This report pertains to an analysis performed by Diligent Consulting Group for Loving Organic Foods’ venture. It aimed at determining the source of the idea which arose the motivation to boost customers’ habits of making purchases.
The major market segment of customers was identified with their purchasing frequency determined. It was established that customers who lie within different age-groups have been purchasing organic foods for over three months from the business venture. Their motives for purchasing particular items vary from one person to another. The rising need to establish the source of customers’ motivation to make purchases prompted Loving Organic Foods to survey 200 clients who previously made organic foods purchases, and 124 clients who responded had their age data randomly recorded. The survey targeted past clients of Loving Organic Foods who had made purchases in the preceding quarter of marketing.
Organic Food Industry Description
Organic food is seen as a healthy product which will avail more nutritious substances and create little harm to the consumer’s health. Organizations have prioritized a long-term strategy such as sustainable environment and food security to ensure a sustainable organic food supply chain (Mie et al., 2017). The rapid increase in the market for organic food products has created a positive shift in consumers’ behavior, which will require businesses to deploy better policies and decision-making techniques (Wang, Pham, & Dang, 2020). Therefore, it is important to urgently understand the consumers’ behavioral intentions and perceptions towards accessing organic food products.
Targeted Market Segment
The demand and consumption of organic food products are increasing on a daily basis. The belief in contextualizing organic food products as healthier than other conventional food products contributes to the rising demand (Brantsæter, Ydersbond, Hoppin, Haugen, & Meltzer, 2017). In 2014, the United States retail sales volume for organic food products was $35.9 billion, the largest worldwide (Brantsæter et al., 2017).
The availability of organic food products has facilitated faster growth in the segment market for these products. Past studies show how the frequency of organic food product consumption fails to follow a specific age-group but is found within the categories of older and younger adults (Brantsæter et al., 2017). Furthermore, homes which have children tend to purchase more organic food compared to those without (Brantsæter et al., 2017). Organic food products are eco-friendly, safer, healthier, cleaner, nutritious, safer, and tastier.
Consumers Lifestyles and Shopping Trend
According to Wang et al., existing perceived quality of food products affects the connection between the intention to purchase organic food products and environmental awareness (2020). Furthermore, they perceive the price as the moderating factor between the intention to purchase organic food products and the perceived quality of the food items. High income households purchase more organic foodstuff because they can easily afford them; most of the organic foods are expensive (Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen, Lobo & Vu, 2019). Therefore, the purchasing motive of organic food products by a consumer relies on the link between intention to purchase, income level, and the perceived quality of the food products.
Analysis
The analysis for this survey used Excel to analyze the age data. While performing the analysis, histograms were created to capture relevant information from the age data. The histogram’s width had age categories, for instance, 15 years, 10 years, and 5 years. Furthermore, the report performed an analysis to determine the mode, mean, and median of the age data collected by Loving Organic Foods for the survey.
Analysis Supporting the Age-groups (Bins)
The created histograms had different types of bins, which facilitated different appearance types for the age data representation. The used bins consisted of 5, 10, 15, and 20 age groups. The histogram with bins of width 20 covered a larger area under a large group, while the one with bins of width 5 covered smaller areas under a small area. Therefore, bin ranges of 10 are more suitable to create a histogram.
Grouping the bins to appear in clusters allowed the histograms to reveal the underlying patterns in them. Furthermore, the bins are appropriate for creating the histograms since the beauty of these frequency distribution charts lies within the area they cover and not the height of individual bars. The individual’s bars’ height will be wrongly assessed as showing the frequency, but not the bar’s area since histograms usually have bins that have equal spacing. Therefore, using the bins’ height fails to give a clear and correct reflection of the frequency.
Results Description
Median Age
Histograms represent data and are applicable in determining information about data distribution. Histograms provide presentations for exploratory tools since they show properties regarding a dataset to summarize the data. The histograms will enable identifying and understanding the center of the data. Chart 2 will be utilized since the bin range used to create the histogram was convenient. For instance, in Chart 2, the data center lies between 41 and 50 years of age. Therefore, the median age of customers making purchases of organic food products is approximated as 46. Therefore, the mean of the age of the customers lies between 41 and 50 years.
The Modal Age
Checking for the modal value in the created histograms with different bin ranges is possible. Chart 2 is symmetric, and a unimodal distribution since it contains a single-peaked section. But considering its appearance, the modal value lies in the class intervals 41 and 50 and approximated 46 years of age. This section is the highest peak seen from the created histogram using the bin range of 10. This high peak would suggest the age data concentrated towards higher ages.
The Minimum, Maximum and Range
Checking for the minimum, maximum, and range of age of the organic food products buyers from the chart, the analysis established the following. In Chart 2, the approximated minimum age is 25, while the approximated maximum age is 75. The approximated range will, therefore, be 50 years of age. Furthermore, the histogram in Chart 2 is right-skewed, indicating existing values that are greater than the modal value.
Recommendations
Since Chart 2 is symmetrical, right-shifted, and peaked, Loving Organic Foods should be informed of the nature of their market segment, which is consistent and it majorly favors customers of high ages. On average, those aged 45 made more purchases compared to those who were younger. Furthermore, the market distribution is even between the entire collected age data. It is recommended for Loving Organic Foods to concentrate more on attracting the younger population while maximizing and maintaining strategies geared towards meeting the needs of the older customers.
References
Brantsæter, A. L., Ydersbond, T. A., Hoppin, J. A., Haugen, M., & Meltzer, H. M. (2017). Organic food in the diet: Exposure and health implications. Annual Review of Public Health, 38(1), 295-313. Web.
Mie, A., Andersen, H. R., Gunnarsson, S., Kahl, J., Kesse-Guyot, E., Rembiałkowska, E., Quaglio, G., & Grandjean, P. (2017). Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture: A comprehensive review. Environmental Health, 16(1). 1-22. Web.
Nguyen, H., Nguyen, N., Nguyen, B., Lobo, A., & Vu, P. (2019). Organic food purchases in an emerging market: The influence of consumers’ personal factors and green marketing practices of food stores. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(6), 1037. Web.
Wang, J., Pham, T. L., & Dang, V. T. (2020). Environmental consciousness and organic food purchase intention: A moderated mediation model of perceived food quality and price sensitivity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3), 850. Web.