A Study on Determinants Affecting the Consumer Perception Towards Purchase of Organic Food

Abstract

Organic market provides a choice of “healthy life” to consumers by providing healthy food. Organic food consumption has increased during the last few years as a consequence of its direct impact on consumer health, life style, and social convenience. The organic food is one of the major markets to show double-digit growth rates. It is very important to understand the reason behind such a tremendous growth which can be disclosed by this study. A study to identify what actually induces consumers to switch from conventional food to organic food is important. This paper investigates the perception and attitudes of the organic food consumers from Bengaluru. Consumer’s perception towards organic food products was measured using sixteen items on five-point Likert scale. The statistical techniques implemented in the study are Principal Component Analysis, Cluster analysis and Decision Tree. The analysis indicates that the sixteen items can be broken down into three major components namely Health and Weight aspects, Sensory Appeal and Extrinsic value which further leads us to the major component that is driving the purchase intention of organic food. The cluster analysis will shed light on the consumer behaviour and then finally the decision tree emphasizes on the consumer buying patterns. This research can be incorporated to design effective marketing programs and strategies to influence the consumers positively. The retailers or marketers can emphasize on the major factor and attract the consumers towards purchasing their respective brand of organic products by building a certain perception in the minds of the consumers.