Understanding Consumer Behavior: The Gatekeepers and Their Motivations

In January, I will be stepping into an adjunct professor role, teaching Food Marketing to undergraduate students. One of the most intriguing topics I’ll be covering is consumer behavior. In the food industry, the "consumer" is defined broadly because there are often multiple gatekeepers involved in bringing a product to market. While marketers are trained to focus on the end consumer (as they should), it’s just as important to understand the motivations of everyone else in the decision-making chain. At the end of the day, they are all consumers too, driven by their own personal motivations.

Here are a few "real life" examples that I or co-workers have encountered in the past:

Personal Motivations at Play

1. The Creative Chef: You pitch a prepared version of a menu item to a chef at a regional restaurant chain. The selling points are clear: it’ll ensure consistency across locations, lower the cost per serving, and save on labor. However, you discover that labor savings aren’t a real benefit because the same staff are responsible for preparing other items. More importantly, the chef values this particular dish as an outlet for creativity—a key aspect of their identity as a chef.

2. The VP’s Favorite SKU: At a major retailer, you propose SKU rationalization: streamlining the assortment, introducing innovation, and discontinuing low performers. While the buyer agrees with your logic, the VP vetoes discontinuing the lowest-performing SKU because it happens to be their personal favorite.

3. The Exotic Trendsetter: You present consumer research and market trends to a senior buyer to justify a new assortment. The data is solid, the potential growth is clear, but the buyer just returned from a business trip and insists on launching a product inspired by their international travel.

4. The Vacation-Home Owner: You provide a thorough analysis showing that exiting a particular market would significantly improve profitability and free up resources. However, one key decision-maker—an owner—rejects the idea. The hidden reason? They have a vacation home in that market and want the company’s products sold there.

   
   

What Do These Scenarios Have in Common?

In each of these examples, personal motivation plays a significant role. While we’d like to think business decisions are rooted in facts and rationality, emotion often drives the final outcome. To succeed, marketers and sales professionals must dig deeper to understand the "why" behind objections and motivations.

Finding Solutions by Understanding Motivations

For each gatekeeper, it’s essential to anticipate objections and craft alternative solutions that align with their motivations:

• The Creative Chef: Propose allowing the chef to contribute to the development of one or two prepared recipes that will launch in their chain or even nationally. This gives them a sense of creative ownership and help deliver savings to their bottomline.

• The VP’s Favorite SKU: Suggest offering the VP’s favorite SKU as a limited-time, seasonal variety in smaller quantities. This preserves their favorite while optimizing the core assortment. Suggest some ideas to promote the item to increase sales along with other seasonal favorites.

• The Exotic Trendsetter: Engage the buyer in a conversation about the trends they’re observing in the category. Frame their trip as an exploration of global trends, potentially finding a way to integrate their "discovery" into a broader strategy.

• The Vacation-Home Owner: Sometimes, you can’t overcome an objection rooted in personal preference. Your role is to present the facts and rationale; occasionally, the answer will still be "no."

  
  

The Emotional Nature of Food

In food marketing, whether you’re working in foodservice or retail, food is more than just a product—it’s deeply emotional and often nostalgic. Everyone in the chain—from distributors and buyers to retailers and end consumers—has an opinion about what works and what doesn’t.

As marketers and sales professionals, our job is to keep the core consumer need at the forefront while navigating the motivations of all the gatekeepers. Finding creative ways to address objections and align with personal motivations can often be the key to unlocking a "yes."