Consumer segments and determinants shaping meat consumption in Slovakia

The paper focuses on the analysis of meat consumption patterns and the level and structure of consumption of individual types of meat, on segmenting consumers according to consumption patterns and determining the key factors affecting meat consumption. The study is based on data obtained through an electronic questionnaire survey conducted in 2020 on a sample of 1,409 Slovak consumers. Descriptive statistics, cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to process the data. The results indicate a relatively high overall meat consumption, but with an unbalanced structure between individual types of meat. Based on these consumption patterns, four consumer segments were identified: consumers preferring poultry meat, consumers with a high consumption of all types of meat, consumers oriented mainly towards pork meat and consumers combining poultry meat and pork meat. The analysis of factors affecting meat consumption identified three main components. The first component represents a key factor, including items such as freshness, quality, aroma, meat content, appearance, country of origin, perishability, previous experiences, price, producer and health aspects. The second component represents a composition factor, consisting of factors related to nutritional attributes. The last component is a sales and promotion factor, related to product availability, packaging, and marketing attributes. The study provides insights for the food and meat processing industry in creating targeted marketing strategies related to health and sustainable aspects of consumption, as well as for public policymakers. Results also contribute to expanding the existing theoretical framework in the field of consumer behavior.