Towards Decreased Plate Waste: Measuring Consumers’ Behaviours at Hotel Restaurants to Build Persuasive Communication

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore, through research on consumers’ behaviours and attitudes, if it can be postulated whether communication around certain topics could potentially persuade respondents to change their behaviours to minimise food waste. This was done by gathering data to understand consumers' pre-existing attitudes when choosing foods at restaurants and buffets, and to conclude whether there exist latitudes of noncommitment, therefore indicating that there is a possibility of true persuasion to occur, according to social judgement theory. In order to reach these objectives, the research questions that were proposed were as follows: (1) What are some of the pre-existing attitudes of consumers at hotel buffets? (2) Do consumers’ consumption behaviours change when they are away from home? And (3) What messages would possibly persuade consumers to make more reasonable choices at a buffet to subsequently lead to decreased plate waste? This descriptive research was done through a quantitative approach, using the positivist paradigm, by means of a survey by using the method of random sampling. The population consisted of people living in the Gauteng area, reached through social media area groups. It was also posed to each respondent whether they had been to a Protea Hotel in the past five to eight years. The raw data that was collected from the study was statistically analysed using various qualitative analysis methods in order to display and illustrate any significant correlations and findings. Through hypothesis testing, it was also found that there exists a significant correlation between people that are aware of the impact of food waste on the environment and people who feel guilty when wasting food. From the data analysis and findings, a list of recommendations and possible further research gaps were discussed, mostly on how it is believed that communication that may persuade consumers to make more informed choices at buffets is possible. It is concluded that these findings on the usefulness of data collected from the consumers themselves could inform effective communication that should then be used to experiment whether there is a significant decrease in plate waste. This research could potentially inspire innovative communication strategies by hospitality brands to persuade customers to think twice before wasting; for the benefit of the environment; one small step towards positive out-of-home food waste behaviour.