Our recommendation to the mini market is that could successfully introduce a series of biological vegetable and meat products according to the findings of the research.
A significant action from the part of the mini market is to create awareness for biological products actively through brochures and leaflets indicating the whole process of producing biological products from start to end-user signifying in the end the positive results of consuming biological products. The mini market should establish a more personal relationship with the wife, along the purchasing process, which is the influencer and decision-maker.
The mini market should focus on providing a more personal and sincere relationship with the target customer household since the relationships of the super markets is more impersonal. The consumer could connect this more close and warm relationship with the customer perceived benefit of biological product, which is health.
Body of findings
Male interviewee
Demographic questions
In the body of findings section we can appreciate that the male target customer is in the age group of 30-45.He is married with one children and he lives only with his family and not with his parents. His educational background consists of a bachelor degree. His occupation is technical supervisor of a mobile telephony (TIM) and earns a monthly income of 2000 euros approximately.
Purchasing role questions
The male interviewee in the question, who makes the final purchase decision in his family for food consumption, has answered that both husband and wife make this decision. In the question which member of his family gathers information concerning food consumption has answered that the wife of the household makes this decision. Following, the question about which member of the family most of the times purchases food the male interviewee gave the answer that his wife purchases food usually. Finally in the question if he shops biological products for individual or family use, the answer was that he considers shopping for all his family.
Attitude and view towards biological product questions
The male interviewee’s answer if he has ever purchased biological products was that he has already made purchases of such products. Following the question which brand he usually prefers his response was none in particular, that he doesn’t take into consideration specific brands when it comes to biological products.
Furthermore he also finds that biological products are highly priced. When it comes to price it doesn’t play an important role to him, although prices of other products do play an important role to him. Finally he classifies biological products as of high quality.
Reference group, word of mouth and adopter category questions
The male’s opinion about the ecological community he is neither positive nor negative, but indifferent. In the question if he has ever been a member of an ecological community group he has answered that in the pas he was a member of such a group. His interpersonal contact and communication is very limited according to his answer to the relevant question. He thinks that his gains following and ecological group mentality is the contribution to the general good of society. Secondly people in the group he considers that have a good character and personality as well as it is fun to associate and be with them.
In the question concerning word of mouth occurrence the male interviewee gave the answer that he has taken into consideration positive comments regarding the biological products from his close environment. Specifically the comments were that they are natural products contributing to health issues, as well as they do not include any artificial ingredients and they are of better quality, with more vitamins.
Regarding the question about adopter categories the male interviewee answers that he was not of the first to buy biological products but waited for some time because his wife told him to buy later.
Culture and Subculture questions
There is no indication that the male interviewee’s parents were ecologically aware or oriented from the negative answer to the relevant question. In addition neither his family nor other relatives have purchased biological products. In the question if a biological product means something to him more than just a product the response was positive and associated with the good effect for his health. His feelings using biological products concentrate more on the security that comes from consuming biological products and generally a good and positive sensation. He doesn’t associate any value or person with biological products and also he doesn’t consider it as a symbol. His opinion concerning environmental friendliness is positive.
Learning process questions
The male interviewee doesn’t actively search for information about biological products but he does evaluate brands. Finally his primary reason for consuming biological products is health because other products could be mutated and health hazardous.
Female interviewee
Demographic questions
The female target customer belongs to the 35-45 age group. She is married with one child living without the parents. The educational background consists of a bachelor degree and her current occupation is an employee in a mobile telephony company (TIM). Her monthly income is on the category of approximately 0 to 1000 euros.
Purchasing role questions
The final purchase decision for food consumption in the family is made by her and not by the husband. In the question which member of the family gathers information concerning food consumption the answer was the wife. Furthermore, the member of the family that most times purchases food is again the wife. Regarding the question if she shops biological products for individual or family use, her answer was that she purchases for both of them.
Attitude and view towards biological product questions
The female interviewee when asked if she has ever purchased biological products, the response was positive. Concerning which brand she usually prefers, the response was none in particular. In addition she finds biological products highly priced and the price of them does play an important role to her along with other products.
In the end she categorizes biological products as of high quality.
Reference group, word of mouth and adopter category questions
The opinion about ecological community of the female is positive. She is also not a member of such a group. She does not have a clear view of the gains following an ecological group mentality.
Additionally, in the question if she has ever taken into consideration any positive or negative comments concerning the biological products by her close environment, the reply was that she has indeed taken into consideration such comments actually being positive ones.
Another important point was that she didn’t buy biological points immediately after they were launched in the market but she waited for a while for other customers to buy.
Culture and Subculture questions
The female’s interviewee parents are ecologically aware and oriented, according to her positive response to the relevant question. Moreover, her family and other relatives have purchased biological products. She does not distinguish biological products as something ideologically different than other products.
When consuming biological products she feels the sense of security. Furthermore, she does not associate any value or person with biological products nor she views them as a symbol. Finally, her opinion regarding environmental friendliness is positive.
Learning process questions
In the question if she does actively search for information about biological products, she gave the answer not very much. In addition, she adopts the concept of brand evaluation. Her primary reason for consuming biological products is the health issue and security.
Interview questions
Male
From the interview questions, the dietary habits of the male consist of pasta and meat, not regularly vegetables and rarely fish. Concerning meat consumption he is positive to meat and he doesn’t consider any other negative aspects. His weekly consumption of meat is more than twice a week and specifically 4 times. The type of meat he usually consumes is beef (steak), pork and chicken. He didn’t have any knowledge or information about the existence of the biological meat line as well as he was also impressed. He thinks that regularly biological meat is not the same and that their differences are in quality.
Female
The dietary habits of the female are primary meat, vegetables, legumes and rarely fish. Meat consumption is considered positive but not very much. Her weekly consumption of meat is more than twice a week and specifically 4 times. The types of meat she usually consumes consist of beef, pork and chicken. The female interviewee had the knowledge of the biological meat line existence. She thinks that regular biological meat is different and that the second is better and healthier. She also finds that they have differences in taste and stature due to the high quality animal nutrition.
Conclusions
The target customer household is a nuclear family consisting of the father, mother and child. The age group that the husband and the wife belong to is the same 30-45 years old and they have one child. Their educational background is also the same and it is high at the level of bachelor degree. The family income is above 2000 euros and it considered high. The general demographic characteristic of the family is that of an upper class and sophisticated.
From the purchasing role questions we draw the conclusion that the final purchase decision and thus the decision maker in the family concerning food consumption is the wife. Furthermore because also the wife gathers the information concerning food consumption she also has the influencer role and in addition she has the highest degree of involvement in the purchasing process because she is the member of the family that most of the times shops. Both husband and wife shop biological products for family use therefore the family is also the end user.
Both husband and wife have purchased biological products in the past, this fact leads us to the conclusion that they are in the trial stage of the adoption process. They also think that brand is not important for biological products. What we can appreciate is that they are not specifically searching for a particular brand.
Furthermore they perceive biological products as expensive products. From the husbands points of view price doesn’t play an important role in biological products but it does in other ones. On the other hand the wife, who has the most determining role in the purchasing process thinks that price plays an important role for biological products. Both of them think of biological products as of a good that has high quality.
The husband’s opinion about the ecological community is indifferent, but the important element is that the wife’s opinion that is also the decision maker about such a community is positive. Although he (husband) was a member of an ecological group, he has very limited interpersonal contact with them and this shows that he is in the secondary type group. This leads to the conclusion that his bonds with the ecologic groups are of secondary importance.
The wife although she has a positive attitude towards ecological groups she isn’t a member of such community and this shows aspiration reference meaning that she has a positive attraction to it and increases the possibility of increasing product loyalty.
Since the gains of following an ecological group mentality from the husband’s point of view is the general good of society and collaborating with people that have similar personality traits, show a general aspect and view of the situation, leading to not very important connection with the ecological community. Both husband and wife have heard positive comments concerning biological products by their close environment and by this we can conclude that there is positive word of mouth.
In view of the fact that both husband and wife were not of the first to buy biological products but waited for a while for others to buy them (mainly this action is initiated by the wife) makes them late majority as adopter category.
There is no strong ecological background, but only from the husband’s point of view. On the other hand wife has a strong ecological background because parents are ecologically aware and family and other relatives have purchased biological products. This means that there is increased possibility of biological product purchases. Biological products have a significant position of both husband and wife because they make them feel secure and have a good and positive feeling, although they don’t associate them with the person or is considered as a symbol.
Generally they both evaluate brands concerning different products, showing high degree of involvement, despite that they do not actively search for information about the ecological products showing low degree of involvement.
Their primary motivation for consuming biological products is health, and because other food products can be proved dangerous, this shows that the type of learning is manifest and not latent.
From the interview we conclude that according to their dietary habits that are pasta and meat, and not regularly vegetables they have high probability of purchasing biological meat and less grocery products.
The wife although she seems positive towards meat she has some compunctions. We conclude that since the wife knew about the existence of biological meat line and the husband did not, she is more informed and prone to consume more biological products.
The major elements that could be play significant role in distinguishing biological from regular products are taste and quality and the fact that they contribute to health retention.
Recommendations
Our recommendation is that the mini market could introduce successfully series of biological vegetable and meat products according to the findings for the research that, show positive attitude towards ecology and biological products in general.
From the research findings we have concluded that the household was not accurately informed about biological products, how they are produced and what their specific individual characteristics are. A significant action from the part of the mini market is to create awareness for biological products actively through brochures and leaflets indicating the whole process of producing biological products from start to end-user signifying in the end the positive results of consuming biological products. Furthermore the mini market should establish a complete bench of biological product types enriched with full advertising promotion corresponding to these goods.
Since the wife plays an important role in the household as an information gatherer, influencer and a decision maker the mini market should focus on her by establishing a more personal relationship with her along the buying process. For example in the cashier point provide all the adequate information and advertisement of ecological products, provide extra services like house delivery or purchasing electronically through the website of the mini market. In order to make easier the contact of the customer with the biological products, the mini market could as a first action to offer some biological products for a free trial with the customer’s purchases for a certain period of time.
The mini market should focus on providing a more personal and sincere relationship with the target customer household since the relationships of the super markets is more impersonal. The consumer could connect this more close and warm relationship with the customer perceived benefit of biological product, which is health.
In order to make use of the fact that the health issue plays an important role in the decision-making process of the household for buying biological products it should include and provide adequate information entailing medical results in connection with the beneficial characteristics of consuming biological products.
APPENDIX
Questionnaire
Demographic information
-
Gender Male_______ Female_______
-
Age 0-20____ 20-30____ 30-45___ 45-60____ 60 and above___
-
Marital status _ married yes no
Children yes no
If yes how many? ________
4. Educational background Elementary school
High school
Bachelor
Master
5. Monthly income 0-1000 euros___ 1000-2000 euros___ 2000-above___
- Who makes the final purchase decision in your family for food consumption?
Husband _
Wife ______
- Which member of your family gathers information concerning food consumption?
Husband _
Wife ______
- Which member of your family most of the times purchases food?
Husband _
Wife ______
9. Have you ever purchase biological products?
Yes_____ No_____
- Do you shop biological products for individual or family use?
11. If yes which brand you usually prefer?
___________________________________________
12. Do you find biological products?
High______ medium______ low priced____
13. Does price play an important role to you?
Yes______ No_______ Indifferent_______
14. How would you classify biological products?
High_____ Medium_______ Low quality_______
15. What is your opinion about the ecological community?
Positive_____ Negative______ indifferent______
16. Are you a member of such a group?
Yes_____ No_____(if no aspiration reference)
- If yes your interpersonal contact is
frequent_____ limited________
18. What do you think are your gains following an ecological group mentality?
- Have you ever taken into consideration any positive or negative comments
concerning the biological products by your close environment?
___________________________________________
- If you purchase biological products, were you one of the first to buy them (or
you waited for a while for others to buy them?)
_________________________________________
21. Is your family (parents) ecologically aware or oriented?
Yes_____ No_________ Indifferent_________
22. Did your family or other relatives purchased or purchase biological
products?
Yes_______ No_________
23. Does the biological product mean something you more than just a product ?
24. How do you feel using biological products?
Good______ Secure_______ Bad_______ Indifferent______
25. With what value or person do you associate with biological products?
________________________________________________________________________
26. What is your opinion concerning environmental friendliness?
Positive _____
Negative _____
Indifferent _____
27. Do you actively search for information about biological products?
A Lot ___________ Not very much__________ No_________
28. Do you evaluate brands?
Yes________ No___________ Indifferent_________
29. What is your primary reason for consuming biological products?
________________________________________________________________________
Questionnaire
Demographic information
-
Gender Male_______ Female_______
-
Age 0-20____ 20-30____ 30-45___ 45-60____ 60 and above___
-
Marital status _ married yes no
Children yes no
If yes how many? ________
4. Educational background Elementary school
High school
Bachelor
Master
5. Monthly income 0-1000 euros___ 1000-2000 euros___ 2000-above___
- Who makes the final purchase decision in your family for food consumption?
Husband _
Wife ______
- Which member of your family gathers information concerning food consumption?
Husband _
Wife ______
- Which member of your family most of the times purchases food?
Husband _
Wife ______
9. Have you ever purchase biological products?
Yes_____ No_____
- Do you shop biological products for individual or family use?
11. If yes which brand you usually prefer?
___________________________________________
12. Do you find biological products?
High______ medium______ low priced____
13. Does price play an important role to you?
Yes______ No_______ Indifferent_______
14. How would you classify biological products?
High_____ Medium_______ Low quality_______
15. What is your opinion about the ecological community?
Positive_____ Negative______ indifferent______
16. Are you a member of such a group?
Yes_____ No_____(if no aspiration reference)
- If yes your interpersonal contact is
frequent_____ limited________
18. What do you think are your gains following an ecological group mentality?
- Have you ever taken into consideration any positive or negative comments
concerning the biological products by your close environment?
___________________________________________
- If you purchase biological products, were you one of the first to buy them (or
you waited for a while for others to buy them?)
_________________________________________
21. Is your family (parents) ecologically aware or oriented?
Yes_____ No_________ Indifferent_________
22. Did your family or other relatives purchased or purchase biological
products?
Yes_______ No_________
23. Does the biological product mean something you more than just a product ?
24. How do you feel using biological products?
Good______ Secure_______ Bad_______ Indifferent______
25. With what value or person do you associate with biological products?
________________________________________________________________________
26. What is your opinion concerning environmental friendliness?
Positive _____
Negative _____
Indifferent _____
27. Do you actively search for information about biological products?
A Lot ___________ Not very much__________ No_________
28. Do you evaluate brands?
Yes________ No___________ Indifferent_________
29. What is your primary reason for consuming biological products?
________________________________________________________________________
Interview
- Which are you dietary habits?
________________________________________________________________________
- What do you think about meat consumption?
________________________________________________________________________
- What is your weekly consumption of meat?
Once______ Twice________ more than twice_________
- Which types of meat your usually consume?
________________________________________________________________________
- Did you know that a biological meat line exists?
- Do you think that regular and biological meat is the same?
- Which do you think are their differences?
________________________________________________________________________
