Business strategies for sustainable meat consumption: multistage investigation into profiling environmentally conscious consumer segments

The market for sustainable meats (SMs) is now in its initial phases of developing into a commercial enterprise. To ensure the success of sustainable alternative meats, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the consumer motivations, barriers and perceived values associated with these meats. Both the Theory of Consumption Values (TCV) and the Behavioural Reasoning Theory (BRT) were used in this research project to identify and characterise various potential consumer segments that exist within the SMs market. Using the mall intercept technique, data were collected from four different cities. Study 1 comprised 458 participants, whereas Study 2 included 463. Consumers were divided into 6 cluster groups using sequential cluster analysis, considering a variety of consumption values as well as reasons for and against adopting SMs. The findings indicate that the consumers in the different clusters are distinguished by distinct combinations of perceived consumption values and reasons for or against the consumption of SMs. The findings of the study have significant implications for producers, marketers and advocates for sustainable meats, as they can help them build product, marketing and positioning strategies that are specifically targeted to each consumer segment.