FOOD CHOICE MOTIVES OF GENERATION Z IN SERBIA

The topic of this paper is food choice motives of generation Z in Serbia. Generational cohort is used as a theoretical perspective, as the research is focusing on specific generational cohort. The aim of this research is to understand the characteristics of generation Z and their food choice motives. A Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) was used for analyzing generation Z’s motives. A survey was used for data gathering. The sample consists of 287 students, from three universities from Serbia. The results are presented based on descriptive statistics, statistical testing and principal component analysis. The most important food choice motives identified are: sensory appeals, health and nutritional food attributes and convenience of preparation. The study revealed that generation Z in Serbia has some common features, as recognized in developed countries, but shows one interesting divergence, regarding the undervaluation of ethical factors. Managerial implications from the perspective of a marketing strategy are discussed. © 2021 EA. All rights reserved.


Introduction
Food consumption patterns are rapidly changing due to various external -cultural, social and economic influences. Understanding consumers' food choice is essential not just for developing an effective marketing strategy of food producers, but also for creating successful public policies aimed at influencing health and dietary habits of population. As the research of food choice is dominant in developed countries, those results should be reconsidered not just in different cultural, but also in different economical contexts. Additional differences that should be considered are regarding generation marketing. As a generational cohort perspective has been widely used in contemporary marketing research, the aim of this study is to understand the main characteristics of . As generation Y is of a significant size and purchasing power, it is not surprising that it represents the main focus of researchers. On the other hand, generation Z will become increasingly important in the future, as their members will start their professional careers and significantly increase their incomes. Aiming to shed light on the food choice of generation Z, firstly, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of generation Z and already identified buying behavior patterns.
The terms post-millennial generation or generation Z refer to people born between 1995 and 2012 (but still without consensus in the literature regarding the exact period). This generation is oriented toward digital technology and the Internet, they are technologically savvy, well-informed, socially responsible, tolerant and well connected (Chaney et al., 2017;Kitchen & Proctor, 2015). They are also called Digital natives, being perceived as "native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet" (Prensky, 2001). Most of generation Z is continuously connected through smartphones and tablets, and given that the Internet has been available to them for all their lives, they tend to be better-informed than any other generational cohort (Smith, 2019). Four general characteristics are linked to generation Z as consumers (Wood, 2013): 1) a focus on innovation, especially in the area of technology, expecting continuous improvements of products offered on the market; 2) a focus on convenience of product attributes and experience, product delivery, and marketing communications; 3) a focus on security, while growing up in economically difficult times, they feel more cautious about spending their money, thus expressing low level of brand loyalty . The young generation is concerned with environmental issues, expressing strong positive attitudes and purchasing intentions toward green environmental products (Kanchanapibul et al., 2014) or green-oriented retail stores (Dabija, 2018). In order to fulfill the identified gap, this study investigates food choice motives of generation Z in Serbia.
The paper is structured in four parts. After the introduction, where the main characteristics of generation Z are discussed, the methodological issues of the research will be presented, with a focus on Food choice questionnaire, widely used for analyzing main consumers' food buying motives. In part three, the main results of the research are presented and discussed, after which the most important outcomes are summarized, with managerial implications and proposals for further research.

Materials and methods
The content, price, weight control, familiarity and ethical concern. This questionnaire is a widely used tool for analyzing main consumers' motives for buying food products. One recent study explored its validity and reliability in 9 European countries (Markovina et al., 2015), concluding that FCQ is an appropriate tool for exploring food choice motives among European population, although except from Poland, all the analyzed countries were developed ones. FCQ was used and tested in Serbia and other developing countries from the South-East Europe region ( A survey conducted during 2019, within a sample of 287 students from three universities from Serbia, was used for collecting the data. Students who participated in the research were enrolled in the third or fourth year of studies, which means that they were born in 1997 or 1998. The structure of the sample is presented in Table 1. The results are presented based on descriptive statistics, statistical testing and principal component analysis.

Results and discussions
Based on the Food Choice Questionnaire (Steptoe et al. 1995), the main determinants of food choice were recognized. The 36 items from the original FCQ were evaluated on 5-item Likert scale. In Table 2, the individual items with above average score (more than 3.596) are listed. Apart from the sensory criteria, such as taste, texture and smell of the food, health and natural characteristics and motives connected with convenience are the most important. Sensory appeals are expected to be important, in  On the second place is whether an item Is good value for money, which can be explained by the already recognized buying preferences of generation Z, as they value security and feel more cautious about spending their money (Wood, 2013 prepare, Takes no time to prepare. All the listed criteria are connected to convenience, in food preparation and food purchasing. As already discussed, generation Z is seen as a generation oriented toward convenience regarding product experience and product delivery (Wood, 2013 In the next part, the differences in food buying motives in regard to gender, income and family size of respondents were analyzed. Food buying motives of male and female respondents were found to be significantly different in several items. In general, female respondents gave higher average marks to majority of items, as already recognized in the literature ( Table 3, with statistically significant differences. In case of income of the household, major differences in the attitudes of respondents were not found (there is an indication of differences regarding price: It is not expensive (F=1.955, p=0.086)). As for household size, there are differences regarding convenience of preparation: Can be cooked very easily (F=3.441, p=0.005) and Is easy to prepare (F = 2.283, p = 0.047). Respondents from smaller households were more concerned for these two items. Statistically significant differences were found regarding concerns with political aspects and the country of origin, but as those criteria were valued with the lowest average marks, those differences will not be commented additionally.
The following step was the principal component analysis, performed with varimax rotation. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure verified the sampling adequacy, with KMO = 0.825, which is above the acceptable limit. Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square = 3638.894, p = 0.000, indicated that correlations between the items were sufficiently large. Nine factors were considered significant. They account for 61,104% of the variance. Table 4 shows the factor loadings after rotation. Factor loadings over .40 appear in bold. Majority of the items have value higher than .60. The items that cluster on the same components suggest following nine components: Health, Mood, Convenience of preparation, Sensory appeal, Weight control, Availability, Familiarity, Ethical concern and Natural content. As two factors (Natural content and Familiarity) are composed of only two items, it was not surprising that those two items have low reliability (less than .60).  , Year 68, No. 1, 2021, (pp. 127-140), Belgrade studies conducted in Serbia (Milošević et al., 2012;Gagić et al., 2014). Convenience of preparation emerged as an important motive to generation Z, which has already been discussed in terms of their orientation toward efficiency and convenience of brand or product experience. As their parents, generation X cohort, were heavy users of convenience goods, this consumption pattern is widely present in their children, generation Z (Wood, 2013). In case of food consumption, for generation Z in Serbia, the main issue is regarding convenience in product time-saving attribute and in brand experience, such as being easy to cook. The next two factors, with above average marks, are Natural content (M=3.6825) and Availability (in terms of price and distribution, M=3.6285). As Availability contains items related to price and distribution, these results need additional clarification, based on an individual items score. Two availability items, Can be bought in shops close to where I live or work and Is easily available in shops and supermarkets, have larger score than two price items: Is cheap and Is not expensive. As generation Z expresses positive attitudes toward convenience in terms of delivery, such result is expected. The least important factor is Ethical concerns, which is in line with some studies from the region (Cerjak et al. 2014;Razum et al., 2017), but not expected in case of generation Z, which is often described as an environmentally responsible cohort, highly interested in political issues. In case of the size of households, there are statistically significant differences regarding Sensory appeals (t=2.929, p=0.014) and Convenience of preparation (t=3.013, p=0.012). Sensory appeals are more important to respondents who come from larger households (five and six members), while Convenience of preparation is more important to respondents who came from smaller households (two and three members), which is surprising at first glance. But, in smaller households (two or three members), younger family members (as our respondents are) can be more engaged in food preparation.
The main managerial implication for food producers that target generation Z is related to the redesigning of a marketing mix, in terms of: 1) developing products with clear health and nutritional benefits, avoiding artificial ingredients and increasing the convenience of preparation and consummation; 2) marketing communication focusing on main consumer motives, 3) increasing delivery efficiency and 4) a value based price strategy. The functional food producers and organic food producers can expect that their products fit generation Z's preferences, but they have to develop convenience food formats and adjust other marketing mix instruments. The discussion on generation Z's preferences of functional and organic food may be an interesting topic for further research.
Main proposals for future research could be regarding preferred delivery channels and attitudes toward online channels for food products, which can significantly increase their availability. The finding of the research not in line with the consumption patterns of generation Z is that the respondents from Serbia undervalue the importance of ethical factors, such as political and environmental concerns. These results need further, more detailed examination, which could be additional proposal for further studies on this topic. A key methodological issue to address in further research of this topic should be the size of the sample, which is the main limitation of this research. For testing the validity and reliability of the Food choice questionnaire, it is essential to significantly increase sample size.

Conclusions
This paper deals with food choice motives of generation Z in Serbia. This generation cohort of young consumers has become increasingly interesting for researchers and companies as their purchasing power rises. Generation Z has been recognized as a generation of digital natives, technologically superior, well-informed and wellconnected. They are seen as responsible customers, oriented toward convenience and security, environmentally concerned, choosing high value-for-money offers over brand loyalty. Recognizing different behavioral patterns, in terms of their purchasing and consuming habits, the aim of this paper was to analyze main food choice motives of generation Z, which has not been investigated much in the literature. For that purpose, Steptoe's et al. (1995) Food choice questionnaire was used. Although the original ninefactor model was not found to be applicable in this case, this study revealed major food motives of generation Z in Serbia. Apart from sensory appeals, this generation is highly interested in health benefits of food products and convenience of preparation. Additional two important factors are natural content and the availability of food products, in terms Economics of Agriculture, Year 68, No. 1, 2021, (pp. 127-140), Belgrade of price and distribution. An individual motives' scores highlight the importance of value based perspective for generation Z. They undervalue items regarding low prices of food products, but highly appreciate food products that offer good value for money. Such results are in accordance with the previous findings about generation Z consumption behaviors. The differences in the attitudes of the respondents were also identified, in regard to their gender and household size, which can be addressed in the market segmentation process. This study offered valuable managerial implications for creating effective marketing strategy of the food producers that target generation Z.