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Contemporary Issues in Marketing
Organic Food Industry in UK
N0466534
Contemporary Issues in Marketing
The Organic Food Industry in United Kingdom
N0466534
Submission date: 23/07/2013
Word count: 4,200
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Contemporary Issues in Marketing
Organic Food Industry in UK
N0466534
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Context ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
3. Analysis of the External Environment of the Organic Food Sector ........................................................... 4
3.1. PESTLE Analysis Summary .................................................................................................................. 5
4. Why the Social Factors? ............................................................................................................................ 6
4.1. Is Marketing Influencing the Customers or the Customers are Influencing the Marketing? ............ 6
5. How Organizations Changed Their Marketing Strategies ......................................................................... 7
5.1. The use of social marketing for changing behaviors.......................................................................... 7
5.2. The Marketers` Involvement with the Customers ............................................................................. 8
5.3. The Relationship Marketing (RM) ...................................................................................................... 8
5.4. From 4Ps to 4Cs ................................................................................................................................. 9
5.5. The Information System Development (ISD) ..................................................................................... 9
5.6. Co-Production .................................................................................................................................. 10
5.7. Different Segmentation Criteria ...................................................................................................... 11
5.8. Trust Issues in the Certification and Authenticity ............................................................................ 11
5.9. Big Retailers and Home Delivery: Fierce Competition for Farmer`s Shops and Farmer`s Market .. 12
5.10. Ocado: A Striking Success Story and a Considerable Competitor .................................................. 13
5.11. How the Big Retailers Responded to the Growth in Demand ....................................................... 15
6. What Marketers Need To Do to Adapt ................................................................................................... 16
6.1. Market Research .............................................................................................................................. 16
6.1a. The Consumers` Motivation in Purchasing Organic Food. A Means-End Approach .................. 16
6.1.b The Concept of Ethical Self Identity Association ....................................................................... 19
6.2. Build Trust ........................................................................................................................................ 19
6.3. Find New and Appropriate Segmentation Criteria .......................................................................... 20
6.4. Provide Customers with a Wider Variety of Products (Big Retailers) .............................................. 20
6.5. A Heavier and Better Directed Promotion ....................................................................................... 21
7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 21
References .................................................................................................................................................. 22
Appendices:................................................................................................................................................. 26
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Contemporary Issues in Marketing
Organic Food Industry in UK
N0466534
Organic Food Industry in United Kingdom
With a Focus on the Big Retailers
1. Introduction
The report has as a topic the Organic Food Industry in United Kingdom, more
exactly, the way in which the sector has been changing during time. Moreover, an
analysis of the external factors was made, using the Pestle framework and the
focus of the report is on the social factors. After the first part, which contains a
context of the current situation of the organic food industry, two main chapters
follow. The first of the two refers to the way organizations adapted their marketing
strategies due to the changes in the industry and the second one presents what the
marketers need to do in order to target the relatively new category of customers
(Pearson, Henryks, and Jones :2010), effectively. Moreover, different visual
representations will be used for a better and more detailed understanding of the
subject, together with the Pestle framework that can be found in the appendices. A
variety of authors and theories have been used for a broad and deep analysis with
the aim of finding the most applicable and relevant information and creating an
appropriate set of recommendations for the marketers.
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2. Context
According to Murray –White (2013), the notion of organic food has a closely tied
connection to the “green movement” and the industry encountered a rapid growth,
more exactly by approximately 20% per year in US (Dimitri and Green: 2002). To
be more specific, the UK organic food market occupied the third place worldwide in
terms of development and popularity with an increase of 10% yearly, in the year
2007 (Sahota:2007). But nowadays the facts are not too different, even though the
impact of the crisis affected many sectors (Soil Association, Organic Market Report:
2013). Moreover, even though there was a small decrease in the organic food
sector over the past year, according to Smithers (2013), for Guardian,
an
anticipated growth exists for this year, especially for the online purchase ( MurrayWhite:2013). In addition, there are currently 8 supermarkets, more exactly , the
leading ones, that have been increasing their sales of organic products, the market
leaders in terms of organic food shares being Ocado, with 9%, followed by Waitrose
(4.8%), Sainsbury`s (2%), Tesco (1%), M&S (1%),etc. (Soil Association, Organic
Market Report:2013).
3. Analysis of the External Environment of the Organic Food Sector
There are a variety of factors that affect the organic food industry and as Wright
and McCrea (2007) explain, the importance of the sector is not only seen from
economic point of view, justified by the high amounts of yearly profit, but it also
represents the society concerns in terms of food production, consumption, being
perceived
as
a
component
of
lifestyle.
Also
according
to
Wagner- Tsukamato (2006), there is a personal, social and environmental impact
and even though the leading producers of organic food were doing it for
environmental campaigning, as a result of their success, are currently perceived as
models of
commercial
business
success than
political
commitment (Wright
and McCrea :2007). As can be seen in the Appendix 1, the Pestle framework has
been used in order to analyze the external factors that have an impact on the
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organic food industry because is the most appropriate matrix for analyzing the
factors that cannot be controlled, from the macro environment (Jobber:2010),
providing a “satellite view” (Ward and Rivani : 2005:p.203).
3.1. PESTLE Analysis Summary
Referring again to the Appendix 1 and to Käyrä and Suomikallio (2012), the
political-legal factors can have a decisive impact on how a business operates, on
different levels, depending on the variety of laws and legislations in terms of
agriculture, taxes, restrictions, etc. in accordance to the Health and Food Ministry
departments.
In addition, the economic factors represent another influence because as Keller and
Kotler (2004) state, the purchasing power should be in marketer`s close sight and
this power depends on the home economy level and personal income level. Also,
according to Morrison (2006), the economic level influences the society lifestyle as
well, so as can be seen in the Appendix 1, factors as recession, GDP, inflation, etc,
could affect people`s decision making process of purchasing organic food.
The social factors represent the focus of this report and a variety of them can be
found in Appendix 1, being related to consumers` behavior, the change in lifestyle
and eating trends and of course the increase in the number of ethical consumers,
being influenced by health, environment and taste (Soil Association, Organic Market
Report:2013). In addition, a growth in the younger shoppers (under 35 years old:
“Jamie`s Generation”) of organic food category has been noticed, representing
16% of sales, because of the increasing awareness of its benefits (Soil Association,
Organic Market Report: 2013).
Last but not the least, are the technological and environmental factors. The key
factors in terms of technology that impact on the organic food sector are the
producing/distribution/procurement
maturity
and
capacity
process
as
its
effectiveness and innovations influences the costs and the wastage. In addition, the
competing technology development has a high importance as well, like the
possibility of purchasing online or by using mobile application and related to this
aspect, is shown that that even though a drop in organic food sales has been
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registered because of the recession, an online boom regarding purchasing from the
major retailers has been noticed (from 5.7% to 10.1 %), according to Smithers
(2013).
In terms of the environmental factors (see Appendix 1), the key point is the fact
that the pest management is an important influence that affects the sector,
together with the way and level of farming, pollution and the way the climate and
weather are.
4. Why the Social Factors?
4.1. Is Marketing Influencing the Customers or the Customers are Influencing
the Marketing?
It is considered that the social factors are the main ones that have been influencing
the growth in popularity of the organic food and this will be explained in detail in
the following two chapters. More exactly, the rational of why society has been
turning more and more to the healthy lifestyle, including of course the organic food
is due to the effect and consequences of the commercial marketing, according to
Mahoney (1994).
An argument is offered by Tadajewsky and Brownlie (2008), who explain how the
commercial marketing promotion of unhealthy nutritional patterns and unsafe food
technologies lead to obesity, and as the report focuses on the UK situation, should
be said that the problem is acute in US and UK. Also, marketing promotes fast
foods, being very popular and benefiting of a good promotion and exposure
especially in the Western countries (Evans and Moutinho (1999). But when the
obesity, malnutrion, genetically modified foods, fast food, etc, became controversy
subjects and at the stage when society tried them, saw the effects and some even
changed the decision making process based on the negative effects, the marketers
as well responded .
On the other hand, another reason of why the marketers changed their strategy
and why brands started promoting healthier food, such as McDondalds, Kraft, FritoLay, etc, is the political one, more exactly, because the threat of liability lawsuits, in
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US and not only and because they have to respond and adapt to the trends that
customers set (Bone and France:2003).
5. How Organizations Changed Their Marketing Strategies
5.1. The use of social marketing for changing behaviors
This topic is of interest because of the focus of social marketing. Social marketing
was created with the aim of influencing behaviors of the target market for the
personal welfare and the one of the society and to deal with the negative effects
created by the commercial marketing, according to Andreasen (2002). More
detailed, governments have been discouraging the intake of sugar, fats and has
been encouraging the consumption of fruits and vegetables (Ross: 2004),
representing another reason why the marketers had to change their strategy in
order to adapt (Gordon et al :2006).
So besides the commercial marketing, more exactly, the negative type that only
intends to sell without an interest to how people are affected in terms of health,
and the social marketing, that only has the aim of changing behaviors, without
being ethical, CSR or social advertising, is the ethical marketing (Honkanen,
Verplanken and Olsen:2006). And for the marketers to promote organic food they
must be ethical in creating their strategy (Baker et al: 2004).
More exactly, to complete the theory, according to Dann (2010), social marketing is
the adaption and adoption of the commercial marketing techniques and principles in
order to induce behavior change with the aim to achieve a social goal, which in this
case is healthy eating.
Moreover, it is very important for the marketers to be aware of the changes in the
customers` ethical beliefs, perceptions and values, and an example of those not
being respected is offered by Sanyal (2000) that explains how the customers’
organizations
boycotted
as
a
result
of
marketers
not
having
a
profound
understanding of their values. This proves that even though the customers`
lifestyles can be influenced in a damaging way by the negative type of commercial
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marketing (GM foods, obesity, fast food, etc.), in the same time, the marketers are
influenced in leading their businesses by the customers` demands.
5.2. The Marketers` Involvement with the Customers
Arguments have been offered to the theory saying that the society has been
influenced by the commercial marketing, by adapting unhealthy eating lifestyles,
promoted by this type of marketing, but on the other hand, the social marketing`s
downstream campaigns have been having an effect as well, and the result is the
popularity of healthy eating nowadays (Kotler and Lee: 2008).
5.3. The Relationship Marketing (RM)
An example of this being done by the marketers is Brodie`s et al (1997) model in
terms of relationship marketing (RM), which is suggested to be applied at four
levels as can be seen in Figure 1.
Fig.1 “Relationship Marketing definitions”, Brodie et al (1997)
According to Egan (2008) in terms of Brodie`s (1997) model, it is said that the
middle levels are the most accepted definitions in general. The model shows the
importance of the RM and the fact that the business/customer partnering is one of
the most applied theories, focusing on the customers’ retention, together with the
customer partnering, to an even higher level, showing that the buyers are
“cooperatively” involved in the design of the product/service, presenting higher
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seller-buyer interaction (O`Malley and Tynan:2000). The model proves how
involved the marketers are with the changes in the customers` trends and the
involved relationship they had, representing a base for the decision of marketers to
adapt to the social changes by creating new strategies. As an example, according to
National Consumer Council (2007), the supermarkets adapted to the customers`
eating trends by making efforts to both stock organic and locally-grown produce,
and to become more sustainable and ethical.
5.4. From 4Ps to 4Cs
Another fact that proves the development of RM so it would meet the customers`
needs, demands and trends is the one offered by Kotler et al (1999), more exactly,
because the 4 P`s were thought to be created from the sellers` angle, the author
(1999) created the 4 C`s, coming from a customer-orientated perspective., as can
be seen in the Figure 2.
Price
GVCHGHG
Cost
to
customer
Place
Convenience
Convenience
Product/Price
Customer
mbneeds
and wants
Promotion
Communication
C
Fig.2 From 4Ps to 4Cs (Kotler et al :1999,P.110)
5.5. The Information System Development (ISD)
Also according to Schwalbe (2010), another example of how marketers adapted
their
strategies
to
the
customers`
demands,
is
the
Information
System
Development (ISD), more exactly, representing a method in which both the
producers and the users take part in the design and development of a
product/service. According to He and King (2008) the users are asked to take part
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in the ISD is because they possess knowledge and perspectives that the developer
do not have. In addition, referring to Harris & Weistroffer (2009) this model has
been used because the “high project failure rate and low user satisfaction” (2009,
p. 142).
5.6. Co-Production
According to Mittal (1989) and Smith & Carsky (1996), another way of involving
the customers is by using the theory of co-production, which is not too different
than the ISD. More exactly, this theory has at the base the intensive collaboration
with the customers when creating a product in terms of product selection and
purchase decision in order to improve the products and to increase the customers`
support of this products (Tiwana & Mclean, 2005). In addition, according to Kahn
(1990) the intensive collaboration between the producers and customers is called
job engagement, as can be seen in the Figure 3.
Fig. 3 Model of Co-Production, Markus and Mao:2004
The theories and models from above were presented in terms of the relation they
have to the reasons of why customers chose to purchase organic food. Besides the
external influences exercised by the social marketing`s downstream campaign
which encourage healthy eating, there are some other implication to the
customers` decisions.
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5.7. Different Segmentation Criteria
According to Pearson, Henryks, and Jones (2010) as the segment of organic food
customers is not saturated and there are not too many trends known about this
category, it is not relevant to look only to the usual segmentation criteria as
education, age, income, etc. So marketers had to find new ways of targeting their
customers.
So different segmentation parameters are used, for example,
segmenting the target market based on the level of how “green” they are (from
uninterested to very green), taking into consideration combinations of attitudes and
behaviors (Achilleas and Anastasios: 2008). Different marketers use different
segmentation parameters as: the level of awareness that customers have regarding
organic products, if they are light or heavy buyers (Pearson, Henryks, and Jones
:2010)
As the marketers are still in the process of understanding the organic food
customers, there are also other criteria that help them in knowing their target
market, for example according to the Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability (2010)
(LOHAS), profiles were created for the customers, such as “Leaders through to
Learning, Learners and finally Laggards” (2010, p.5)
5.8. Trust Issues in the Certification and Authenticity
According to Gerrard et al (2013), the sale of organic food will only take place if the
customers believe in the products being organic and in the products` value and
benefits, more exactly, the concept of trust. But being a relatively new category of
customers and because marketers are still in the process of knowing their organic
food target market as how Pearson Henryks, and Jones (2010) stated, still finding
the most effective way of segmentation, building trust is something in the process
of making. More exactly, according to Clarke et al (2008), as a so-called “credence
good” (2008,p.730), this category of food is susceptible to skepticism and the
customers show lack of trust due to the fact that they have no direct means to
verify if the goods are truly organic and moreover, are a variety of certification.
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Also, as how Eden et al. (2008b) explain, another issue regarding the customers in
UK is that they support the principle of certifications but are again skeptical in
terms of the level of assurance it offers. Moreover, as how Yiridoe et al (2005)
explains, a study showed that the customers prefer the products that are produced
locally and not the imported organic food, but on the other hand, according to
Green (2004), 60% of the organic products sold are produced in the UK are the
remaining 40% is imported, so this can become a barrier for the marketers.
In
addition, according to Gerrard et al (2013), after a focus group research has been
proved that the authenticity of the organic food was indeed an issue, most of the
participants being unaware that a certification system exists, and being under the
impression that the organic food sector is not regulated and that anyone can place
the organic label on their products, also several of the participants feeling that
organic is a marketing tool.
5.9. Big Retailers and Home Delivery: Fierce Competition for Farmer`s Shops
and Farmer`s Market
Moreover, according to the Soil Association (Organic Market Report: 2013), the
leaders in the UK organic market in the 2011, 2012 are the big retailers, followed
by home delivery/mail order and by the farm shops and farmer`s markets, making
it even more difficult for farmers and for independent retailers to sale their products
having as competitors the convenience of the big supermarkets and that of ordering
online.
In addition, another relevant information offered by the Soil Association (Organic
Market Report:2013 ) is that, , customers prefer branded products rather than own
labeled products, representing an advantage for the big retailers, which can use
their reputation and their already built trust to sell the products and, on the other
hand, declining the sales of own label products, assumingly because of the
certification, authenticity and trust issues. The result can be seen in the fact that
the braded sales increased by 2.2%, while the own-label sales declined by 11.2%
(Soil Association:2013).
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As can be seen in the Figure 7, the shares in the organic food market in the 20042012 period show that the market leaders are the big retailers, but even though
their sales are decreasing over time, the online sales are boosting from 2.6% in
2004 to 10.6% in 2012, representing competition for the multiple retailers and not
only.
Fig7. Share of the UK organic market 2004-2012, Soil Association (2013)
5.10. Ocado: A Striking Success Story and a Considerable Competitor
According to Ocado`s Annual Report and Accounts (2011) and to Soil Association
Market Report (2013), Ocado online grocery store is the market leader from all the
big retailers, representing of course a fierce competition in the organic food sector
for retailers such as Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, etc. Their success, as how the
Chie Executive , Steiner (2012) explains in the Annual Report and Accounts (2011),
is the result of their ability to react fast to the changes in the market place, more
exactly, the awareness of the online benefits, as can be seen in Figure 8.
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Fig 8. Improved Range and Price drives Channel Shift, Ocado Annual Report and
Accounts (2011).
Figure 8 shows the best example of how this retailer saw the advantages of the
online selling and transformed them into an improved shopping experience, saving
a very important element nowadays, the time, while offering a wide range of
products. In addition, as can be seen in Figure 9, in the year 2012, Ocado was the
sales leader, even though, as can be seen in the Figure 10, the brand was not the
leader in having own labeled products. But the strategy they adapted (Ocado`s
Annual Report and Accounts :2011), moving from the store selling to offering next
day delivery for a wide variety of products, good service, convenient , matching the
competitors` prices, proved to bring excellent results, representing an important
competitor.
Fig 9. Organic sales online. Soil Asociation (2013)
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Fig 10. Own-label share of organic sales 2012. Soil Association (2013)
5.11. How the Big Retailers Responded to the Growth in Demand
As can be seen in the Figure 11, according to the Food Industrial Management
Program (2010), there is an increasing demand over time for the organic food, fact
that demands the retailers and the marketers to research their new target market
and to find strategies that offers them trust.
Fig 11. Sales of organic fruits and vegetables 1990-2000 (Food Industrial
Management Program :2000)
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As a result to the demand growth, as can be seen in the Figure 12, the conventional
retailers adapted and have been offering a wider range of organic products along
time, in the year 2000 offering the same range as the natural products retailers in
order to satisfy the customer`s demands and not to be left behind.
Fig 12. Share of organic sales by venue. Natural Food Merchandizer (2010)
6. What Marketers Need To Do to Adapt
6.1. Market Research
6.1a. The Consumers` Motivation in Purchasing Organic Food. A Means-End Approach
According to Zanoli and Naspetti (2002), there is a means-ends approach to the
purchasing of organic food, more exactly, the customers “think about product
characteristics or attributes in terms of personal consequences. These may be
perceived as positive (benefits) or negative (risks)” (2002, p.644). For a better
understanding see Figure 4.
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Fig.4 Means-End Approach (Gutman: 1982)
As the customers are proved to associate their personal experiences so much to the
purchasing of an actual product as the research made by Zanoli and Naspetti
(2002) showed, a recommendation made to the marketers in order to keep up with
the changes, is to follow the customers` demands and the actual eating trends, in
an ethical way, and the best way to do this is by being as involved as possible to
the target market.
Also, in order for the marketers to find a way of creating their strategies and their
products/services with a higher chance of satisfaction is with the help and
participation of the customers. More exactly, as explained by Mittal (1989) and
Smith & Carsky (1996), a way to do this is by using the either the Co-Production
theory (see Fig. 3), The Information System Development (ISD) (Schwalbe :2010)
or the Relationship Management (see Fig.1), models that are already used in the
other industries and sectors, proving to be successful.
In addition, to complete the theory, Figures 5 and 6 will show the values that
represent the most important motivations of why consumers buy and do not buy
organic food.
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Fig.5 Hierarchical value map of positive ladders of the regular consumers, Zanoli
and Naspetti (2002)
Fig. 6 Hierarchical value map of negative ladders of regular consumers, Zanoli and
Naspetti (2002)
Referring to the reasons of why customers buy or do not buy organic food, another
recommendation for the marketers is to focus on the market research in order to
know better their customers in terms of the reasons of purchasing, the decision
making process and the associations made with the purchasing. with the aim of an
more effective targeting.
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6.1.b The Concept of Ethical Self Identity Association
Also, a similar way that justifies the customers` motivation of buying organic food
is the one related to the concept of ethical self-identity and the importance people
attribute to health issues and food concerns and can be seen in Figure 7. In
addition, according to Dimitri and Green (2002) the organic food customers want to
benefit of the healthy attributes without giving up to the pleasure of life, being the
taste, challenging the marketers in offering organic products for the best affordable
prices, having a good variety and which taste good as well.
Fig 7. The process of purchasing organic food, Michaelidou and Hassan (2011)
This information is relevant for marketers because it shows again that they must
know their relatively new (Olson, Grunert:1999) and in developing process target
market by market research, in order to target them more efficiently as explained
above and also in order to adapt and find a successful strategy.
6.2. Build Trust
Referring to the trust issues in the certification and authenticity that the customers
that marketers face currently in the organic food sector, a recommendation is the
built that trust for a long-term period in order to reassure the customers that
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paying extra justifies the value and benefits of the goods and of course their
authenticity.
6.3. Find New and Appropriate Segmentation Criteria
As explained above in the report regarding the segmentation criteria, marketers still
do not know the organic food customers entirely and the segment is still in a
process of being entered in the most effective ways. Also, taking into consideration
that already some different segmentation criteria have been created for this
market, such as “how green a customer is “(Achilleas and Anastasios: 2008), the
level of awareness they have about organic food, if they are heavy or light users
(Pearson, Henryks, and Jones :2010) or different profiles were created (Lifestyle of
Health and Sustainability), a recommendation is that marketers should keep on
creating segmentation criteria and make research regarding which of them are less
or more effective.
6.4. Provide Customers with a Wider Variety of Products (Big Retailers)
As seen in Fig. 11, the sales of organic food from the year 1990 until year 2000
increased considerably (Food Industrial Management Program: 2010). Also, as seen
in Fig. 12, the big retailers have the same share of sales as the natural products
retailers in the year 2000, but at the moment, in the year 2013, the leader in the
organic food sector is the online supermarket, Ocado (Soil Association Market
Report :2013). Based on this information, a recommendation for the marketers is
to be aware of the Ocado`s striking success story and try to provide customers with
a wider variety of products in the supermarkets, as the demand is in growth (Soil
Association Market Report: 2013) and on top, to create special offers for the
organic products and have them advertised on their official websites in a way that
is easy to notice and in a way that attracts the customer`s attention regarding their
benefits.
Moreover, taking into consideration that depending on the seller, the organic food
price can be from a few pence more, up to 50% more than non-organic food
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(Murray –White: 2013), another recommendation for the big retailers is to try to
offer in the possible limitations, prices that are not up to 50% more than regular
food products, but slightly more expensive, more exactly affordable. In addition, it
is recommended to the marketers to make efforts to both stock organic and locallygrown produce, and to become more sustainable and ethical.
6.5. A Heavier and Better Directed Promotion
According to NutraIngredients Official Website (2013), a research conducted by
Pearson, a lecturer from the School of Marketing and Management, University of
New England, NSW, showed that health, quality and the impact of environment are
the most common reason of purchasing amongst the organic food customers, so
the recommendation for the marketers is to focus on these core areas when
promoting their organic products.
7. Conclusion
The organic food sector is stated to be in an increased growth (Soil Association
Report: 2013) and given the fact that is still a relatively new sector (Pearson,
Henryks, and Jones: 2010), the marketers have to find new ways of creating their
strategy and develop new skills in order to target this segment efficiently. As
presented in the report, the big retailers have been increasing their sales of organic
food, compering to the past situation when the natural products retailers were
leading the industry. Currently, there are some changes in the organizations’
marketing strategies, like providing a wider variety of products and finding new
segmentation criteria, but there are still many other aspects that need to be
adapted, such as a deeper involvement of the customers (Relationship Marketing
(RM), Co-Production or The Information System Development (ISD), building a
better trusts regarding the organic certification and authenticity, an even wider
range of products, better promotion, etc.
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Appendices:
1. SWOT Analysis
POLITICAL
-market environmental regulations on
agriculture/ organic food
-trade agreements, tariffs or restrictions
-taxes
-the type of government (democratic,
communist, dictatorship, etc.)
-Health and Food Ministry departments
ECONOMIC
-recession
-interest rates
-inflation
-currency rate
-GDP
-home nation economy level
-overall industrial market shares
-trading policies
-competition
- employment
-ratio of people preferring to eat out
SOCIAL
-cultural differences
-Lifestyle eating trends
-demographics
-consumer attitudes and opinions
regarding the organic food
-consumers buying patterns
-consumer behavior
- fashion and role models
-ethnic/religious factors
-advertising and publicity
-ethical issues
-changings in the demand of organic
food
-education and career trends
TEHNOLOGICAL
- competing technology development
(online channel , mobile apps)
-the producing/distribution/procurement
maturity and capacityreduce wastage ,
lower costs
-information and communication
-technology access, licensing, patents
-consumer buying
mechanisms/technology
-technological level of innovation and
quality
LEGAL
- various laws and legislation
(agriculture)
-public health and safety
- organic certification ( needed in order
to sell organic food)
- annual/random inspections
ENVIRONMENTAL
- climate
-weather
-ecological balance
-level of pollution
-farming
-pest management
26