In the third week, I formulated the Proposal. However, during the one-month research, my research focus, interest direction and research method have changed. I will summarize it in this blog.
1. Main research object
In the past three weeks, the biggest change I have made is the research object. Originally, my research objects were very broad, targeting almost everyone. But in my research, I found that food wasting behavior is very complex, there are many different behaviors of people of all ages, if I want to study this behavior in the limited time and space, I need to narrow the scope, reduce difficulty.
My three surveys started at the same time in the third week, and my subjects were mostly my peers - Generation Z. So, this will be my main research object, not only because of their high participation in my survey, but also because I have a better understanding of the psychology of this group.
Generation green
Climate change is generally considered the biggest challenge for Gen Z (if not the world) but how do they see it affecting their future? Our data reveals 45% of Gen Z are optimistic the environment will improve in the next 6 months – climbing slightly in 2020 as global lockdowns led to a dip in CO2 emissions.
Since then, however, that optimism has faded and Gen Z are growing increasingly more concerned. In the US, consumers typically worry about healthcare, infectious disease, or gun violence ahead of climate change but for Gen Z, it’s their number one concern (44%). Even if we take into account the long-term effects of the pandemic, their fears about climate change eclipse things like national debt (24%) and job security (28%). Put simply, Gen Z worry more about the planet’s future than their own.
The truth about the Gen Z diet
There’s something of a stereotype about younger generations and plant-based diets (millennials and their apparent love of avocados is sure to ring a bell) but what does our data say about Gen Z? It’s certainly true that they’re the generation with the most interest in vegan/vegetarian food (23%) but our USA dataset shows a slightly more nuanced narrative.
More American Gen Z say they have no plans to stop eating meat than their millennial counterparts. When it comes to being vegan, vegetarian, or a vegetarian who eats some vegan products, Gen Z and millennials are almost evenly split. This suggests the plant-based diet isn’t surging among the younger generation like some might think. One possible reason behind this is that younger Gen Zer's especially aren’t in full control of what they eat just yet or without the income to afford these types of products, for example.
Nevertheless, they’re certainly setting a trend for the future of food that offers plenty of opportunity for brands in this space.
2. Research methods
At the beginning, my plan was to conduct questionnaire survey and interview at the same time, but I changed my mind. I planned to start from the results of the questionnaire survey and select the research objects in the questionnaire survey to conduct interviews.
3.Course Record
After talking to Mike, I got a lot of useful suggestions, so I compiled these ideas and added them to my proposal.
1. Find out about the food waste policies of the major supermarket chains:
what do they do when something reaches the end of the line or reaches the sell-by date? How do their policies respond to these situations? Do they recycle the food between charities, shelters?
In the case of TOO good to go, for example, the shops have developed a way of selling excess food and a way of reducing prices day by day (blind boxes and yellow labels), they provide a package and we take what we need, but when we go back we still have waste, for example if they give me a blind box of a kilo of food, I will only eat part of it (maybe I can't finish it, maybe part of it). The shops also have an impact on the way we actually consume or the way we are as consumers.
Over the next few weeks, I will find some of these places and talk to people in some of them.
2.Use food to play with:
pattern making and experimentation, printing, paint experiments, combining with different materials. I can even explore infographics using fried food in a way that says percentages. For example, if I had research to analyze and I wanted to say so much is wasted, you could use tiny burgers to show that 20 burgers are two burgers wasted. So, I can put some graphical energy into my research while giving me a bit of fun.
3.Target a group or a local company:
Target a trendy group first and the trendy group then influence the greater group. All of the high street the next year has the same garment affordable everybody wants.
Example: Soderbergh, Souza Burg
These shops are setting the trend because they are being cool with their eco-friendly behavior. So, the bigger chains make small changes when they think about marketing and the small changes lead to the bigger chains. They can afford the marketing because they have a higher price point and a more expensive product. People come to the shop because they are environmentally conscious and environmentally friendly. Therefore, talking to some of the smaller chains will also find them useful. So, Soderberg's bread and cakes are very good.
Comments