Influence of Labeled Artificial Ingredients in Certified Organic Products on Sale - Dissertation Example

Influence of labeled artificial ingredients in certified organic products on sale Dissertation supervisor I would like someone to supervise my dissertation with substantial knowledge background in marketing particularly in conducting research in line with understanding customer’s behaviours. This is due to the fact that this study will highly tackle an issue in the combined fields of marketing and human behaviour. In fact, this study would like to know in the end the level of customers’ satisfaction with organic foods when combined with artificial ingredients. Thus, the proponent would like to address the following question at the end of the study. Are customers satisfied with the artificial ingredients mixed with organic products? I have to rely on my supervisor when it comes to the implementation of the actual study most particularly in formulating questions in order to generate answers or responses from the respondents regarding their satisfaction level with artificial ingredients in organic foods. The supervisor should therefore have substantial knowledge in organic foods and including the remarkable impacts of artificial ingredients on organic foods. Background This study is about finding significant customers’ responses on labeled artificial ingredients in certified organic products on sale. This primarily would find out specific customers’ stand on issues about artificial ingredients being mixed with certified organic products. Thus, this is a specific marketing activity aiming to understand customers’ buying behaviour especially on organic products mixed with artificial ingredients. In marketing, it is important to understand the point of view of customers because it would exactly tell about the areas, in which the marketers should substantially do the necessary strategies that would enhance products in various aspects and eventually create needs of certain product offerings (Boone and Kurtz, 2011; Kotler et al., 2008). In line with this, it is a great area of concern to find out some points of reference and eventually evidences to understand the influence of labeling organic foods with artificial ingredients. Primarily, it is important to know specific response from the customers regarding this issue. After all, customers have substantial ideas about organic products and even important reasons of buying them. Natural products are identified as either 100 percent organic and no artificial which means all ingredients are organic and no artificial components, 95 percent components are organic (organic), 75 percent components are organic (created with organic), and 70 percent components are natural (organic parts). For example, dairy products are organic when their productions primarily employed organic foods (Flack, 2011). This means the livestock in which milk production takes place should be given with only natural foodstuffs and no artificial foods or chemicals should be employed. In this way, the customers will be ensured that the dairy products they are using come from natural process of production. However, the idea about organic products is not only focused on this situation. Some organic raw materials are substantially processed. In this case, they are highly susceptible to be mixed with artificial ingredients for the purpose of either enhancing their tastes, quality or longevity, just to name some of the most important reasons. For instance, there are many finished products available in the market, produced with mixed organic and artificial ingredients leading to different flavours (Schlosser, 2012). At some point, combining artificial ingredients in the production of organic products would help increase productivity. The government seeks to ensure the welfare of the people by providing substantial food in their table through increased food production. For example, Organic Trade Association (OTA) amendment to substantially use synthetic materials in the production of foodstuffs that include organic materials, and allow the US Department of Agriculture to add other ingredients are remarkable proofs about this issue (McGiffen, 2011). However, many customers are becoming aware and concerned about the truth behind the artificial ingredients mixed in organic products (Yeh, 2007). There are many reasons why customers would essentially go for organic foodstuffs or products. These primarily include significant costs, personal preferences, health, environmental and other related concerns, which potentially would determine the level of their satisfaction. It is widely heard that natural products have prices more than their conventional counterparts due to the cost involved in their natural production especially in growing them. Even though their might be a significant drawback on the cost of production and even on their actual prices, natural products can substantially addressed the cost of cleaning up contaminated water and remedy on pesticide pollution because they can hinder the use of pesticides and other chemicals (Hoai et al., 2011). This is due to the fact that the production of natural products in as much as possible prevents the use of harmful chemicals and other related materials. Organic farming for instance is known to preserve, restores, and protects the environment which are the very incentives leading to the increase of customers who go shopping for organic products (Miller and Spoolman, 2011). This primarily involves concerns to protect the environment and to help address the good cause in implementing environmental sustainability. Nowadays, many plants are treated with insecticides resulting to water pollution and eventually human health problems (Azizullah et al., 2011). In other words, organic agriculture conserves the nature by being able to address concerns on various life forms on earths – humans, plants, animals, and environmental sustainability in general (Goldberger, 2011). These are just among the significant reasons why aside from environmental sustainability concerns, organic farming for instance is a good option to help protect the environment and human health. However, organic foods are not only able to address environmental concerns but primarily on personal preferences of taste and ensuring good health. Before, refreshing taste can be experienced in organic foods which cannot be found from their artificial counterparts (Corbett, 1974). However, even though nowadays the artificial counterparts of organic foods may eventually compete with them in taste, it cannot be denied that they still remain gentle, newest and most alluring and nutritious foods available in the market (Hjelmar, 2011). In other words, organic food could be the best personal preference when it comes to addressing various human health concerns. Thus, the above concerns could point out the prevailing trending in organic market. These are just some of the reasons and remarkable proofs or justification why there are consumers who strongly would want to go for organic products. In fact, in China and Canada for instance, there is substantial growth in organic market (Yussefi, 2008). Specifically, transaction for organic product in the world market in 2001 was roughly to cost around $10.3 billion in projection, a figure almost triple based on only $4.5 billion in 1998 (Dunn-Georgiou, 2002; Baxter, 2003). However, in 2007 the world market for organic products reached $46 billion (United Nations, 2010). It is therefore clear that the remarkable benefits of organic products pave the way for its spiraling rate of consumption. In other words, the level of customer satisfaction in organic products is highly associated with their remarkable benefits. It is in this reason that the proponent wants to find out the level of customers’ satisfaction in organic foods when combined with artificial ingredients. Specifically, the proponent would like to address the following question at the end of the study. Are customers satisfied with the artificial ingredients mixed with organic products? In this study, there are many things to be gained most particularly in knowing the satisfaction level of consumers on artificial ingredients when combined with organic foods. First, the actual result would be a contribution to the body of knowledge in the increasing literature on various marketing concerns in organic foods. Readers will be given further insights to at what point consumers will show remarkable acceptance in combining artificial ingredients with organic foods. Furthermore, additional insights will be revealed especially on the level of success of using artificial ingredients with organic foods. In addition, this study would also provide substantial information whether the policy that is emancipated to combine synthetic materials with organic foods is appropriate from the consumers’ point of view. In other words, this study will be a remarkable material to be used in helping the government understands some important consumers’ concerns on artificial ingredients in organic foods. Thus, this could substantially aid them in their policy development. Research methodology and ethics Quantitative research method In this study, the proponent will use quantitative research method. The quantitative research tries to integrate numerical measurements The good thing about quantitative research is that it prevents substantial bias to be exerted on the part of the researcher because of its ability to numerically measure obtained data and information (Shi, 2008). It is therefore important to understand that the basic output of this research method remarkably includes figures that can be transformed into meaningful interpretation and information. In other words, the result will be based on the numerical output which is highly objective and will provide simple interpretation prior to obtaining conclusion. Another important advantage of using quantitative research method is its ability to aggregate, analyse and summarise huge number of data sets from a large population of samples, which makes it more exploratory particularly in discovering relationship, and meaningful interpretations of a larger population through smaller group of people or sample size – an issue of validity and reliability (Bellini and Rumrill, 2009; Bryman and Bell, 2007). This is another important thing that can be potentially done in the data analysis in order to make it more reliable by obtaining substantial number of data sets and significant information out from them. Thus, another good thing about this research method is its ability to obtain huge number of data sets without any relevant problems in achieving important information from them. Thus, there is a good chance to achieve highly conclusive result because of the ability to consider wide data sets. In order to come up with a research study with conclusive results, the number of data sets is one important primary consideration. This is to ensure that in as much as possible, the number of samples should be enough to represent the entire group or concerned population. This may be potentially applied in descriptive quantitative research in which the researcher will be able to observe and count actual numerical information. The descriptive part should ensure that there is substantial description of specific information just prior to obtaining the objectives of the study. In other words, by using quantitative research method and integrating descriptive part, the researcher will be provided with the ability to achieve simple yet meaningful interpretation of the result. Focus group and Sample size It is broad enough to consider the entire population of consumers in the UK. In the first place, it would make sense to consider only samples from a focus group. After all, the samples within this focus group should be those individuals who are health conscious. Furthermore, the overall samples should be only generated from the population of health conscious individuals who specifically are regular in buying and consuming organic foodstuffs. Their age range should be within 30 to 40 years old. These respondents should have strong preference for organic foods over the other available foodstuffs in the market. Aside from their main reason about health-related concerns regarding organic food consumption, it is more important to find out other relevant factors that influence their intentions towards organic food consumption. This would eventually help determine the level of their satisfaction with artificial ingredients in organic foods. The good thing about using focus group is the chance to obtain specific information of an issue that cannot be uncovered in individual surveys or interviews (Austin and Pinkleton, 2006). In other words, using focus group would specifically apply in the case of understanding the response and satisfaction level of organic food consumers on artificial ingredients in organic foods. These individuals have substantial know-how on the issue of organic foods. Therefore, considering them to be part of the focus group would make sense knowing that not every consumer has substantial information about organic foodstuffs in great detail. This means that the outcome in this study by covering organic food enthusiasts should be remarkably significant knowing that the information to be obtained from them are highly reliable because they know more about organic foodstuffs compared to other consumer groups. Implementation The proponent will conduct survey on various food organic outlets in the UK. Within the span of one week, the proponent will conduct survey into at least 25 percent of the stores known to be distributing organic foods in the UK. This percentage will be enough to statistically represent the entire sample size of the food organic distributors or outlets. In order to generate statistically significant sample of food organic enthusiasts visiting in each of the chosen organic food outlet, the proponent will ask the minimum number of consumers who will enter the store in a day. From the minimum number of consumers entering in each of the food organic outlet, another 25 percent of this number will randomly be chosen as samples. The proponent will stay at least four hours in the food organic outlet or until the required 25 percent of samples are already acquired. This means that for out of 100 average consumers visiting in an outlet in a day, 25 percent of them should be given with a survey questionnaire. The respondents or the food organic consumers will be given with survey questionnaire consisting of survey questions highlighting their opinion and satisfaction level on artificial ingredients mixed in organic foods. The survey questions and answers to them should be converted to quantitative information in order to substantially use them using statistical and descriptive analysis. Descriptive and statistical analysis A simple graphing of results should be initiated plus the use of central tendency in statistics like mean, mode and median. The information to be obtained using this presentation will then be enough to address the specific objective of this essay. Limitation The number of samples at some point may be a bit limited and it would depend on the actual data gathering. The proponent will only rely on the willingness of the chosen respondents to participate in the study particularly on the data gathering process. Giveaways might be explored by the proponent in the entire data gathering in order to promote and encourage participation. Threat to validity There are external and internal threats to validity. Particularly in this study, selection bias might be a significant threat to validity. In the selection process of sample, the researcher may be able to gather respondents who do not actually care much about the issues in organic foods even though they consume them. These respondents might be lacking some important knowledge and current issues about organic foods or simply do not bother at all about them. In other words, the proponent might be able to choose more unresponsive respondents for the entire study instead of the unresponsive ones. In general, this may potentially affect the entire result of the study. In order to find this out, it should be some questions that would measure the level of knowledge and enthusiasm of the respondents on organic food should be included. Those responses from respondents who would show less enthusiasm or little knowledge about organic foods should not be included in the data analysis. Ethical concerns All participants including each organic food outlet should be informed about the main objective of the research. They will be informed that whatever information they would share with the researcher shall be treated with utmost confidentiality. In fact, placing their name on the survey questionnaire would be optional. The proponent should furnish them a copy of letter from the University in order to inform them the genuine intention of the research study and its underlying academic concerns. Budget (Dear Customer, kindly input the amount you might be need) Data gathering – Other research materials (papers, etc) – Printing – Data gathering – Transportation – Others - Timetable Schedule 1st month 2nd month 3rd month 4th month 5th month 6th month Introduction/review of literature/methodology X Submission of draft proposal X X Approval of the proposal X Data gathering/analysis X X Submission of draft with findings and results X X Finalisation of corrections X Structure of final work At the end of this study, the following is the expected structure of dissertation: Table of Contents Abstract 1. Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Aims/objectives 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Hypothesis 2. Review of related literature 2.1 What is organic food? 2.2 The importance of organic foods 2.3 Types of organic foods 2.4 Acceptance of organic foods 2.5 The value of artificial ingredients in organic foods 3. Methodology 3.1 Quantitative research method 3.2 Focus group and Sample size 3.3 Implementation 3.4 Descriptive and statistical analysis 3.5 Limitation 3.6 Threat to validity 3.7 Ethical concerns 3.8 Budget 4. Results 5. Findings 6. Conclusion References Table of Appendices References Austin, E. W., and Pinkleton, B. E. (2006) Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication programs. 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge. Azizullah, A., Khattak, M. N. K., Richter, P., and Hader, D. P. (2011) Water pollution in Pakistan and its impact on public health. Environment International. 37(2), 479-497. Baxter, G. G. (2003). Salicylic acid In soups prepared from organically and non-organically grown vegetables. European Journal of Nutrition, 11(5), 17-23. Belini, J. L., and Rumrill, P. D. Jr. (2009) Research in Rehabilitation Counseling: A Guide to Design, Methodology, and Utilization. 2nd ed. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Boone, L. E., and Kurtz, D. L. (2011) Contemporary Marketing. 15th ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Bryman, A., and Bell, E. (2007) Business Research Methods. 2nd ed. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. Corbett, J. R. (1974). The Biochemical Mode of Actions of Pesticides. Academic P,, 2-16. Dunn-Georgiou, E. (2002). Everything You Need to Know About Organic Foods. New York: Rosen Publications. Flack, S. (2011) Organic Dairy Production. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing. Goldberger, J. R. (2011) Conventionalization, civic engagement, and the sustainability of organic agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies. 27(3), 288-296. Hjelmar, U. (2011) Consumers’ purchase of organic food products. A matter of convenience and reflexive practices. Appetite. 56(2), 336-344. Hoai, P. M., Sebesvari, Z., Minh, T. B., Viet, P. H., and Renaud, F. G. (2011) Pesticide pollution in agriculture areas of Northern Vietnam: Case study in Hoang Liet and Minh Dai communes. 159 (12), 3344-3350. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G. Wong, V., and Saunders, J. A. (2008) Principles of marketing. 5th ed. New York, NY: Pearson Education, Prentice Hall. McGiffen, M. E. (2011) Organic Vegetable Production Manual. Davis, CA: ANR Publications. Miller, G. T., and Spoolman, S. (2011) Sustaining the Earth. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Schlosser, E. (2012) Fast Food Nation. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Shi, L. (2008) Health services research methods. 2nd ed. Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning. United Nations (2010) Trade and Environment Review 2009/2010: Promoting Poles of Clean Growth to Foster the Transition to a More Sustainable Economy. Geneva: United Nations Publications. Yeh, B. J. (2007) Synthetic biology: Lessons from the history of synthetic organic chemistry. Nature Chemical Biology, 3(9), 12-14. Yussefi, M. (2008) The world of organic agriculture: statistics and emerging trends 2008. London: Earthscan. Read More