In-depth Interview
Our Participants
50 Chinese consumers
Age: 19 - 58
Location: 10 tier one cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Wuhan, Chengdu, etc.
Average monthly household income: RMB10,000 - RMB50,000 (C$2,000 - C$10,000)
Previous purchase of imported food: yes
When: 2022
Their most recent purchase experience
We started the interview by asking them to talk about their most recent purchase experience of imported food. The most purchased product categories were snacks, beef, fruits, other meat products, dairy products and etc. For their positive experiences, they mentioned the good taste, the food from a reliable source, product trial, the help from the in-store sales associates, the demo from the social media influencers, and the overall good experiences. For the negative experiences, some of them mentioned about the food was not fresh or of good value to them.
Their most purchased food categories
The most frequently purchased imported foods are meat, dairy products, snacks, seafood, fruits, wine, supplements, and beverages.
Their reasons of purchasing imported foods
Our participants gave nearly equal importance to both the rational reasons (quality 27; healthy 12; value 6) and experiential reasons (taste 20; variety seeking 20; feeling good 8; packaging 3) of purchasing imported food.
Their decision making when purchasing imported foods
Most of them stated that they tended to make a quick decision with a glance of the basic information such as country-of-origin, packaging, ingredients, best before date.
The Country-of-origin
Most of the participants pay attention to the country-of-origin. They can also associate different countries with their most well-known food products.
Their knowledge of Canada
Most of them didn’t know much about Canada and their knowledge centered around Canada being cold, peaceful, friendly and inclusive. A very small number of the participants did mention the recent politics between the two countries and stated that they would be less likely to purchase Canadian products until the two countries will be on good terms again.
Their knowledge of Ontario
Although most of them didn't know much about Ontario, it was interesting that some of them were able to mention some well-known universities (e.g., University of Toronto) and sports teams (e.g., Raptors).
Their suggestions for Canadian food producers
Most of them were interested in trying Canadian food products and were quite disappointed that they were not able to see more Canadian products available either in-store or online. Many of them suggested that Canadian food producers should do more promotion to increase the awareness, offer product trial, work with social media influencers, etc. They wished that they could associate Canada with some particular products as they associated New Zealand with kiwi, Australia with beef, seafood and dairy products.
Please feel free to contact us for more detailed results of this in-depth interview.