Kimler, Neden Organik Gıda Satın Alıyor? Bir Alan Araştırması

Year 2013, Issue: 30, 93 - 108, 01.08.2013

Sabahattin Çelik

Abstract

Türkiye'de de Organik gıda endüstrileri etkili planlamalar yapabilmek için, organik gıdaların tüketimine ilişkin olarak, tüketicilerin çeşitlilik gösteren demografik özelliklerini, güdülerini, algılarınıve tutumlarınıda daha iyi anlamalarıgerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada, organik gıda tüketimi konusunda yayınlanmışaraştırmalar incelenerek organik gıda satın alan kişilerin organik gıda almaya karar verirken kullandıklarıçeşitli gerekçeler belirlenmiştir. Alan araştırmasımetodolojisi benimsenerek elde edilen veriler yardımıyla Türkiye'de organik gıda satın alan kişilerin demografik özellikleri ve organik gıda satın alma gerekçelerinin önem dereceleri tespit edilmiştir. Konuyla ilgili literatürdeki çalışmaların çok büyük bir bölümünde 'sağlık', tüketicilerin organik gıda satın almasına neden olan en önemli etkendir ve bu çalışmanın sonuçlarıyla paraleldir. Ayrıca cinsiyet, gelir ve eğitim düzeyi, evdeki çocuk sayısıgibi demografik etkenler organik gıda satın alımında çok fazla etkilidir. Çalışmanın sonunda, sonraki araştırmalar için öneriler yer almaktadır.

Keywords

Organik Tarım, Organik Ürün Özellikleri, Demografik Faktörler, Tüketici Tercihleri

Who and Why Buy Organic Food? A Field Research

Abstract

On account of the reaction of the consumers and marketing assocoates to the popular media on the matters of the effects of vermin-killers to health and environment, organisms changed genetically and aliment safety, the interest on the organic food in the world has increased dramatically. The issue of the gradual evolution of the attitude to the sources of the food that we consume hasn't been dealt with enough in the most resources published about the behavior of purchasing aliment. Actually, the increasing popularity of the organic food as a billion-dollar global industry which is constantly expanding causes other remarkable questions in terms of governments, producers, distributors, retailers, industry planners and marketing assocoates. Some examples on this topic are as follows: 1 Who are the consumers of organic food? 2 What are the factors and the potentials that cause consumption of organic food? 3 How will the marketing of organic food come in the future? 4 Which policies should be applied in order to contribute to this market and the satisfaction of the consumer? The purpose of this article is to try to answer these questions by integrating all the findings obtained in the previously published works. Responsing this kind of questions requires the consideration of diversity and complexity of deciding process in terms of the organic products of the consumers. It has to be figured out that the interpretation of the term "organic" by every individual is different.The consumers' desicions about purchasing are based on the perceptions about organic food and subjective experiences. So, in this article, the findings which have been obtained so far and can provide the basis of an in-depth-research related to the organic food are tried to be band together. Various reasons that bring out the perceptions of individuals about the organic food are defined. At the same time, for the purpose of providing a guidance for the works in the future, certain necessary developments are determined. The purpose of this work is to provide information about the consumers of organic food for various stakeholders such as producers, retailers/marketing assocoates, policy determiners and certain interest groups, so, the strategies of these stakeholders will reflect the perceptions and attentions of the consumers better. In order to make effective planning, organic food industries in Turkey need to have a better understanding of various demographic characteristics, instincts, perceptions and attitudes of consumers as to organic food consumption. By analysing prior studies on organic food consumption, various rationales used by consumers in deciding to buy organic food are identified in this study. This study explores demographic characteristics of organic food consumers and identifies the degree of importance of organic food consumption determinants in Turkey by using field research method. In many studies, ‘health’ is found to be the most important factor to determine the consumption of organic food, which is parallel, the findings of this study. In addition, demographic factors such as gender, income, level of education and number of children in household are found to have a large impact on organic food consumption. In the works seen in the literature about the topic, the results of the works about the consumers' attitude towards purchasing organic food are shaped around some certain factors. The factors that direct the consumers to purchase consist of nine matters. The valid datas available show that the organic food is beneficial for our health which is the most important attitude for purchasing organic food. In the research section of the work, some hypothesis is put forth for determining the importance degrees and the factors that make people buy organic food. Also, 200 test subjects who buy and consume organic food are chosen as the sample of this work. Because the number of the consumers of organic food in the city of İstanbul isn't accurately known, in the case which the number of members of the target group isn't known, the size of the sample is defined as 195 by accepting the organic food purchasing rate in İstanbul as % 15 in the light of the foregoing datas which we obtain by the preliminary work at 0.05 significance level on the basis of the calculation formula of the sample size. In the work conducted in İstanbul as a way of collecting data, a survey method is applied on the basis of a face-to-face-interview with those who buy organic food. To try to reduce prejudice and to provide the homogeneity in the groups, all the test subjects are chosen among those who purchased and consumed organic food before and who are inclined to buy organic food in the future, too. As a data evaluation method in the work, a multivariate analysis method is carried out. According to the results of the work, the most important factor that makes people buy organic food is "health", the second is "substantiality" and the third is "sensitivity to environment". Organic food consumers are among the people who are at around 35-40, married with two children, graduated from university, a public employee with a salary of 2500 TL, who dwell in their own house and buy organic food at least once a week and the most consumed organic food is tomato. The work, besides getting to know the consumers of organic food better, demonstrates that more advanced research is to be done to understand the consumers of organic food in Turkey who buy either regularly or occasionally. Because the production of organic food is expected to increase basically in global level, it is clearly seen that academics in the field of marketing have an important role in our research on the topic of understanding the features of organic food consumers and their desicion to buy organic food better. So, this information can be used to assist the consumers of organic food, food producers and retailers and policy determiners. Different research on this field, on one hand, educate and instruct the public about which marketing strategies are beneficial to food industry and policy determiners, on the other hand, provide some suggestions as tactics in the field of packaging, transport and communication, price strategies and such. To this end, marketing assocoates and all the sides about the production and consumption of organic food, besides helping to develop a strategy, they also advise about the policies to follow. The consumer researches in recent years are proved to be socio-cultural, experiential, symbolic or ideologic. So, the consumer researches about the organic food which focus on the demographic subjects fundamentally are seen that they are at the primary stage theoretically. In order to go beyond the researches conducted in the recent years and to include some factors defined in the field of the consumption of food and general consumer researches, there is a need for further research on this subject in the future. Consequently, the ones who research about the consumers take advantage of richer information than obtained about organic food consumers, policy determiners, retailers and producers so far. So, the question which those who research in this field have to ask is not that "who" are the consumers of organic food, bu "how" do they use these products in their daily life. What are the experiences of these consumers and how can understanding those experiences help us to increase the information which simplify for comprehending the purchasing act and consumption better? Also, to understand the factors that make people buy organic food and to comment the consumption experiences, some research methods need to be used for interpreting future studies. It can be said that for those who buy organic food regularly, it is a "lifestyle". However, there is not a clear idea about what does this kind of a lifestyle include exactly. So, to increase the data available and to understand the consumption and consumers of organic food, more research which includes real experiences of organic food consumers is needed for the interpretation

Keywords

Organic Agriculture, Features of Organic Food, Demographic Characteristics, Consumer Preferences

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