Influence of advertisements on consumption of organic vegetables

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is little information on the impact of advertising on organic vegetable consumption. A survey was conducted among 135 households. Information were collected on demographic characteristics of the consumers, frequency of vegetable consumption, attitude toward organic vegetable consumption, consumers’ sources of information and types of information sought on organic vegetable. Organic vegetable consumers sought information on hygiene (61.5%), environment where vegetable was grown (71.9%), type of fertilizer used (53.3%), nutritional value (71.9%), pesticide free (58.5%), safety or health consciousness (65.2%), and price of the produce (64.4%) from the internet (75.6%), social media (74.8%), and mobile marketing (66.7%) before making consumption decision. The majority of respondents (55.6%) consumed vegetables once weekly. Age (β= −1.54; p<0.05), and primary occupation (β=−0.85; p<0.05) discouraged organic vegetable consumption while gender (β = 0.72; p<0.05), and advertising messages contents (β = 0.18, p<0.05) promote consumption of organic vegetables. Advertising messages contributed to consumer awareness and consumption of organic vegetables. However, additional effort is required for increased consumption and frequency of consumption. Marketing strategies should target a broad population of potential consumers to increase the frequency of organic vegetable intake among potential consumers.