Understanding the US consumer

The reasons US consumers buy a particular product, and their perceptions of New Zealand products, has been extensively probed in an NZTE-commissioned study into consumer insights by US based market research company The Hartman Group. 

The findings were based on The Hartman Group’s extensive data on the US market along with focus groups and retail buyer interviews looking specifically at New Zealand.

The research findings, which were recently presented to New Zealand businesses in a webinar, confirm quality, not sustainability was top of mind for US consumers. 

But consumer cues for quality and sustainability are described by The Hartman Group’s Linda Cox as ‘two sides of the same coin’.  Consumers see ‘non quality’ products as those made by industrial processes in large corporations, with poor work conditions and a focus on cheapness to manufacture. 

But, New Zealand products, particularly food and beverage, fitted neatly into the ‘quality’ products categories that were attractive to the US consumer.

The US-based research found a variety of product cues such as, organic, free range and artisanal, which imply better quality and a higher standard of care. 

These cues resonate well with US consumer perceptions of New Zealand and New Zealand products overall. New Zealand is viewed as having good animal welfare standards and healthier animals, safe food production processes, sound environmental regulations and frugal consumption of natural resources. 

The country’s good biodiversity practice, production by smaller companies rather than large conglomerates and, most importantly, made by New Zealanders who take pride and care in their products, all contribute to consumer confidence in their purchase.

Finding the ‘New Zealand-made’ label on a product implies integrity to US consumers, something many feel is lacking in their homeland products.

Don Everitt, General Manager Sales and Marketing for New Zealand King Salmon, endorses the idea that an artisanal approach is highly regarded but says the company’s over-riding USP is taste.

 “Clearly it has to be supported by supply reliability and then quality and then sustainability (including no antibiotics). Provenance is less important but it helps, and we haven’t found food miles to be an issue in the market at all.”

New Zealand King Salmon started exporting throughout the US around 15 years ago, with its fresh chilled, frozen and smoked salmon making up around 15 percent of exports and growing in value. Initially market entry was via commodity importers and traditional trade structures, but it is now evolving to managing via specialist resellers and the company’s own staff.