Consumer Behaviour in Subsistence Marketplaces in Cameroon, An Exploratory Study of the Village of Batoke in Limbe Sub-Division, South West Region

Interest in the world’s four billion subsistence consumers is growing. Not only are the world’s poor an important market in their own right, but some two billion subsistence consumers are transiting from rural subsistence to urban consumer lifestyles in the span of a generation. Subsistence consumers make purchase and consumption decisions within complex, interconnected social environments that represent dramatic departures from the contexts of prior research. The author conducted semi-structured depth interviews with 54 subsistence consumers in the important subsistence marketplace of Batoke village, exploring consumer decision-making and its influences during five stages in the consumer decision process. The findings provide new insights into the subsistence consumer decision process and its individual, social, and situational influences for food and consumer packaged goods categories. The author suggests topics for future research.