Digging deeper: How do different types of organic consumers influence the increasing organic market share?

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to investigate how sub-markets with different degrees of maturity develop during a period of general organic growth, and how different consumer segments behave on these sub-markets.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses actual purchasing behaviour of six consumer segments with different attitudes towards food in general, and organic production and products in particular. The data is from the Danish market for organic foods, which is one of the most mature markets in the world.

Findings

The segmentation splits consumers into a positive and a non-positive half, each half consisting of three different segments. The estimations show that the development in general organic consumption varies between segments, and that their behaviour varies between sub-markets. The positive half of the population has driven the overall growth in organic budget share at the Danish market over the period 2005 to 2007, while the other half have not changed their consumption significantly.

Practical implications

The results indicate that for the most dedicated organic consumers, the organic budget share may be approaching a saturation point for some types of food, but also identify other types of food which still have a growing organic budget share, even among the most dedicated consumers.

Originality/value

The combination of attitudes and actual behaviour for a large number of consumers is new, and the results provide a valuable contribution to the ongoing investigation of organic consumers, and provide new nuances to the understanding of the latest organic growth.

Citation

Mørch Andersen, L. and Bøker Lund, T. (2014), "Digging deeper: How do different types of organic consumers influence the increasing organic market share?", British Food Journal, Vol. 116 No. 1, pp. 16-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2011-0186