How social media influences our food consumption

Abstract

Food has always been a primary and vital need for humans to survive. It deeply connects us to our culture, to our social heritage, and is part of our history. Over the centuries human beings have evolved and food with them. We have passed from the consumption of simple products, consumed directly without transformation, for example, the berries that were found, to more complex products, that were transformed by people, an example could be the production of a cake. If food was a mere form of sustenance at first, it assumes other meanings. Over the years, the attention that society and humans have given to food has grown more and more. This transformation of the food and beverage role has changed over the years and historical events. The aspects of historical and social change will be analysed in the first chapter, both at a global level and at an Italian level, with a change in consumption as a subsequent consequence. The scandals that happened in the last decades changed our food consumption and have led to the development of a new perception of food. Today, great importance is given to food quality and safety, two factors that have become decisive for the consumer. In the last part of the chapter there will be a paragraph dedicated to Coronavirus Covid-19 and its effects on food consumption. The lockdown hanged consumers purchases, the purchase of some products as flours, wine, canned food increased, otherwise some fresh food decreased. This change was a direct effect on the situation people lived, and their emotions. In the second chapter, we are going to analyse the consumption and its changes through the years. It is important to mention the social role of food in our society. Food is not just food, is something more, it is union, culture, identity, is a special moment that we spend with our family or friends. Food is the mirror of society. When we are eating, not only taste is primarily involved, but all the five senses. When we have a dish in front of us, first we look at it with our eyes, as a result esthetical aspect is fundamental, because we decide to eat it or not if that product is beautiful and pleasant to our eyes. Moving forward there is the smell, a dish should smell delicious. Products consumption is influenced by our social class, ethnicity, and history. We will analyse customer characteristics, defining his habits and rules about food shopping. Nowadays the consumer is more concerned about the resources used to produce the good, the workers’ exploitation, the environmental situation, for this reason, pay more attention to sustainability: consumers are trying to reduce their environmental footprint buying local, seasonal food and reducing waste. After the analysis on the consumer and the social contest, in the third chapter of the thesis I will focus on social media, starting with their historical background and moving to their connection with food. Nowadays the consumer is part of the social media online community, in particularly he is connected to social network, where it is possible to receive suggestions, support and information on food and its preparation. There are Instagram and Facebook pages, where people can share their home-made recipes and give and receive a suggestion from other members. In these contests, the consumers are influenced by the opinion leader. Here the consumer can express their opinion on brand and products and suggest to others to use it or not. Community online conversations are very important for companies because they represent the first step of a process called word of mouth (WOM). Word of mouth means every positive or negative opinion of people outside the companies about their products. WOM can influence the decision to acquire a product or a service and influence our perception. For companies is complicated managing the WOM because is out of their control but at the same time they can try to gain a positive advantage.