Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Consumers’ Attitude and Behaviors towards the Poultry Meat Consumption

The study was designed to determine the consumers’ attitude and behaviors towards poultry meat consumption and to analyze the factors affecting on their meat consumption. The data obtained from 385 households consuming the poultry meat and residing in Erzurum province. As the data set based on Principal Component Analysis to determine the main factors affecting the consumption according to the poultry meat attributes and K-means Cluster Analysis to constitute the homogenous segments related to their consumption frequencies were used. According to the results of the study; the heavy users (C1) consuming the poultry meat consumption constituted the desirous and sensitive consumer segments based on both product image and price-sensitive contributing to the regional and rural development under the augmented product mix registered with the origin of the region. On the other hand, while the medium users (C2) focused on the concept forming their diets under the core benefit and the disease risk of the poultry meat by considering the sensorial and main quality attributes, light users (C3) also tried to maximize their total utility through products with generic brand. Therefore, it could introduce the augmented product mix under the product strategies with local brand with the origin of region for C1, the private brand strategies meting ISO 9001 and HACCP standards for C2, and the generic branded product with the origin of region in accordance with the product image for C3. In this way, it could be contributed to the rural regional developments, and thus could be increased the welfare levels of the people living in the rural areas by providing both the producer and consumer satisfactions.