Consumer Behavior On Organic Food Marketing Essay

Introduction
Nowadays, healthy life and environmental protection is a main issue all around the world. This could be translate by practicing more sport, eating less junk food , and of course eating organic food which have a positive effects on the body and the environment. Before analyzing the organic market in Europe, France and china and the regulation around those products, it is important to understand several aspects that have an influence on the perception of a product like the country-of origin (does organic food and china go together). Indeed, the country-of origin can influence the perception and the consumer behavior but other phenomenon are important to take in count. So, after understanding what consumer behavior and the processing of the buying decision are, we will focus on consumer behavior toward organic food and what are the motivational factors underlie the purchasing of those food products and thus who buy them.

Country-of origin (COO)

Country of origin is a term which has not been clearly defined but several authors has tried to give their own explanation. Lampert and Jaffe (1998) define COO by the impact of perception a person estimate about a country product or a brand. COO is also defining like the country where the head office of the product or the brand is situated (Johansson et al. (1985) and Ozsomer and Cavusgil (1991), cited by Al-Sulaiti and Baker, 1998). Also, products COO is the country of manufacture or assembly (Bilkey and Nes (1982), Cattin et al., (1982), Han and Terpstra (1988), Lee and Schaninger (1996), Papadopoulos (1993) and White (1979) cited by Al-Sulaiti and Baker, 1998, P. 150). The phenomenon of COO is important to understand because consumers based their evaluations of a product with two types of cues: intrinsic (taste, design, performance) or extrinsic (brand name, country-of origin). Most of the time consumers dont have access to the intrinsic cure because it is a new product in the market or for them, so the evaluation will be based on the criteria of extrinsic cure (Johansson (1989) cited in Ahmed and dAstous, 1995, P. 35). So, consumer will use COO as a tool to make their opinion about a brand or a product. For that, consumers use COO cue as an additional variable to form product evaluation. Also, the name of the country may have a halo effect on the estimation of a product by the consumer. Lastly, COO cue can be used as a stereotyping criterion when it is hard to find any information about the product (Hong and Wyer (1989), Han (1989), Bilkey and

Ness (1982), Hong (1987) cited in Bruning, 1997, pp. 60). Like that French perfumes, Italian Boots will have a good image from the consumer point of view. So most studies of COO show that in consumer perception and consumer believe a product has a superior image when the country where the product are manufacturing has a good reputation (Hubl (1996), Leonidou et al. (1999), Kaynak et al. (2000) cited in Khmelnytska and Swift, 2010). So the COO effect could be more important for developing countries because the customer will use this parameter as a halo to infer the quality of an unknown foreign product (Han and Terpstra (1988) cited in Min Han, 1990 P.24), this mean that a customer will not use COO when he is familiar with the product. However, country-of origin have some limitation. Indeed, because of the globalization and among of competition, a lots of company produce their goods in different country to do some scale economy. So it is important to identify the country of design and the country of assembly. The problem is that many researches show that product assembled in newly industrialized countries have a negative image (Cordell (1992), Chao (1993) cited in Ahmed and dAstous, 1995). Then, country-of origin doesnt have an impact on consumer with a low sense of national loyalty. So those individuals wont respond on advertising focusing on a patriotic and a national theme, and the brand, the price, the store image will have a better impact on them rather than a home country made product (Bruning, 1997, P.62). COO is not the only element to take in consideration. Indeed, in the eyes of the consumer, COO could be diminish when supplementary dimension like the brand, price, warranty are provided regarding the product (Hastak and Honk (1991) cited in Ahmed and dAstous, 1995). Finally, a consumer will have a perception about one type of product in a country and not all products from the country will have the same perception. Consumers do not perceive all products from the country as being of equal quality (Etzel and Walker (1974), Hafhill (1980) cited in Min Han, 1990, P.24).

Consumer Behavior

Before understanding the consumer behavior toward organic food , it is fundamental to know what consumer behavior is and the steps in the buying decision. All consumer and industrial products are classified in four groups of product differentiation. First, homogeneous products which are those products where the consumer expects to be all the same (e.g. sugar, flour, raw material). Secondly, low differentiation products are those which consumers identify to have some added benefit and are prepared to pay more to have them (e.g. gasoline, toothpaste). Thirdly, medium differentiations are those products which the consumer perceive notably different and are agree to pay much

higher price (e.g. branded food item, computers). Finally, the last group is high differentiation products which are those product where consumers see very large difference between brands, suppliers and are agree to pay a premium price (e.g. cars, perfume, special chemicals) (Lampert and Jaffe, 1998) It is assumed that there are several steps on the decision of buying a product. The cycle starts with the need recognition. The need can be functional or psychological. The second step is the search for information. The consumer will look for a solution, a product, a brand to satisfy his need. This search can be passive (internal source, memory) or active (external source, article, information about the product (brand, COO)) (First and Brozina, 2009). The choice of the search will depend on the nature of the buying decision. The third step is the evaluation thanks to his entire search, to finish with the buying decision. All these steps are important and a post-purchase behavior will complement the cycle. There, the consumer will evaluate the performance of the product and if he is satisfied after using it, than he will buy again the same item. And the purchase about this specific product can become a pattern (Kotler (1997), Babin et al. (1994), Assael (1987), Szymanski and Henard (2001) cited in Watson, Viney and Schomaker, 2002). By identifying this buying decision, a company can determine what a consumer actually needs and translate this into a product offering (Nunes and Cespedes (2003) cited in Hollywood, Armstrong and Durkin, 2007, P.692). Regarding the food industry, consumer behavior appears to be very useful. Several research has been done on this subject, and a number of tools and ways of distinguish consumer behavior regarding food have been established. One of the ways is the segmentation. The segmentation will help a food marketer to know better their main consumer (Hollywood, Armstrong and Durkin, 2007). The segmentation is a method which divide consumer by group with the same needs, taste, characteristics Each segmentation will have their own marketing mix. The segmentation can be made by demographic, geographic, lifestyle, behavior factors. For example, concerning the lifestyle and the food industry, a research done by Brunso and Grunert (1998) recognize five lifestyle domains in terms of food shoppers (ways of shopping, cooking methods, quality aspects, purchasing motives and consumption situations) (McDonald and Dunbar (1995), Bruwer (2002), Buckley (2004) cited in Hollywood, Armstrong and Durkin, 2007 and Brunso and Grunert (1998) cited in Essoussi and Zahaf, 2009). This research defends that different consumer, who has different lifestyles regarding the food, will focus to different product characteristics even if they share the same values (Essoussi and Zahaf, 2009, P. 445).

Without the behavior segmentation, it is possible to use a different approach which uses consumer motivation to purchase and consumer decision-making styles. Thanks to those two factors it will be possible to predict future purchase behavior (Walsh (2001), cited in Hollywood, Armstrong and Durkin, 2007, P. 694). So the food market is changing, and different studies highlighted two major trends in todays consumption model: the need for convenience food and an increasing consciousness of the need for healthier eating patterns (Daly and Beharrell (1988), Arthley (1989), Gofton and Ness (1991), Steenkamp (1997) cited in Wier and Calversley, 2002, Pp 45-46).

Consumer Behavior on organic food (OF)

Nowadays, the green market is very profitable and the knowledge of consumer and the consumer behavior are important for the whole food supply industry especially for the retailers, since the environmental issues influence the purchase and nutritional decision. For example, those issues influence six out of 10 consumers in the UK and USA (Ottam (1992), cited in Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2002, P.732). So, from a marketing point of view, it is important to know and understand what the consumer of OF needs and wants. Many studies concerning this effect have been conducted in many countries. Those studies have shown that there are different reasons to consume OF. The motivations of purchasing OF are due to environmental, quality, health consciousness but also to specific product characteristic like the nutrition, value, taste, price. Those are the common reason but some other studies show that it could have some national reason of purchasing OF, like animal welfare in Britain (MeierPloeger and Woodward (1999), Tregear (1994), Grunert and Juhl (1995), Davis (1995), Roddy (1996), Reicks (1997), Zanoli (1998), Zotos (1999), Wormer and Meier-Ploeger (1999), Chryssochoidis (2000) Browne (2000), cited in Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2002, P.736). Then, other research has segmented the consumer of OF on the basis of: attitudes towards OF and purchase intentions, demographic factors, foodrelated lifestyles, and frequency of purchase (Brunso and Grunert (1998), Brunso (2004), Cunningham (2001), Davis (1995), Fotopoulos and Krystallis (2002), Roddy (1994) cited in Essoussi and Zahaf, 2009, P. 444), but another research show that consumer of OF share attitudes and values rather than demographics (Tutunjian (2004) cited in Essoussi and Zahaf, 2009, P.444). Unfortunately, everyone does not buy organic products, and the mains reasons are because OF are too expensive compared to non-organic products, they are not widely available, there is unsatisfactory quality, consumers are usually satisfied with their actual purchases, they have a lack of trust, the choices are too limited and consumers have a lack of perceived

value (Larue (2004), Verdurme (2002), Wier and Calvery (2002) cited in Essoussi and Zahaf, 2009 and Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2002). However, there are different strategies to reduce the risk of the non consumption of OF and to build a better image against those products: those strategies are the brand loyalties, the store image and the service provided in the store, all the label references and the producer (Essoussi and Zahaf, 2009). Naspetti and Zanoli (2002) have done a research to understand the knowledge of consumer about OF product and the motivation towards those products. They conclude (as theoretically expected), that lower prices and better distribution will increase the demand of OF. Regarding the distribution, it could be interesting to increase the supply in supermarket to reach a bigger range of customer who doesnt have time to shop in special organic supermarket. About the price, today OF is considerate as a niche market, so it appears that a decrease in 20 per cent of the price of OF will move the niche position of organic product, so an augmentation of potential consumer (Wier and Calversley, 2002). Zanoli and Naspetti underline that at the same time, potential organic consumers want good tasting product as well as easy-to-use products which are not perishable. Finally, to improve the OF market, it will be interesting to improve the packaging and a better organic quality standards (Zanoli and Naspetti, 2002, P.652). It is significant to know for the marketer what is the profile of the buyer of OF. From a social-demographic profile, the buyer is more often a woman. The age factor does not seem to play an important role because the younger looks to be ready to buy that kind of product because more awareness of the environmental issue, but because of their lower purchasing power, they are not always able to buy it. But it is important to notice that a consumer of OF doesnt buy only just organic product, for example only 6.8% of organic consumer buy only organic product (Davis (1995), cited in Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2002). That minor group shows to be interesting about OF for environmental concerns and political motives. The second group of consumer, who buy OF for health concern, looks to represent the bigger group of consumer but have a lower buying frequency (Wier and Calversley, 2002). Some researchers, points out that the main consumer of organic product in Europe is generally young (less than 45 years old) (Haest (1990), Grunert and Kristenser (1995), Menghi (1997), Wier and Smed (2000) cited in Wier and Calversley, 2002). It appears that the motivation of young consumer buying OF is environmental and health concerns, the older consumer will buy those product only for health reason (von Alvensleben and Altmann (1986), Bugge and Wandel (1995) cited in Wier and Calversley, 2002). Then, it appears that families with young children have the highest predisposition to buy OF and their motivation in on the health aspect of OF.

Apparently, families with teenager, followed by single-person households have the lower buying predisposition (Fricke and von Alvensleben (1997), Infood (1997, 1998), Land (1998) and Scan-Ad (1998), Wier and Smed (2000) cited in Wier and Calversley, 2002). Finally, it is interesting to mention that household income does not influence negatively the demand for organic products as one might suppose. Indeed, households with middle and higher income show a big enthusiasm about buying organic products (Haest (1990), Fricke (1996), Meier-Ploeger (1996) Menghi (1997) cited in Wier and Calversley, 2002). So, OF seem to have found its customer, which are still growing every day. The main problem regarding the OF looks to be the sale infrastructure. There is an increasing demand for organic products, but supply has to pass through a number of stages and channels before it reaches the consumers. Today these channels are not always sufficient, stable or flexible enough and may therefore result in bottlenecks (Wier and Calversley, 2002, P.58).

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