Consumers' perception of organic food products and organic labels in Serbia

Abstract

The relevance of the market of the organic products is constantly on the rise, however, consumers' awareness on this matter is still understudied. Aiming to bridge this gap, we conducted ethnographic research within 6 households in three different locations in a period of 12 months. The sample units have been selected as multi-person households in accordance with previously set criteria, including age, gender, geographic and socio-economic characteristics. Qualitative analysis as well as quantitative content analysis using NVivo software package have shown that organic has been among the most frequently mentioned words in the context of food labels, and it has been mostly taken into consideration when speaking about diary, fruit and meat products. The informants have shown high level of trust in organic labels. In line with that, we further discuss the importance of customer awareness with regard to labeling organic food products as well as positive attitudes toward labels in general, their readiness to read the labels, trust in labels and pay a higher prices when comparing with the conventional food products. Finally, we provide managerial implication of our findings and recommendations for further research.

Keywords

• organic products
• label
• ethnographic research
• consumers' perception and attitudes
• marketing communications