analyzed in three dimensions, i.e. by city, by gender and by age in order to give more accurate information about consumers in France.
The objective here is to realize the level of consumers’ preference and the possibility of entering the market with these products.
1.
Preference of consumers for Chinese or Taiwanese food95
(1) By city
Consumers’ level of preference for Chinese or Taiwanese food is high, as shown in Table 5-10. That is, respondents with answers of “like” or “strongly like” account for 86 % of the total sample, especially “strongly like” with a percentage of 53 %.
However, the percentage of “not quite like” or “strongly dislike” is very low, which is only 8%. This indicates that, generally speaking, French consumers like Chinese or Taiwanese food. The same result can be found in both cities.
Table 0-38 Preference of consumers for Chinese or Taiwanese food – by city
Paris Lille Total Chinese or Taiwanese food are high, account for approximately 85 %.
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Table 0-39 Preference of consumers for Chinese or Taiwanese food – by gender
Male Female
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) B
y ageIf we look at it by age, as in Table 5-12, we can find that the percentages of respondents who like or strongly like Chinese or Taiwanese food are high at all ages except respondents under 20. That is, they are all above 80 %.
Table 0-40 Preference of consumers for Chinese or Taiwanese food – by age Under 20 20~29 30~39 40~49 50 and above
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2. Consumers’ willingness to know more about or to try Taiwanese food
(1) By city
Consumer’s willingness to know more about or to try Taiwanese food is high as shown in Table 5-13. Respondents with answers of “Strongly willing” or “willing”
account for 84 % of the whole sample, especially for “willing” which is 57 %. This indicates that consumers generally have high level of willingness in this case. We can also observe the same results in both cities.
Table 0-41 Consumers’ willingness to know more about or to try Taiwanese food males and females are both high while that of female, 85.4 %, is slightly higher than that of males, 81.7 %. In addition, the percentage of females who are “strongly willing”
is higher than that of males.
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Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) By age
We can tell from Table 5-15 that respondents aged between 20~29 have the highest level of willingness since the sum of “strongly willing” and “willing” account for 90.4 % of the total sample at the same age range. The following groups are aged between 30~39 and 50 or above, which have also a percentage above 80 % respectively. However, respondents aged between 40~49 show the lowest level of willingness, which have only 64 %.
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3. Consumers’ habit for drinking tea
In order to know the possibility of exporting Taiwanese tea to France and to predict the reaction consumers might have to it, a question about consumers’ habit for drinking tea is given in this part.
(1) By city
As indicated in Table 5-16, the percentage of consumers with habit for drinking tea is high, which account for 70.5 %. We can find the same results in both cities as well. However, Lille has a higher rate than Paris, which might indicate that there are more consumers who drink tea than in Paris.
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Table 0-44 Consumers’ habit for drinking tea – by city
Paris Lille Total
According to Table 5-17, both males and females have high rates in drinking tea habit, which are both above 70 %.
Table 0-45 Consumers’ habit for drinking tea – by gender
Male Female
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) By age
As shown in Table 5-18, respondents aged 50 or above have the highest rate in having habit for drinking tea, which account for 81.3 % in the total sample of the same age. The group with a second highest rate is aged between 40~49, which has a rate of 73.1 %. Besides, both respondents aged between 20~29 and between 30~39 have also a rate of approximately 69 %.
101
Table 0-46 Consumers’ habit for drinking tea – by age
Under 20 20~29 30~39 40~49 50 and above
This question focuses only on respondents with habit in drinking tea. Therefore, the total sample is 141. Furthermore, respondents are allowed to choose more than one item. Therefore, each item is accumulated for a final calculation.
(1) By city
As shown in Table 5-19, we can find that respondents of the whole sample have no particular preference in tea. That is to say, herbal tea, 35.6 %, is only slightly higher than the fruit tea, 33.1 %, and pure tea, 31.3 %. Besides, if we look at it by city, respondents in Paris prefer pure tea while respondents in Lille prefer herbal tea.
Table 0-47 Consumers’ tea preference – by city
Paris Lille Total
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(2) By gender
From Table 5-20, we can tell that male respondents prefer pure tea, which accounts for 37.8 % of the whole male sample, while female respondents prefer herbal tea, which accounts for 39.5 %.
Table 0-48 Consumers’ tea preference – by gender
Male Female
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) By age
By age, we can see that respondents aged between 20~29 have no particular preference while those aged between 30~39 and between 40~49 prefer herbal tea.
Besides, respondents aged at 50 or above prefer pure tea. Data of respondents under 20 years old is not shown due to the lack of habit for drinking tea.
Table 0-49 Consumers’ tea preference – by age
20~29 30~39 40~49 50 or above
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5. Frequency of consuming Chinese food products (1) By city
As in Table 5-22, respondents with an answer of “sometimes” are the most among all samples, which account for 46.5 %, while “rarely” is the second most, which reaches a rate of 37 %. In addition, only 9 % is for “never”. The same results can be found in both cities.
Table 0-50 Frequency of consuming Chinese food products – by city
Paris Lille Total
From Table 5-23, we can tell that male respondents with the answer ”rarely” are the most, which reaches a rate of 41.3 % while the answer “sometimes” accounts for 38.5 %. As to female respondents, the answer “sometimes” has the highest rate at 55.2% while the second highest is the answer “rarely”, which reaches a rate of 32.3
%.
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Table 0-51 Frequency of consuming Chinese food products – by gender Male Female
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) By age
We can tell from Table 5-24 that the answer with the highest rate is “sometimes”
for both respondents aged between 30~39 and between 40~49. However, for respondents aged between 20~29 and aged at 50 or above, they choose mainly the answer “sometimes” or “rarely”.
Table 0-52 Frequency of consuming Chinese food products – by age
Under 20 20~29 30~39 40~49 50 and above
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6. Reasons for choosing Chinese food products
This question only takes into account of respondents with purchase experience for Chinese food products. Respondents are allowed to choose more than one answer.
Therefore, each item is accumulated for a final calculation.
(1) By city
As shown in Table 5-25, we can find that most respondents choose Chinese products “by preference”, which accounts for 41.4 % of the total sample while the answer “by curiosity” reaches 32.4 %. In addition, 14.8 % of total respondents buy Chinese products because of its low price, and 7.6 % of them think Chinese products are practical. Besides, 2.9 % of all respondents choose the answer “other”, such as
“through friends” or “want to try new things”. However, only 2% of them choose
“ better quality” as the reasons for purchasing. If we look at the results by city, we can tell that “by curiosity” and “by preference” are the most, while respondents in Lille choose more “by preference”.
Table 0-53 Reasons for choosing Chinese food products – by city
Paris Lille Total
106
(2) By gender
Male respondents choose mainly the answer “by curiosity”, which accounts for 44.2 % of the whole male sample. Yet, female respondents think that “by preference”
and “by curiosity” are the main reasons for purchasing Chinese products.
Table 0-54 Reasons for choosing Chinese food products – by gender
Male Female
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) By age
As indicated in Table 5-27, apart from respondents aged at 50 or above who choose “by curiosity” as the main reason, respondents at other age range think that
“by preference” is their main reason for purchasing. Furthermore, the answer “cheap”
is most chosen by respondents aged between 30~39.
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Table 0-55 Reasons for choosing Chinese food products – by age
Under 20 20~29 30~39 40~49 50 and above
This question only takes into account of respondents with purchase experience for Chinese food products. Respondents are allowed to choose more than one answer.
Therefore, each item is accumulated for a final calculation.
(1) By city
According to 5-28, 41 % of the whole sample purchases these products in supermarkets, 23.3 % in Chinese supermarkets, 19.5 % in department stores, 7 % in tradition markets and others, and 3% online shopping. If we look at the results by city, we can tell that respondents in both cities purchase these products mostly in supermarkets while the second most popular place for purchasing is Chinese supermarkets in Paris and department stores in Lille. In addition, respondents in Paris purchase these products in traditional market more often than respondents in Lille.
Besides, respondents also purchase them in restaurants.
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Table 0-56 Place of consumption – by city
Paris Lille Total sample. Furthermore, Chinese supermarkets and department stores are another highly frequented place for both male and female respondents.
Table 0-57 Place of consumption – by gender
Male Female
109
Male Female
Percentage 7.8% 7.4%
Total Number 102 108
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) By age
We can find that respondents aged between 20~29 and between 30~39 buy these products mostly in supermarkets while respondents aged between 40~49 prefer department stores and Chinese supermarket for respondents aged at 50 or above.
Table 0-58 Place of consumption – by age
Under 20 20~29 30~39 40~49 50 and above
8. Amount of monthly consumption
This question only takes into account of respondents with purchase experience for Chinese food products.
(1) By city
From Table 5-31, we can find that most of the respondents spend usually 20 euros or less for Chinese food products, which reaches 78.3 % of the whole sample,
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while 21~50 euros are the second most chosen answer, which account for 17.9 %.
However, respondents who spend more than 50 euros are very few. The same results can be found in both cities.
Table 0-59 Amount of monthly consumption – city
Paris Lille Total
According to Table 5-32, male and female respondents usually spend 20 euros or less and rarely spend more than 50 euros.
Table 0-60 Amount of monthly consumption – gender
Male Female
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
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(3) By age
As indicated in Table 5-33, the percentage of spending at 20 euros or less exceeds 65 % for respondents at each age range, especially for respondent aged between 20~29 and aged at 50 or above, the same percentage is more than 80 %.
Table 0-61 Amount of monthly consumption – age
Under 20 20~29 30~39 40~49 50 and above
Therefore, each item is accumulated for a final calculation.
(1) By city
As we can see in Table 5-34, rice and noodles are the most purchased products, which account for 41.9 % of the whole sample while sauce and condiments are the second popular products, which reach 36.3 %. However, frozen food and snacks are rarely purchased. Furthermore, respondents purchase also other products, such as bamboo, mushrooms, spring rolls and soya beans.
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Table 0-62 Product selection – by city
Paris Lille Total
As shown in Table 5-35, both male and female respondents buy rice and noodles the most, which account for more than 40 % of each gender sample. Besides, the percentage of female respondents purchasing sauce and condiments are higher than that of male respondents. Also, male respondents buy more frozen products than males.
Table 0-63 Product selection – by gender
Male Female
113
Percentage 100.0% 100.0%
(3) By age
We can tell from Table 5-36 that, apart from respondents aged between 40~49 and aged at 50 or above who purchase mostly sauce and condiments, respondents at other age range purchase mostly rice and noodles. Besides, respondents aged between 30~39 and between 40~49 buy more snacks than other respondents.
Table 0-64 Product selection – by age
Under 20 20~29 30~39 40~49 50 and above
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