INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW ISSN:2321-0346 - ONLINE ISSN:2347-1670 - PRINT -IMPACT FACTOR :1.590 VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6, JUNE 2016
EXPLORING INDIAN CONSUMER ORGANIC FOOD PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR ABHINAV GUPTA Assistant Professor - Marketing, SRM University, Sonepat Haryana. INTRODUCTION Consumers across the world have shown a rise in the organic food purchase with rising health concerns and cancer cases being reprorted far more prominently than earlier. The Indian market has also seen a growing preferance for organic food and marketers leaping to ride this oopportunity with offerings from Godrej,(Country basket), Modern Bazaar, and many online grocers also offering a lot of organic food products. A mixed consumer market like India with consuemrs from all economic segments is an inetresting one to explore from the perspective of what draws consumers to buy organic food. Organic food market continues to grow despite the recent economic downturn around the world. North America and Europe (mainly Germany and France) together account for 90 per cent of organic food sales. European organic food sales increased by 9 per cent, reaching 21.5 billion peuros in 2011. Germany was the leading country in terms of sales, and it was followed by France, the UK and Italy . In Europe, Germany had sales worth euro 6.6 billion, while France had sales of euro 3.8 billion. However, the highest per capita organic food consumption is in Scandinavian and Alpine countries, and Denmark has the highest organic food market share worldwide. These numbers show that organic food market is growing in Europe, particularly in Germany and France. The main factors for this growth appear to be agricultural policies and government support, as well as the existence of major retail chains that stock a variety of organic foods Marketers are keen to sell the organic products with the increasing awareness of issues such as environment, naturopathy and green world. Environment friendly products are gaining popularity among consumers because they are more aware about their health and protection of the environment. Marketers involved in sales of organic food have to segment their market scientifically in order to maximize the market share. People who believe in health benefits, taste and protection of environment and believe to improve their life style can be the potential consumers of organic food. Moreover consumers are willing to ―pay for the privilege of buying green‖ (Moorman, C. and Matulich, E. (1993). During the last four decades, a progressive increase in environmental consciousness has emerged as the environment moved from a fringe, to a mainstream issue.. Many factors induced the consumers to get attracted towards environment, explained by numerous studies during this period. This issue also attracted the media to explore, resulting more stringent legislation, which further resulted in the rise of premier group activities that has led consumers to become more concerned about the environment, resulting further, in great stirs of major industrial disasters (Schlegelmilch et al., 1996). Besides these efforts consumer awareness also encouraged consumers to take some responsibility to reduce environmental damage through recycling and purchasing ecologically sound products (Paladino and Baggiere, 2008) Organic food Food which is produced without using conventional pesticides can be labeled as organic food. ―In terms of food that comes from living animals – meat, eggs and dairy products, the animal must not be fed antibiotics or growth hormones‖ – Organic Foods Production Act, 1990. Organic
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INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW ISSN:2321-0346 - ONLINE ISSN:2347-1670 - PRINT -IMPACT FACTOR :1.590 VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6, JUNE 2016 foods are those that are environmentally safe, produced using environmentally sound methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives. The choice of organic versus inorganic food is significantly influenced by the perception of the health effect of organic foods. Households, who perceive organic foods as healthier, are more likely to purchase organic food, and they have a higher willingness to pay than other households (Andersen, 2007). Organic food is perceived as healthier and safer and organic practices are perceived to be more environmentally sound. LITERATURE REVIEW Coddington (1993) also mentioned the change in the perspective of the consumers. Consumers were worried about the impact of environmental damage on their health and safety. Their anxiety compelled the marketers to incorporate environment issue in their decision making. Further two important attitudes, i.e. confidence in food and health consciousness have emerged as main attractions for the consumers towards organic food. This consciousness towards health is growing gradually with the increase of age. Even Germany is not far behind with regard to the attitude towards organic food (Von Alvensleben, 1998). Furthermore, Nigerian consumers are also aware as well as agree that organic food is healthier, tastier, has no harmful effects and is of better quality than the inorganic food (Dipeolu et al., 2009). Consumers buy organic food mainly because of health benefits (Shepherd et al., 2005). Effective campaigns play eminent role in creating awareness in the minds of consumers and they are ready to spend more money for green products (Garcı´a-Gallego and Georgantzı´s, 2011). Every market has different factors determining the popularity of organic food. The change in attitude towards organic food was initially seen at a political level first in Europe and then followed by North America and Japan, which came in response to the growing interest in organic products due to the serious problems caused by the dominant world view underlying the theories and methodology of technology such as over production, environmental pollution, food scare and the depopulation of rural areas (Lockeretz, 2007; Padel and Lampkin, 2007). On the one side, due to organic trend being weakened in the Eastern and southern Europe, Italy being an exception, consumers of these areas were not much interested in the organic food (Dabbert et al., 2004; Padel et al., 2008), whereas on the other side, the developed and industrialized cities in these areas showed a remarkable growth in the market share of certified organic food products (Aschemann et al., 2007; Richter, 2008). Among developing countries, India is one of the most potential markets for marketing organic food. Many people since centuries are well aware that the organic food is much superior from the point-of-view of health than that of the inorganic food, India had been one of the main follower of organic food in fact it had been fully dependent upon the natural fertilizers. Therefore, India can be the best potential market for the marketers of organic food, but to fit themselves in, they will have to have the confidence of the consumers, who are the loyal customers of organic food, with their quality products (Chakrabarti, 2010).
The consumers in the high income category are concious of the lifestyle value in the shopping are interested in ecological products, not merely because of healthier option but it also hopes in sustaining the environment for future generation, which they consider is their prerogarative to propagate and endorse. The marketers need to be aware of the importance of the attitudes of the consumers of this
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INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW ISSN:2321-0346 - ONLINE ISSN:2347-1670 - PRINT -IMPACT FACTOR :1.590 VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6, JUNE 2016 segment, that they are even prepared to switch on to other products for ecological reasons and switch off buying products causing pollution (Fraj and Martinez, 2007). RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This paper is based on an exploratory study conducted to find the reasons consumers to buy organic food. The study is exploratory in nature with data being gathered through a structured questionnaire using judgemental sampling of meeting consumers at organic food purchase joints wherein the consumers were requested to fill in the questionnaire for an academic study. The study is focused in Delhi National Capital Region with 500 questionnaires being circulated but resulted in 285 filled in responses complete in all respects representing a response rate of 57% DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS Category Post Graduate Graduate Less than graduate Total
Frequency (N) 112 102 58 272
FREQUENCY PF BUYING BY RESPONDENTS
Post Graduates Graduate Less than graduate
Regularly Buy 58 64 12
Occasionally Buy 43 32 18
Rarely Buy 11 06 28
REASONS FOR BUYING BY RESPONDENTS Reason for buying Health & positive effect on well being Environmentally friendly product Lifestyle & status symbol
Frequency (N) 98 84 90
CONCLUSIONS The organic food market is growing but it is still at avery nascent stage in India and is prominent in only the metro towns and some neighbouring areas that have a spill over effect. The educated population tries to buy organic food for its health reasons but a very vivid description is also highlighted when for lifestyle and status symbol organic products get consumed to portray the arrival in a specific economic strata. Expansion of the organic food market over recent decades can largely be attributed to consumers choosing it as an expression of their concern for their own health and a heightened awareness over the impact of the food system on the environment. Other factors such as increased consumer affluence, greater product diversity and availability have assisted consumers to make this choice. Despite overall increases in organic food consumption, most consumers remain resistant to purchasing large amounts
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INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW ISSN:2321-0346 - ONLINE ISSN:2347-1670 - PRINT -IMPACT FACTOR :1.590 VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6, JUNE 2016 of it. Although consumers have a positive attitude towards organic food, they only purchase it some of the time. Around two in three consumers purchase organic food, yet its market share is only 1%. Foremost, the findings indicate that the key challenge for increasing organic food sales will be to convince consumers of the superior ‗value‘ of organic products. Results show that people are consuming organic products across most demographics, irrespective of education or profession. Higher purchase frequency across all demographic categories may be achieved if greater importance is placed on the positive attributes that differentiate organic from conventional products, namely, health and environment. REFERENCES 1. Aertsens, J., Verbeke, W., Mondelaers, K., Huylenbroect, G. V., 2009. Personal determinants of organic food consumption: a review. British Food Journal 111(10): 1140-1167. 2. Harper, G. C., Makatouni, A., 2002. Consumer perception of organic food production and farm animal welfare. British Food Journal, 104(3–5): 287-299. 3. Oates, L., Cohen, M., Braun, L. 2012 Characteristics and consumption patterns of Australian organic consumers. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 92(14): 2782-2787. 4. Padel, S., Foster, C., 2005. Exploring the gap between attitudes and behaviour: Understanding why consumers buy or do not buy organic food. British Food Journal 107(8): 606–625. 5. Pearson, D., 2001. How to increase organic food sales: Results from research based on market segmentation and product attributes. Australasian Agribusiness Review. 9(8): 1-8. 6. Smith-Spangler, C., Brandeau, M., Hunter, G., Bavinger, J., Pearson, M., Eschbach, P., Sundaram, 7. V., Liu, H., Schirmer, P., Stave, C., Olkin, I. and Bravata, D. (2012). Are organic foods safer or healthier than conventional alternatives? A systematic review. Annals of Internal Medicine, 157(5): 348-366. 8. Yin, S., Wu, L., Du, L., Chen, M., 2010. Consumers‘ purchase intention of organic food in China. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 90(8): 1361-1367. 9. Moorman, C. and Matulich, E. (1993), ―A model of consumers‘ preventive health motivation and health ability‖, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 208-228.
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