Research and Managerial Implications

The chapter summarizes the project’s contribution to knowledge in the field of consumer behaviour and consumer culture, the applied, partially innovative, research methodology, and the major research implications. Furthermore, the key research findings are portrayed with respect to European consumers’ preference and motives for different beverage categories, the drivers and places for alcoholic consumption, further aspects of general buying behaviour, and the influence of branding and identity on alcoholic consumption. Concluding from the research findings, it provides practical managerial implications with respect to decisions on market intelligence, segmentation, positioning, and marketing communication with a special emphasis on the influence of health and to what extent these decisions can be standardized or should be culturally adapted. Moreover, innovative market clusters are described based on a variety of criteria to support managers’ decisions on market selection and market entry. The chapter finishes with a final note.

Consumption Patterns and Cultural Values in Europe

The chapter focuses on cultural differences in consumption across Europe and describes general attitudes towards consumption and brands, the significance of shopping, and how these are linked to the motives of consumption of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. These topics have been analysed using the Hofstede dimensions, and the evaluation also considers regional differences within the European Union. The main objective of this research is to attempt to understand consumption patterns and national cultural dimensions, general consumption values, and what their connections are to alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinking patterns. The main research question is how cultural styles influence consumption styles within Europe. This analysis concluded that some European societies are more adaptable to cross-cultural influence than others in relation to beverage consumption. The authors’ findings suggest that the cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede supported the understanding of cultural differences related to purchasing, brands and beverage consumption both at national and individual levels. However, there is an overlap between some countries in their drinking behaviour, which supports the claim that existing cultural patterns cannot fully explain the new beverage trends, especially in alcohol consumption. This indicates the necessity of a shift toward new dimensions with regard to beverage consumption and/or eventually consumer behaviour.

Verbal and Pictorial Representations of Beverage Consumption Patterns

After a first section dedicated to the discussion of the methodological foundations of the image-based research protocols, the chapter introduces the “wall of pictures” protocol. The authors first present the preparation of instrument, the validity check, and the textual data coding process. In the final paragraphs, a large range of descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses is successively presented, and thanks to a combination of innovative technological devices, the wall of pictures outcomes has shown some promising perspectives. Triangulation opportunities are particularly promoted thanks to the combination of quantitative measurements with textual and/or pictorial variables.

Research Methodology

Considering the large number of participants and the heterogeneity of the group, the research methodology of COBEREN has been defined in a very specific way. The authors implemented a mixed methodological approach, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques, and they used a various range of numerical, verbal, and even pictorial measurements. The scope for covering different dimensions of the consumer culture was made as open as possible but had to remain acceptable from the point of view of the survey response process. Finally, they successfully combined some a priori instructions/guidelines and some a posteriori adjustments/adaptations. This chapter introduces the data collection method, the sampling aspects, the questionnaire design and translation, implemented according to the general principles of the COBEREN methodology.

Drinking Motives

This chapter presents an analysis of what consumer in Europe drink and why they drink what they drink. The concept of drinking motives is developed and defined, and analysis of data on drinking motives shows that these can be grouped into two major classes: self-expressive and functional. This distinction is universal and hence applies across Europe. However, the importance of self-expressive as compared to functional motives, as well as the way in which these relate to different beverages, does differ across Europe. Both dimensions are relevant for the motives for drinking non-alcoholic drinks, whereas the self-expression dimension dominates reasons for drinking alcoholic drinks. The Eastern European countries have generally higher scores on the self-expression dimension, indicating that such motives play a bigger role there compared to the other regions. No clear geographical pattern emerged with regard to the functional dimension. Beer and spirits are the alcoholic drinks and tea, water, and juice the non-alcoholic drinks that are related to high scores on the self-expression dimension. Water and juice are the drinks scoring highest on functionality, being mainly related to health, availability, and quenching one’s thirst. The non-alcoholic products scoring low on functionality are coffee, tea, soft drinks, and energy drinks. Analysis of socio-demographic differences resulted in only a few effects. Men, lower education groups, and lower income groups are more likely to drink alcohol for reasons other than self-expression motives (such as to quench one’s thirst). Also, the health motive plays a larger role for older people, and the self-expressive and social motives play a larger role for younger people. The chapter closes with recommendations for the marketing of drink products in Europe.

Is there a European Shopping-Related Lifestyle?

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate possible differences and similarities across European countries in terms of shopping culture, and identify in which constructs or dimensions these differences occur. The results suggest that European countries do differ in terms of shopping-related lifestyles and that these differences are related to responsibility, quality, shopping enjoyment, shopping as a social activity, and online shopping, as well as overt and covert shopping behaviour. Therefore, it was concluded that there seem to be many shopping-related lifestyles in Europe, not a single unified one.

Analysing Different Consumption Practices among Different Settings

The chapter’s main aim is to provide evidence for the need to differentiate consumer behaviour exemplified by drinking patterns and the various factors influencing these patterns as to different European clusters. These clusters emerged from the empirical research stage of the COBEREN project. They are compared to currently well-known European cluster differentiations (i.e. geographic clusters, cultural clusters, or Established European Economic Settings vs. Transitional European Settings in Central and Eastern Europe). This research aims to investigate European consumer behaviour on drinking, hypothesizing that other than the traditional cultural and/or geographical clusters, differentiated explanatory factors emerge calling for more localized strategies of the beverage industry. A new contribution to knowledge relating to differentiated consumer behaviour patterns not existing so far could eventually be provided. This new knowledge contribution is reflected by a triangulation of qualitatively (picture selection analyzed by Sphinx software) and quantitatively derived explanatory factors of drinking behaviour (i.e. content analysis, correlation, and multiple regression analysis). Very interesting in this context is the discussion as to if the often currently cited differentiation of settings based on mainstream cultural and geographical categories correspond with the actual behavioural patterns, or if new insights could be won for a different, and eventually, more localized differentiation of European clusters. A variety of innovative cluster profiles and the explanatory factors on budget expenditure provided are regarded as very useful for informing managerial strategies (see also the chapter on managerial implications) regarding, for example, the often existing strategic dilemma as to standardization and/or adaptation.

Consumer Culture

The debate on standardization versus adaptation is everywhere apparent and addresses the question whether and to what extent consumer behaviour differs between countries. While some studies confirm the assumption of one single pan-European market, another stream of research emphasizes that European countries continue to possess predominantly distinct market identities and favour multi-regional strategies. Thus, in the tension between worldwide standardization, national customization, and hybrid approaches such as “glocalization,” the aim of this chapter is to shed light on the importance of cultural differences and similarities in international marketing. After discussing the meaning of cultural influences for marketing management in general, this chapter presents the results of a meta-analytic literature review concentrating on consumer culture in the food and beverage sector.

What Do We Know about Europe?

This chapter provides a descriptive report on factors influencing the behaviour of European consumers, highlighting their similarities and differences, based on secondary data. The analysis focuses on the presentation of comparable data that could provide clusters of characteristics of consumption among the COBEREN partners. The authors concentrated on describing the society using ten categories: 1) Demography and education, 2) Society, 3) Economy and industry, 4) Health, 5) Lifestyle, 6) Satisfaction and importance, 7) Consumption patterns, 8) Cost of food basket, 9) Leisure time, and 10) Media consumption.