Explaining organic food choice on the basis of socio-demographics.A study in Portugal and Germany

Socio-demographic characteristics of consumers may be of interest for marketers for two basic reasons: their appropriateness to segment markets and their influence on consumer behaviour. Success or failure of organic food is mainly determined by the consumer. Consumers from different countries, with different ages or genders may require different product features and show varying preferences and behaviours. Therefore, it can be asked, if, in the present context of food markets, consumers’ socio-demographic characteristics have an impact on consumer behaviour and, consequently, can be used as an effective criteria to segment markets? This is the question addressed on the present paper, through empirical research on organic food products in two different markets – Germany and Portugal. From the study it could be concluded that there are good reasons for preserving socio-demographic or economic variables in food consumer research. In the research reported in this paper, some of these variables proved to be strongly associated with consumer behaviour relating to organic food products, and to be robust segmentation criteria, with the advantage of being easily identifiable, stable and accessible.Organic food products; consumer behaviour; segmentation; socio-demographics.

QUALITY, SAFETY AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS ORGANIC FOOD IN GERMANY AND PORTUGAL

The goal of this paper is to compare Portuguese and German consumer behaviour towards Organic Food Products (OFP). For this purpose, an extensive literature review on quality and food safety of organic food products was carried out and a consumer survey was implemented, with data collected by means of personal interviews in the capital cities of the two countries. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics and a comparison of Portuguese and German consumers was made with the help of chi-square tests and ANOVA. The results show positive consumer attitudes towards OFP. However, its consumption is much lower than could be expected from these attitudes. Intentions to buy OFP are quite high, suggesting that these products might obtain a substantial market share in the future. This is an encouraging sign for prospective producers of OFP, who might compensate the likely increase in unitary production costs with an increase in total production. The study presented in this paper is the result of a research project supported by the programme "CRUP - Acções Integradas Luso Alemãs 2004" in Portugal and by the programme "Des Projektbezogenen Personenaustauschs (PPP) 2004 mit Portugal" in Germany.Organic food products, consumer behaviour, Germany, Portugal.