To be a customer costs money and therefore the income variable is incredibly important to the study. Income is considered one of the most important socio-economic characteristics within the study and how this influences other factors within customers’ lives has been analysed to be able to gain insight into any variations of consumer behaviour.
As expectations in relation to meal cost is a major area for consideration within the study, income, which could contribute to affordability and influence expectations relating to cost, is an important area to analyse. The following section details where income appeared to have an impact upon the responses. Although United Kingdom HM Revenue and Customs (Directgov, 2012) define income through tax bands (Table 4-19). In comparison, for the purposes of this study, it is the data that has been generated through the questionnaire responses that forms a framework for the income brackets (Table 4-20). It is also worth noting that the income for the study has been gathered through household income as opposed to individual income.
Tax Rate 2011-2012 Taxable Income Bands
Basic rate: 20% £0-£35,000
Higher rate: 40% £35,001-£150,000
Additional rate: 50% Over £150,000
Table 4-19: HM Revenue and Customs Tax Bands (Directgov, 2012)
Annual Household Income Income Bracket
£24,999 and less Lower earners
£25,000-£56,999 Mid-earners
£57,000 and above Higher earners
Table 4-20: Income Bracket Labels Related to Questionnaire Responses
4.5.1 Visits to Food Establishments.
As dining out has a cost attached it is logical to assess the correlation between visit frequency and income brackets. The results indicated that mid–earners ate out in cafes the least, whereas, low and higher earners ate in cafes more in comparison. The pub environment was very mixed with regard to visits by income group, however, higher earners visited more than the lower earners. Restaurant visit numbers are definitely related to salary. People earning less, make fewer visits, whereas those who earn towards the higher end of the salary scales dine out much more frequently.
4.5.2 Income and Cost of Meal Expectations.
All participants were asked to indicate what they considered to be an expected amount to pay when considering inexpensive, mid-priced and expensive meals. From this data it was possible to create a high, medium and low cost group for each meal category. There was a correlation between income and cost expected to pay for each meal type. Consistently lower earners expected to pay less, mid earners expected to pay a mean amount and higher earners showed that their expectations of meal cost were always in the highest bracket.
4.5.3 Reasons to Dine Away from the Home linked to Income
Not all variables related to dining away from the home proved to be significant when looking at income. However, ‘budget’, ‘new food’, ‘same as home’ and the ‘social aspect’ all showed that there was a significant difference in behaviours between income groups. For those earning £57,000 or more a year as a household, budget was overall rated low, which is in comparison to £24,999 or less earners, who rated budget as a high
consideration. All income brackets from £46,000 and upwards considered ‘new food’ to be a high priority when dining away from the home. However, the income group of £13,000-£24,999 thought this only to be a low priority. There was a significant difference between the highest and lowest income groups with regard to the importance of the social side of dining out. Those earning £91,000 or more considered it to be a very important aspect which was an opposite opinion to those who earned £24,999 or less.
4.5.4 Hobbies and Income
Twenty-nine activities were offered as options for participants to indicate their activities and pastimes. Some of these activities have proved to show a significant difference in participation levels between the different income groups. Cultural and art events, and cooking scored low for those with a household income of £12,000 or less whereas, computer games were of higher importance to those in lower income categories. Eating out showed a trend where there was a pattern between income and the importance of eating out. The increase in importance of eating out was consistent with the increase in salary until the very highest salary bracket of £91,000+, at which point, the importance of this activity became lower. Following a similar pattern were the categories of wines and gourmet food, these were important to all those earning middle incomes to higher incomes. Perhaps ironically, dieting also followed the same trend as wine and gourmet food. Crafts were most important to those in the middle income brackets and sports including, the gym, running, team sports, tennis, golf, sailing and cycling were important to the middle income and higher income earners. Travel also showed a significant income link where the importance went from low to high in line with income.
4.5.5 Newspapers Read Compared with Income
Although many newspapers have a mixed readership, some papers showed significant variance between the reader and their income group. The Mirror’s readership mainly came from £34,999 or less salary bracket with its popularity peaking with those in the £12,000 or less salary range. The Sunday Times was mixed but showed high readership in the income categories of £57,000 and above. The Times was very highly rated by those earning £91,000 and over, had mixed readership for middle earners and a low readership in the £24,999 category and below. The Sun was mixed but showed a high readership in income groups earning £34,999 or less and finally the Telegraph was mixed but had a very low readership with those earning £24,999 or less.
4.5.6 Number of Pubs, Cafes and Restaurants within a 10 Minute Walk of Home.
Only one of the groups proved to have a significant outcome when numbers of food outlets and income was assessed. The only category that showed significance between distance from home to eating establishments, was the income category of those earning £91,000 and above, who had a propensity to live closer to more restaurants than any other group.
4.5.7 Income and TV Hours watched.
There was a very simple significant outcome to the combination of TV hours and income variables. That is, the more being earned, the less the television is watched.
4.5.8 Dining Away from Home
Questions were asked regarding the influence of tableware, budget, time, convenience, occasion, environment, new food, having different food to home, same food as home,
memories, social and other factors as the reason for dining outside the home. Although
it has been possible to create frequencies from the data, the groups of people that these variables apply to are not consistent.