Quantitative and qualitative analysis of how animal welfare and environmental issues affect UK dietary and shopping habits

We assisted a consulting firm and a well-known animal charity in the UK to understand attitudes towards animal welfare and environmental issues and how these may impact shopping and consumption of food. Our client’s research objectives called for a mixed-method approach involving both quantitative and qualitative components.

The quantitative research involved a 15-minute survey with 8000 respondents in the UK to collect numerical data about their current consumption of meat, fish, eggs and dairy products (which could be compared against previous research undertaken by the charity), and what factors they consider when shopping for these products. FieldworkHub helped develop the questionnaire and performed quality control checks on the responses daily during fielding to ensure that high standards were maintained. Once all the data was in, we performed cluster analysis on the survey results to segment the respondents into homogeneous groups based on consumption and attitudes, which the charity could then use as an input to future marketing initiatives.

The qualitative research involved recruiting 25 consumers with varying dietary habits (omnivores, vegetarians, pescatarians etc) for five 90-minute focus groups which explored the factors that influence consumption and shopping behaviour in greater depth.

Our client was very pleased with the quality of the data that we provided and our seamless management of the research process.