Attitude and Behaviour of Consumers Towards Organic Food: Comparison Between the United Kingdom and Turkey - Essay Example

With the aim to compare the Turkish and UK consumer attitudes and their behaviour towards organic products, this study was conducted. The findings would help the marketers and producers of organic food in Turkey particularly. Four objectives were laid out in Chapter I. Through survey questionnaires as the instrument for data collection, primary data was collected from Turkey. Data for UK was relied upon two reliable secondary sources - Keynote: Organic Food (2010) and from surveys conducted by Mintel - Organic Food UK (2010).

The study concludes that organic consumers in Turkey and UK have similar as well as different socio-demographic properties. While the organic consumers belong to the similar age group, slight gender difference has been found, with more women in Turkey being conscious of organic food. The consumers in Turkey hence belong to the explorer category as they are keen to explore organic food. Family size influencing organic food consumption was different between the two countries but the influence of the family composition was similar.

Again, while the low and middle income segment were organic consumers in Turkey, the high income and high educated people were organic consumers in UK. Organic logo consciousness prevails in Turkey but it is in the preliminary stage as they are merely aware and can recognize it. In the UK however, the consumers seek the term organic on labels which means they are motivated to consume organic food. Concern for saving the environment and conserving resources appears to be the main motivator for the Turkish consumer while health concerns are secondary, which is in contrast to the attitude of the UK consumers.

The study thus concludes that both countries demonstrate certain differences and certain similarities. Some of the hypotheses have been proved, some disproved while some could not be tested due to lack of sufficient data. The study concludes by recommending areas for further research on the subject. Table of contents List of Figures and Charts iv Chapter I Introduction 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Rationale for research 1 1.3 Significance of the study 2 1.4 Organization of the study 2 Chapter II Literature Review 2.

1 Introduction 4 2.2 Organic Agriculture 2.2.1 Global Organic Agriculture 4 2.2.2 Organic Agriculture in Europe 6 2.2.3 Organic Agriculture in Turkey 8 2.2.4 Organic Agriculture in UK 13 2.3 Consumer Attitude and Behaviour 2.3.1 Consumer behaviour 17 2.4 Determining consumer analysis 19 2.4.1 Internal factors affecting consumer behaviour 19 2.4.2 External factors affecting consumer behaviour 22 2.5 General attitude and behaviour of Organic Consumers 24 2.5.1 Identity of organic consumers 25 2.5.2 Consumer motivation towards organic food 27 2.5.3 Consumer barriers towards organic foods 32 2.

6 Organic product groups and consumers 32 2.6.1 Turkish consumer studies 33 2.7 Summary of literature review 35 Chapter III Research Methodology 3.1 Research Hypothesis 36 3.2 Data collection 38 3.3 Questionnaire design 39 3.4 Sampling strategy 40 3.5 Conducting the results 40 3.6 Limitations to the study 41 Chapter IV Findings & Discussions 4.1 Results of the questionnaires; Turkish Organic consumers 42 4.2 UK Organic consumers 48 4.3 Discussion 50 Chapter V Conclusion & Recommendations 5.1 Conclusion 58 5.

2 Areas for future research 59 References 60 Appendix 66 List of Figures & Charts List of Figures Figure I Organically managed agricultural land 4 Figure II Map of Turkey including all of its seven regions: 9 Figure III National organic logo examples of Turkey 12 Figure IV Consumer buying decision-making process and influences 18