Sustainable food consumption : investigating the role of marketing communications in consumer purchase intentions of organic foods

Research Approach and Methodology: The current literature and discussions with industry bodies reveals that despite a high level of organic food awareness among consumers, the level of organic food purchases remains low. To investigate this issue, an online survey of 1011 respondents was conducted during November 2012. Respondents were recruited from a national research only panel and the only prerequisite to qualify for this project was that respondents had to have purchased organic products sometime in the past. Nearly sixteen percent (15.7%) of the sample qualified as regular buyers of organic products. Another 30.1% of respondents claimed to buy organic food products 1-3 times a fortnight. Over half of the respondents in this sample are either occasional (45.2%) or lapsed (9%) organic food buyers.