Salvador Ruiz

University of Murcia, Spain

Who are the organic consumers?

What we consider as the ‘organic consumer’ is that person who is responsible for buying food for the household and who buy organic foods at least once or twice per month.   So if there are people who buy randomly or less than once a month then they are not considered regular organic consumers for this part of the study.

If we talk about the percentage of consumers across the eight countries where we made the study, this is about 30%, although there are big differences between the countries. For example, almost 70% of Danish shoppers can be considered as organic consumers, compared to around 40% in Germany, while in Spain it would be only around 14% and in Greece 20-21%.   So there are big differences among the eight countries where we made the study.

When we take into account the population of these eight countries, what we find is that 60% of the consumers overall are in Germany and the UK, because those are the two countries with the biggest populations.   So these are the two countries with the biggest organic markets in Europe.  

When we consider the descriptive characteristics of organic consumers then what we find is that there are no big differences in age between organic and non-organic consumers.   In terms of gender, what we have found is that the proportion of women is higher than in non-organic households.   That could be because women are more worried about their health and their bodies, but we have not done those analysis yet.

In terms of income and education, we have not found big differences on average between organic and non-organic consumers.   Partly, this could be because we are reaching the stage of a mature market.   More and more people are now in the organic market, so the differences between organic and non-organic consumers are disappearing.

Two more characteristics of organic consumers or households are - one is the number of children – the number of children is always higher in organic households, except in the UK and Finland.   The other is that, on average, you will find less organic consumers in rural areas than in urban areas.   This is generally what happened in all the eight countries with the exception of the UK, where perhaps the difference is not so big between rural and urban areas, probably because of different ways of living.   In all the other countries, the organic market is mostly in urban areas.  

One of the last aspects is what do organic consumers think, that is, what is in their minds concerning these products.   What we found first was that organic consumers have more positive beliefs concerning organic products. For example, this product tastes better, is more natural, is healthier – they believe that more than non-organic consumers.  

We also looked at what organic consumers feel about other people.   We have found that they believe that the people who are important to them, people who are close to them, also buy organic products or that they approve that they buy organic products - they believe that it is a good thing that they buy organic products. 

The last aspect of what the organic consumers think, as compared to non-organic consumers, is their moral norms indicate they are doing a very good thing when they buy organic products.   That they are doing the correct thing for the environment, the right thing for society. This is something that differentiates them from non-organic consumers.   Non-organic purchasers do not associate those beliefs to buying organic products.

So, if you were to ask me to summarise what could be the main results I would say - forget about the descriptions or social-demographic characteristics [as a means] to differentiate between organic and non-organic consumers - these are not important any more to identify or locate organic consumers.   Now the difference is in what they think.  

If we can change non-organic consumers minds to make them believe that organic products are better in different ways – for the taste, health or the environment and demonstrate that people who are important to them, whether it’s people who are related or not, such as celebrities, if they buy and consume organic product, then we might be able to move these consumers into the organic market.

This main result can be used by companies or even by governments to promote the organic market in communication and to help design communication activities.   In these results, they will find out how to design what will be the information they need to transfer to those non-organic consumers to convert them into organic consumer.

Salvador Ruiz PhD
University of Murcia is Associate Professor of Marketing. His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Marketing Management and European Journal of Marketing.  

He has also presented papers at agricultural and marketing conferences (both domestic and international and is the co-author and editor of several books. As a visiting Professor in the Marketing Department of Columbia University ( USA), his main research interests are consumer behaviour and agricultural marketing. He has also acted as a consultant for Spanish companies and associations, some of them related to the agricultural sector.