Green Marketing, Ecolabel and Purchase Intention on Food Products during Covid-19

Abstract

The Covid-19 Pandemy has increased consumer’s awareness of the health issues and what they eat on a daily basis. Within the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category, ecolabel is used to differentiate environmental friendly food and conventional food. However, not all of the healthy products are having ecolabel. This might happened because consumers do not know about the product, the price does not fit with their budget, the promotion does not reach the consumers and many other reasons. During the Covid-19 Pandemy, food manufacturing companies may need to adjust the massage to meet their targetted market. Therefore, this study examines how green marketing, ecolabel and Covid-19 pandemic relate to consumer’s purchase intention of food products. What aspects are they considering? An online survey was conducted in May – June 2020, involving 349 valid respondents, from 34 provinces in Indonesia. This study found that green marketing mix is positively associated with consumer attitude. Interestingly, only green products and green promotion are positively associated with the green marketing mix. Green price and green place are not significantly related to the green marketing mix. Furthermore, ecolabel and Covid-19 pandemic are positively associated with consumers’attitude. This consumers attitude is then positively associated with green food products’ buying intention. The findings of this study imply the need for food producers to allocate attention to food labelling, through good products and promotion. As of Covid-19 pandemic, this study found that the respondents will continue their healthy habit to protect themselves against health issue in the future. This offers positive signals to producers and marketing communication to develop a better communication approach for consumers.