Organic Marketing

MODULE VI

INFLUENCING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
(weeks 11 and 12)

MODULE OVERVIEW

Introduction

The truism that "consumer is king" has been stated a number of times throughout this course manual, and with good reason and intent. It is the fundamental underpinning to the operation of the open market system, and therefore constant focus on it is critical to the successful management of agri-food sector businesses. It is nevertheless possible for businesses to take certain management measures that can influence consumer behaviour. For all organically-produced commodities (OPCs), it goes without saying that certification requirements must be fully met and so stated on so-called generic labels. Beyond that, individual producers and marketers of OPCs can employ branding and labelling, together with advertising and promotion programmes, as means of manipulating consumer purchasing decisions to the advantage of their business. Branding and labelling are important tools for identifying a specific product with a particular business, and can be used for establishing customer loyalty, gaining market share, and other goals. Advertising and promotion programmes, used in conjunction with branding, can further advance the achievement of such business goals. In addition to producers and processors of OPCs helping themselves, governments in Canada could do much to assist the organic agri-food sector in taking fullest advantage of OPC consumer growth in both domestic and export markets.