Health claims on organic nutrition - are organic consumers receptive to health claims on organic nutrition?

Authors

Wels, Laura

Issue Date

2014

Degree

MBA in Business Management

Publisher

Dublin Business School

Rights

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Abstract

The German food market changed tremendously as the population increasingly seeks for healthy and fair traded nutrition in comparison to the past years when pricing was one of the decisive attributes. This fact causes the increasing demand for natural, regional and also health enhancing products. Currently more and more conventional food is promoted by so called health claims that feature the health enhancing aspects of those products. Thus a potential increasing competition for organic products could arise, which are per se seen as ‘healthier’ than conventional food. In response to that it can be assumed that providers of organic products could also consider the usage of health claims on their packaging. Based on this idea the present work analysis if organic consumers imply the requirements to perceive health claims on organic nutrition positively. The most important theoretical part of the paper literary research outlines the motives behind the consumption of organic food, the perception of health claims on conventional food and the Øko-foods consumption model upon which the primary research is based. The survey revealed that the majority of organic consumers is (very) nutrition aware and purchases organic food for health and fewer residues and chemicals reasons. Therefore organic consumers particularly watch out for certain product attributes that can support these motives. Hence important for this consumer group are informative product characteristics as ingredients, organic label and beneficial product attributes that support nourishing aware and healthy. In this regard health claims that feature the health enhancing aspects of those products, constitute an adequate strategic mean in order to create a positive perception and attitude towards the product. Author keywords: Marketing, consumer behaviour, organic nutrition, health claim