To market your products successfully, you need to understand your consumers and ensure that your activities reflect this understanding.
The research area brings together experts in marketing, consumer behaviour, innovation and food business. By conducting nationwide surveys and experiments we study the behaviour of consumers with regard to new trends and technologies. We also advise clients on marketing, innovation management and food-related business issues.
In the project, we are researching consumer behaviour for the development of strategic measures for sustainable eating habits in Switzerland and Vietnam. This requires a comprehensive knowledge of barriers and motivators associated with behavioural change towards sustainable consumption. Topics here include the reduction of meat consumption and food waste as well as the consumption of meat alternatives, such as insects. The project is being carried out jointly with the Vietnam National University of Agriculture.
Duration: 2021–2024
Markoni, E., Ha, T. M., Götze, F., Häberli, I., Ngo, M. H., Huwiler, R. M., Delley, M., Nguyen, A. D., Bui, T. L., Le, N. T., Pham, B. D., & Brunner, T. A. (2023). Healthy or Environmentally Friendly? Meat Consumption Practices of Green Consumers in Vietnam and Switzerland. Sustainability, 15(15), 11488. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511488
Tüfer, G., & Brunner, T. (2023). Determining the influence of food user value on the intention to waste tomatoes at home. Resources, Environment and Sustainability, 12, 100111.
In this project, we are quantifying the food flows in the food system of the city of Bern and estimating the shares of regionally and/or sustainably produced food. We are also estimating the food waste flows at the level of the sales channels in the urban food system and modelling the production potential of regional agriculture under the current and a location-adapted production intensity. In addition, we are developing strategies and recommendations for action for a more sustainable food system in Bern that guarantees the regenerative capacity of natural resources. In particular, we are developing solution strategies to enable households with lower incomes to have access to sustainable and healthy food from the region. The project is a cooperation project with the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Bern and the Bernese Department for Environmental Protection.
Duration: 2022–2024
A sustainable lifestyle within the limits of natural resources in terms of housing and diet is not equally feasible for all city dwellers. To achieve structural change, we therefore see social niche innovations such as urban villages, which want to shape their own lifestyles and live sustainably, as indispensable. In the Urban Future Lab Webergut Zollikofen, we want to co-creatively explore a good life within a consumption corridor that enables one-planet living. The project is in collaboration with BFH-AHB, Urbanen Dörfern and the Berner Bio-Offensive, with additional financial support from the Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE.
Duration: 2021–2022
Whey as a by-product of cheese production has a high physiological nutritional value for humans, but in Switzerland it is mainly used in animal feed. In this project, we are researching the local market structures around small and medium-sized cheese dairies and dairies in Switzerland and analysing necessary conditions for selling whey products in local value chains for direct human nutrition. In addition, we are quantifying the effects of direct utilisation of whey products in human nutrition for sustainability. The project is in collaboration with BFH-TI.
Duration: 2021–2022
Producing sufficiently nutritious foods for a growing population is an important issue that transcends national boundaries and should be tackled. Microalgae are already approved for human consumption and could be part of the solution. The goal of this project therefore is to evaluate the perceptions and attitudes of Swiss consumers towards relevant innovations that utilise microalgae as an alternative protein source, including their applications in meat substitutes.
Duration: 2022–2023
Three-dimensional food printing is currently a major focus of technology-driven research in the food sector. However, little is known about consumers’ attitude to this. The fact that people in Switzerland have a preference for natural products makes this issue even more pertinent. In what circumstances do particular consumers choose printed products? How does this correlate with interest in food and their knowledge of it? Do individualised foods have the greatest potential and how do consumers picture that? To investigate the general public’s acceptance of this new technology, we are conducting a comprehensive nationwide survey accompanied by consumer tasting opportunities.
About a third of all food is lost at some point between the field and plate – half of it within the home. This issue has not only an ethical dimension but also a significant environmental impact. In this project we explore how consumers deal with the problem, categorise them into different types according to their attitude to food waste and identify ways of addressing these segments in order to reduce the quantity of wasted food in as efficient a way as possible.
Project management: Thomas Brunner, Mathilde Delley
Insects are regarded as a food of the future. Would this be accepted by people in Switzerland? What arguments can be used to win consumers round and which segment is most open to the idea? These and other questions are being answered by conducting and analysing a large-scale survey in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland and organising tasting experiments.
Penedo, A., Bucher Della Torre, S., Götze, F., Brunner, T., Brück, W. (2022). The consumption of insects in Switzerland: University-based perspectives of entomophagy. Foods, 11, 2771.
Brunner, T. A., & Nuttavuthisit, K. (2020). A consumer-oriented segmentation study on edible insects in Switzerland and Thailand. British Food Journal, 122(2), 482–488.
Schlup, Y., & Brunner, T. (2018). Prospects for insects as food in Switzerland: A tobit regression. Food Quality and Preference, 64, 37–46.
According to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), almost a third of the environmental impact of consumption is attributable to the food sector. Consumers who want to live sustainably are trying to combat this. They have a clear idea of what a sustainable diet involves. The dissertation ‘Sustainable consumption and lifestyles in Switzerland – a sociological study of individuals’ perceptions of the lifestyle of health and sustainability’ analyses these ideas, considers what consumers are doing and looks at the barriers and dilemmas that they face. It is published (in German) by Peter Lang Verlag.
A bowl of muesli is healthier than a croissant. Most people know that, because knowledge of healthy eating is widespread. Every day many people nevertheless opt for less healthy foods, because knowledge exerts only a small influence on eating behaviour and is overridden by stimuli in the environment. The project sets out to identify these stimuli and to show how health motives can be activated so that healthy foods are more frequently chosen.
Schätzung von Nachfrageelastizitäten für verschiedene Lebensmittel (Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft)
Säuelen, böckelen, gräselen: Wie entstehen Fehlaromen im Fleisch und wie lassen sie sich vermeiden?
Die schmackhafte, gesunde und nachhaltige Alternative zu Fleisch
Konsum bezüglich landwirtschaftlicher Produkte (Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft)
Förderung der regionalen Produkte in der Gemeinschaftsgastronomie – Analyse der Beschaffungs- und Logistikstruktur in der Gemeinschaftsgastronomie für regionale Lebensmittel im Kanton Aargau
Agrifood & Tourismus Grindelwald/Schweiz
Entwicklung eines Food Lexikons der tamilischen Lebensmittel und Getränke
Lucas, B., Costa, J., & Brunner, T. (2023). Attitudes of consumers toward Spirulina and açaí and their use as a food ingredient. LWT, 178, 114600.
Mielmann, A., & Brunner, T. (2022). Linking the sensory taste properties of chocolate-based biscuits to consumers’ emotions: A cross-cultural study. Applied Sciences, 12, 8038.
Lucas, B., Costa, J., & Brunner, T. (2022). How information on superfoods changes consumers’ attitudes: An explorative survey study. Foods, 11, 1863.
Lucas, B., Guelpa, R., Vaihinger, M., Brunner, T., Costa, J., & Denkel, C. (2022). Extruded snacks enriched with açaí berry: physicochemical properties and bioactive constituents. Food Science and Technology, 42, e14822.
Arnaudova, M., Brunner, T. A., & Götze, F. (2022). Examination of students' willingness to change behaviour regarding meat consumption. Meat Science, 184, 108695.
Franco Lucas, B., Götze, F., Vieira Costa, J. A., & Brunner, T. A. (2022). Consumer Perception Toward “Superfoods”: A Segmentation Study. Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing, 1–19.
Franco Lucas, B., Costa, J. A. V., & Brunner, T. A. (2021). Superfoods: Drivers for Consumption. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 27(1), 1–9.
Götze, F., & Brunner, T. A. (2021). A Consumer Segmentation Study for Meat and Meat Alternatives in Switzerland. Foods (Basel, Switzerland), 10(6).
Brunner, T. A., & Nuttavuthisit, K. (2020). A consumer-oriented segmentation study on edible insects in Switzerland and Thailand. British Food Journal, 122(2), 482–488.
Delley, M., & Brunner, T. A. (2020). A segmentation of Swiss fluid milk consumers and suggestions for target product concepts. Journal of Dairy Science, 103(4), 3095–3106.
Götze, F., & Brunner, T. A. (2020). Sustainability and country-of-origin. British Food Journal, 122(1), 291–308.
Markoni, E., & Götze, F. (2020). Anspruch und Wirklichkeit bei der Umsetzung eines nachhaltigen städtischen Ernährungssystems: Eine empirische Vorstudie der Berner Ernährungsinitiativen. In A. Brokow-Loga & F. Eckardt (Eds.), Postwachstumsstadt: Konturen einer solidarischen Stadtpolitik (pp. 256–272). oekom.
Are you interested in working with us, or would you like to know more about our research activities in the field of consumer behaviour? Please get in touch.
