European Consumer Clusters towards Organic Food Consumption from Developing Country: The Case of Thai Organic Food.

Transcription

1 Conference of the International Journal of Arts and Sciences 1(18): (2009) CD-ROM. ISSN: InternationalJournal.org European Consumer Clusters towards Organic Food Consumption from Developing Country: The Case of Thai Organic Food. Natcha Petchdakul, Thammasat University, Malaysia Abstract: Currently, the world population is facing many foodborne diseases such as heart attack, high-blood pressure, some types of cancer, etc. Together with the problems of climate change and global warming, organic agriculture is becoming the innovative trend believed to solve some of the problems. As Thailand is the major agricultural country exporting top agricultural products such as rice and shrimp to the world. Organic agricultural products of Thailand seem to be accepted significantly in the major organic markets such as the European countries. However, a few pieces of research especially in the marketing and consumer behavior areas towards the export markets of Thai organic products are conducted. Therefore, this research tries to explore the European consumer behaviour, perception, and attitude towards the organic products of Thailand and then to cluster the consumers into more meaningful groups for marketing purposes. Survey in the 344 European consumers from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom was conducted at the International Airport of Thailand using self-administered questionnaire. The data obtained was then analyzed by using factor analysis, chi-square test, ANOVA, and cluster analysis. The results showed that while product appearance of Thai Organics is perceived worse than that of European domestic, nutrition value, and product safety and taste show interesting outcomes with price is perceived as cheaper. Cluster analysis yields four groups of organic buyers-- Health, environmental & social concern, Health conscious, Environmentalist, and In-trend. Health, environmental & social concern cluster tends to have the best attitudes towards environmental and social concerns, while Health conscious cluster pays highest attention to health concern and belief that organic food can improve health. Environmentalist consumers are those who value high on environmental concern and product performance; whereas, In-trend cluster has lowest level of environmental and social concern but pays highest importance to brand name and reasonable price.

2 Furthermore, demographic characteristics among buyer clusters are identified. While Environmentalist consumers seem to be more male, In-trend consumers seem to be more female. Health, environmental & social concern cluster tends to be older consumers and Health conscious and Environmentalist consumers seem to be more affluent. Managers can use the research findings in developing more effective organic food marketing strategies that better match with needs and characteristics of each consumer group. Keywords Thailand, Organic food, European Market, Consumer behavior, Cluster analysis. 1 Introduction Currently, the world population is facing many of foodborne diseases such as heart attack, high-blood pressure, some types of cancer, etc. Also, the occurrence of epidemic diseases caused by food contamination such as Mad cow and Bird flu associated with the problems of climate change and global warming have driven organic agriculture and organic food consumption to become an innovative trend believed to solve some of these problems. European countries today become those who consume a major part of world organic food (The World of Organic Agriculture 2006). The organic market in Europe has been developed for more than 20 years as the governments promoted both organic food production and consumption heavily (Watanasiri and Panyakoon 2008). Together with the increasing concerns in health and environmental issues by the consumers, organic consumption now becomes a mainstream. However, 43 percent of European consumers consume organic food because of better taste while 28 percent of them consume because the products are environmental friendly produced (Watanasiri and Panyakoon 2008). As Thailand is the major agricultural country exporting top agricultural products such as rice and shrimp to the world. Organic agricultural products of Thailand seem to be accepted significantly in the major organic markets such as the European countries. However, as being developing country, buying behavior and attitude towards the products from consumers in more developed countries are interesting and

3 worthwhile to be studied. Therefore, this research tries to explore the European consumer behavior, perception, and attitude towards the organic products from developing country which in this case is Thailand. Then, clustering the consumers into more meaningful groups for marketing purposes was further developed. 2. State of the Art This research was conducted in order to explore the European consumer behavior, perception, and attitude towards the organic products of Thailand and then to cluster the consumers into more meaningful groups based on importance of the marketing factors and consumer s attitudinal factors. Furthermore, purchasing behaviors such as purchasing frequency and purchasing amount of each cluster were identified and demographic characteristics of each consumer cluster are also provided. 2.1 Literature Review Organic food is the product of organic farming. Organic farming as described in the EU and USDA regulations on organic production entails significant restrictions on the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock feed additives which may have detrimental effects on the environment or result in the presence of residuals in agricultural produce. Organic food can be fresh produce or, if processed, it has to be done without artificial ingredients, preservatives, or radiation (Compiled from USDA 1980; Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/ ; Beharrell and Crockett 1992; Reddy, Cowen, and Hutchinson 1994; Kortbech-Olsen 1998; and Calafut 2000). Organics in Thailand The organic farming in Thailand is currently receiving well support from the government. Since the country has its advantage in factor conditions such as appropriate climate and land for planting, developing and producing agricultural products as organics can enhance marketers abilities in differentiating and adding value to the products; hence, increasing market share in the world markets. In the year 2006, Thailand produced totally 30,381 tons of organic products, of which 16,665 tons were consumed locally whereas 13,716 tons were exported. Among the total production, 63 percent are rice, 15 percent are fresh vegetables and herbs, and 12 percent are fruits (Ministry of Agriculture 2008). These follow the same pattern of those exported to the world. Since the European market is the largest market for Thai

4 organic products followed by the US. and Japan, European consumers are of a big interest for study about their behavior, perception, and attitude towards Thai organic food products. Although there are increasing opportunities for organic food due to the global trend towards environmental friendly products, being developing country may downgrade its own image of products quality and performance in the eyes of consumers from more developed countries. This is because the process of organic certifying to confirm that there is no chemical contamination requires high technological process. Consumers in the European countries, which have higher degree of technological and economical advancement, may consider the organic products from Thailand, the less-developed country, as having lower quality than their similar domestic products. The results from this research therefore, will penlight both Thai and other developing countries to understand the European consumers and their needs towards organic food better. Consumer Buying Behavior In this research, the model of consumer buying behavior by Kotler and Armstrong is borrowed in order to frame the concept of the study. The model shows that marketing and other stimuli enter the consumer s black box and produce certain responses. Mainly, this study will focus on the influence of marketing factors (4Ps) on consumers purchasing behaviors such as product choice, purchase timing, and purchase amount. Marketing Stimuli Product Price Place Promotion Buyer s Black Box Buyer characteristics and Buyer decision process Buyer Responses Product choice Purchase timing Purchase amount Figure 1 Consumer Buying Behavior (Adapted from Kotler and Armstrong 2008) Theory of Reasoned Action or Extended Fishbein Model (McGuire 1968; Ajzen and Fishbein 1980; Fazio 1986; Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw 1988; Fazio, Powell, and Williams1989; Fazio 1990; Lee and Green 1990). The fundamental assumption of the theory is that the vast majority of human behaviors are rational. Intention to execute a behavior (BI) is defined as the outcome of the individual's overall attitude towards the behavior (A b ) and the perceived normative influences (subjective norm, SN) resting on the behavioral decision (BI = A b + SN). The individual's attitude towards a behavior (A b ) is defined as the sum of the products of his or her belief strength (B) and belief evaluation (E). Also,

5 the individual's subjective norm (SN) is defined as the sum of the products of his or her normative beliefs (NB) towards, and motivation to comply (MC) with, each of the key salient referents. Therefore, if the consumers perceive or believe about the products from Thailand in the positive way, they tend to perform the purchasing behavior towards it as well. Food Choice Models According to Khan (1981); Warwick, Mcilveen, and Strugnell (1999); Kotler and Armstrong (2008); Solomon and Stuart (2003), factors influencing the food choice consist of: 1. Marketing mix variables as product, price, place, promotion 2. Socio-demographic factors as age, sex, income, occupation, education, race, religious 3. Personal factors as demand for nutrients, expectation of food, familiarity, personality, belief and attitude, meanings attached to food, self concept, appetites, moods and emotions 4. Social factors as influence of others, culture, society 5. Extrinsic factors as environment, time and seasonal variation Factors Influencing Organic Food Purchasing Behavior However, when coming into organic food purchase, information gathered from various organic food literatures, popular press, and trade magazines, including information obtained from the experts in the organic food industry (Green Net 1999), the mentioned variables have been refined and combined with the Model of Buyer Behavior and Theory of Reasoned Action. According to the research objectives, factors influencing purchasing behavior of organic food and the proposed research model in this research are: Marketing Mix Variables Product Performance Product safety Appearance Taste Nutrition value Product Certification Product Origin Product Varieties Brand Name Price Purchasing Behaviors Purchase frequency Purchase amount Attitudinal Factors Belief in organic food Health concern Environmental concern Welfare of society concern Consumer involvement to product Figure 2 Proposed Research Model

6 Two marketing factors which are product (including product performance, product certification, product origin, product varieties, and brand name) and price are studied. Since Thai organic products in the EU market are now only distributed by the importers or local distributors, place and promotion factors are therefore, beyond the scope of this study. In addition to the 2 marketing factors, the degree of influences on purchasing behaviors which are purchase frequency and purchase amount are also moderated by 5 attitudinal factors--belief in organic food, health concern, environmental concern, welfare of society concern, and involvement to product. 2.2 Research Methodology Even though emphasizing on the EU consumers, when considering the potential markets that are high in consumption but still insufficient in supply (Latacz-Lohmann and Foster 1997; Intracen 2000; Achilles 2002; Willer and Yussefi 2006), people from Germany, France and the United Kingdom are selected as the target sample. The survey was conducted in 344 EU consumers comprising of German, the UK, and French using quota sampling based on the planned ratio 50.0, 27.3, and 22.7 percent of the population respectively. With selfadministrative questionnaire, the obtained data was then analyzed by factor analysis with varimax rotation, cross tabulation technique using chisquare, ANOVA, and one-sample t-test. Furthermore, cluster analysis was performed to group the consumers into more meaningful organic buyer clusters. 2.3 Research Findings Total sample includes 178 German, 92 UK, and 74 French as similar to the planned ratio 51.7, 26.7, and 21.6 percent respectively. Gender is distributed evenly between male and female. Majority of the sample are between 20 to 49 years old with single status of around 50 percent. Almost 90 percent of them have at least bachelor s degree and around half of them are white collar or professional. While around 40 percent of sample have medium-range annual income of between 20,001 to 40,000 Euros, the rest of around 60 percent have more or less income than this range. Details of demographic information are summarized in Table 1.

7 Table 1 Sample Profiles Sample Characteristics Frequency Percentage (n=344) Nationality - Germany UK French Gender - Female - Male Age - Below and above Status - Single - Married (no children) - Married (having children) - Not specified Education - Below Bachelor s - Bachelor s - Master s and above Occupation - White collar/professional - Self-employed - Student/College student - Blue collar/labor - Unemployed - Homemaker - Retired Personal Annual Income - 20,000 Euros and below - 20,001 40,000 Euros - More than 40,000 Euros Sample Buying Behaviors Buying behaviors of sample are mainly considered in two aspects, purchase frequency and average purchase amount. Majority of the sample shop organic food everyday to at least once a month, which is considered as moderate to high purchase frequency. Similar to the average purchase amount that the majority made, which ranges from 12 to 14 Euros for each trip, comparing to 5 Euros of those who purchase less frequent.

8 Table 2 Sample Buying Behaviors Sample Buying Behaviors Purchase frequency - Once a week everyday (High frequency) - Once a month - 3 times a month (Moderate frequency) - Less than once a month (Low frequency) Percentage (n=344) Average Purchase amount (Euros) Other buying behaviors comprise of 44 percent of sample who ever purchased imported organic food while the rest of more than 50 percent are never or unsure about their purchase. When asking for the reason they bought the imported products, better quality comes first with more than 50 percent of all respondents while product trial and product substitution are at equally ranking. To get cheaper product is a very weak reason for buying imported organic products. However, of those who bought the imported organics, majority of them showed not at all concern in the country of origin of the products bought. Only 19 percent showed very high degree of concern while 28 percent showed somewhat concern. Table 3 Buying Behavioral Profiles Buying Behavioral Profiles Experience in buying imported organic food (n=344) - Yes - No - Unsure Reasons for purchasing the imported products (n=152) - For better quality - For product trial - For product substitution - For cheaper price Concern in Country of Origin (n=152) - Not at all concern - Very little concern - Somewhat concern - Very much concern Percentage Perception towards Thai Organic Food For perception towards the quality of Thai organic products, fresh fruit is ranked the first to be perceived by European consumers as having high quality. Fresh vegetable is ranked the second, followed by rice, spices and

9 herbs, and frozen seafood, respectively. Other high-quality Thai organic products in the perception of European consumers are found in Table 4. Table 4 Thai organic products that are perceived as having high quality (more than one categories can be checked) Products categories Percentage (n=344) Fresh fruit 34.5 Fresh vegetable 33.8 Rice 29.5 Spices and herbs 12.8 Frozen seafood 10.1 Others (Meat and poultry, Beverages, Dry groceries, Snacks, Dairy products) 13.7 Reliability Analyses of Measures In analyzing reliability of the measures, Cronbach s alphas of the measured constructs are obtained. The reliability indices of measures for all the constructs are ranged from.73 to.90. Since all values are above.70, which is the conventional criterion of acceptable reliability suggested by Nunnally (1978), all constructs Croncach s alphas show reliability of the measures and ensure the appropriateness for further analyses. Details are shown in Table 5. Table 5 Reliability Indices of Measures (Cronbach s Alpha) Factors Number of Sub-factors/Scale items Cronbach s Alpha Product performance 4.75 Thai Product Performance Consumers attitudes Environmental Concern Social Concern Product Involvement

10 Importance of Marketing Factors Influencing the Purchase When asking respondents to rate how important each marketing factor is when they consider to buy organic products, product performance especially product safety and it s nutrition value becomes the most important factor, followed by product s country of origin and price factor, consecutively. Product variety and organic certificate seem to be equally important while brand name receives least important. Table 6 Average Means of the Importance of Marketing Factors Influencing the Purchase (7-point scale; 1=not at all important ; 7 = very important) Importance of Marketing Factors Means (n = 344) Importance of product performance 5.16 Importance of product origin 4.89 Importance of product reasonable price 4.86 Importance of product variety 4.56 Importance of organic certification 4.55 Importance of brand name 3.42 Consumers Perceptions towards Performance and Price of Thai Organic Food In order to obtain the information about how European consumers perceive Thai organic food product performance and price when it is compared to the European products, one-sample t-test technique with test value equals to 4 (the midpoint on the response scale) was utilized. The results are concluded in Table 7. The analysis was conducted both for the product performance construct as a whole and for each aspect of the construct. Even though Thai organic product performance in overall is not perceived as significantly different from that of the domestic, considering each aspect of product performance shows some interesting results. While Thai product appearance obtains lower performance perception, perceived nutrition value of Thai product is higher than that of the European product. As expected for the perceived product price, price of Thai organic product is perceived as lower than price of the European product.

11 Table 7 Perceived Thai Organic Food Performance (Overall and Each Aspect) Comparing to the European Domestic Products Means (SD) 1 t-statistics p-value Perceived Thai product 4.01 (1.2) performance - Safety 4.13 (1.5) Appearance 3.74 (1.5) *** - Taste 3.92 (1.5) Nutrition value 4.25 (1.3) <.001*** Perceived price 2.95 (1.3) <.001*** 1 From7-point scale; 1=a lot lower, 4=equal to, 7 = a lot better *** Significant level at.001 Consumers Attitudes EU consumers attitudes are measured by asking the respondents how they agree with statements representing each attitudinal factor. The results are shown in Table 8. In general, respondents tend to have high level of belief that organic food consumption can improve their health. They are also high in health concern, which relates to the degree that respondents take good care of their health, and environmental concern, which measures how well respondents know about the environmental problems and the way they behave in order to protect the environments, consecutively. However, the respondents are only around the mid-point in possessing product involvement and having social concern, the concern about social well-being of the society as a whole. Table 8 Means Ranking of Consumer Attitudes (7-point scale; 1=strongly disagree ; 7 = strongly agree) Consumer Attitudes Means Belief in organic food 5.35 Average health concern 5.16 Average environmental concern 5.00 Average product involvement 4.32 Average social concern 4.11 Cluster Analysis Following the importance of marketing factors and consumers attitudinal factors by cluster analysis, four-cluster solution was selected. Details of cluster means are shown in Table 9.

12 Cluster 1, In-trend are organic consumers who give highest importance to reasonable price, followed by brand name and have somewhat high degree in health-concern attitude and belief in organic food, consecutively. However, this group possesses lowest level of social concern and environmental concern. Cluster 2, Health-conscious are those who rate highest on product origin, followed by product performance and organic certificate. They also have very high belief in organic food, health-concern, and environmental-concern attitude, and high in social concern and product involvement. Cluster 3, Environmentalist consumers tend to give low level of importance to all marketing factors even though product performance receives moderate level of importance. However, they have high level of environmental-concern attitude. Cluster 4, Health, environmental & social concerns consumers give high important level to product country of origin and product performance, consecutively, and give lowest importance to brand name. However, among all clusters, this group possesses the highest level of belief in organic food, environmental concern and social concern while possessing high level of health concern. Space intentionally left blank

13 Table 9 Four-Cluster Organic Buyers: Cluster Means Importance of marketing factors Cluster 1 (n = 129) In-trend Cluster 2 (n = 103) Health Conscious Cluster 3 (n =82) Environmentalist Cluster 4 (n = 30) Health, Environmental &Social Concerns F-value Product performance *** Organic certification *** Origin *** Variety *** Brand name *** Reasonable price *** Consumer attitudinal factors Belief in organic food * Average health concern * Average environmental * concern Average social concern * Average product * involvement *** Significant level at.001 ** Significant level at.01 * Significant level at.05 Purchasing Behaviours of the Four Organic Clusters Furthermore, buying behaviors of each cluster were analysed back. While similar percentages of In-trend consumers purchase organic products at low, moderate, and high frequency; majority of Health-conscious consumers are moderate-frequent buyers, and majority of Environmentalist and Health, environmental & social concerns consumers are high-frequent shoppers. Considering purchasing amount, Health, environmental & social concerns consumers are those conducting the highest amount of purchase, followed by Health-conscious and Environmentalist, respectively. In-trend, however, performs the least amount of purchase among all clusters.

14 Table 10 Four-Cluster Organic Buyers: Purchasing Behaviors Cluster 1 (n = 129) In-trend Cluster 2 (n = 103) Health Conscious Cluster 3 (n =82) Environmentalist Cluster 4 (n = 30) Health, Environmental &Social Concerns F-value Purchase frequency % % % % Low frequency Moderate frequency High frequency Total χ 2 = / df = 6 / p-value =.004 Purchase amount (Euros) Means (SD) 8.1(14.0) 13.9(16.9) 11.0(10.0) 17.5(26.2) 2.916* * Significant level at.05 Demographic Characteristics of Each Organic Cluster Further analysis regarding demographic profiles of each cluster was also performed. The results are concluded in Table 11. For In-trend cluster, the consumers tend to be more female, aged between 20 to 49 years old, holding bachelor s degree or higher, having income between 10,001 to 40,000 Euros per year. This cluster comprises more of white collar or self-employed. Health-conscious has a balance percentage between male and female, aged between 20 to 39 years old, holding bachelor s degree or higher, having income up to 50,000 Euros a year. The group consists more of white collar or self-employed. Environmentalist consumers tend to be more male, aged between 20 to 39 years old, holding bachelor s degree or higher, having income between 20,001 to 50,000 Euros per year. Majority of them are white collar or students and tend to be more single. Health, environmental & social concerns has a balanced percentage between male and female, aged between 30 to 39 years old, holding mostly bachelor s degree, having income between 10,001 to 40,000 Euros per year. Majority of them are white collar or self-employed.

15 Table 11 Demographic Profiles of Each Cluster Organic Buyer Clusters In-Trend Health - Conscious Environmentalist Health, Environment al and Social Concerns Gender More female Balanced More male Balanced Age (years old) Education Occupation Bachelor s and higher White collar, self-employed Bachelor s and higher White collar, self-employed Bachelor s, some Master s White collar, student Bachelor White collar, self-employed Marital status Income (Euros) Single, married (no children) 10,001 40,000 Single, married (have children) 50,000 and below Single 20,001 50,000 Single, married (have children) 10,001 40, Conclusions and Implications In conclusion, majority of respondents shop organic food everyday to at least once a month, which is considered as high purchase frequency, and make average purchase amount ranging from 12 to 14 Euros. The results confirm high level of the EU consumers awareness in organic food consumption. Also, almost fifty percent of respondents have experiences in buying imported organic products and better quality is the prime reason for those buying. Since majority of these respondents concern very little or do not concern at all about country of origin of the imported products, organic products from developing countries such as Thailand should have opportunities to share the markets. The results are confirmed by the consumers perceptions towards organic food from Thailand. Fresh fruit, vegetable, rice, spices and herbs, and frozen seafood are Thai organic products the EU consumers perceive as having high quality. These product categories are congruent with those Thailand has competitive advantage to produce. Moreover, since product safety and nutrition value are both aspects of product-performance factor the consumers give highest level of importance when making the purchase, these two pieces of information

16 should be more emphasized in creating awareness to the buyers. Furthermore, except for product appearance of Thai organics that is perceived by the consumers as having lower performance than that of the EU domestic products, product safety and taste of Thai organics are perceived indifferenty, while product s nutrition value is perceived higher. Therefore, Thai organic products seem to be easily favored by majority of the EU consumers. In addition, lower perceived price of the Thai products will attract more buyers since reasonable price is another important factor for the consumers. In general, the EU organic consumers have high level of belief that organic food consumption can help improve their health, high level of attitudes in health concern and environmental concern, which confirm the main purposes for organic consumption and the fact that consumers consume organic food firstly because of their owns well-being. However, the consumers are not so involved with the organic products and social well-being of people. Among four organic clusters, Health, environmental & social concern cluster is the main target due to the highest purchase frequency and purchase amount the consumers perform. The next two groups of consumers that should be focused later are Health conscious and Environmentalist. Since In-trend consumers tend to consume organic food because they think it is a global trend, this group should be the last group to be emphasized. Marketers can use information about the important levels of marketing factors and consumers attitudinal factors that each cluster possesses in developing marketing starategies. For example, products that are targeted to Environmentalist can be of higher-priced items or premium since the consumers are less sensitive to price factor. For Health conscious consumers, marketers should emphasize more on promoting product performance, organic certification, and product origin information. Also, the messages sent to the audiences of Health conscious and Health, environmental & social concern clusters should focus on how organic consumption can help improve their health and environments. For Intrend consumers, brand name of the product should be created and promoted along with low-priced product offerings. From the viewpoint of Thai organic exporters, managers should mainly focus on promoting product performance, especially safety, taste, and nutrition value while keeping improving product appearance. Moreover,

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