Effects of Availability of Organic Food

Products on Consumer Choice for Fast

Moving Goods in Nairobi
NAME: ERIC MWAI
REG NO.:

1. Problem Statement

Consumers report price, quality and availability of a product as having the

greatest impact on their choice for goods

Availability influences price; and variety of products allow customers to

choose among varied qualities of the product.

Availability of organic food products has been identified as a critical factor

that influences choice of the products (Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2002).

The problem is that how availability of fast moving organic food products in
supermarkets affects consumer choice is understood differently between
consumers and the supermarkets

The question of whether consumers choose fast moving organic food products
because of their availability or not, remains largely unanswered.

How exactly availability of organic food products affects consumer choice for
fast moving goods remains unclear and an area that requires examination

2. Research Objectives

To examine buyer behaviour towards fast moving organic food products in the
supermarkets in Nairobi;

To examine effects of pricing of the fast moving organic food products in

supermarket shelves on consumer choice to purchase them;

To study consumer awareness about availability of fast moving organic food

products.

3. Research Questions

How do buyers behave towards fast moving organic food products in the
supermarkets in Nairobi?

What are the effects of pricing of the fast moving organic food products in
supermarket shelves on consumer choice to purchase them?

Are consumers aware of availability of their preferred fast moving organic

food products?

4. Significance of the Study

The study seeks to contribute the following:-

Will contribute to literature on marketing of green products for sustainability

of environment and better health for populations

It will highlight both positive and negative effects to help in correct and
informed decision making by consumers and supermarket management

This will give insights into the impacts of certain business practices by
supermarkets on consumer choices.

The study will contribute to knowledge concerning consumer choices of

various fast moving organic products in Kenya and will give insights to help
producers of the customer preferred products to improve production.

It will also help improve understanding into aspects of product shelf

availability in relation to supermarket business strategies versus market
availability of the products.

5. Theory

This research is based on rational choice theory of consumer economics;

Rational choice theory assumes that an individual has preferences among the
accessible choice options that permit them to state which alternative they
favour (Lohmann, 2008);

These preferences are thought to be complete (the individual can simply say
which of two options they consider best or that nor is preferred to the next)
and transitive (if alternative A is preferred over B and B is preferred over
choice C, then A is preferred over C (McCarthy & Chaudhary, 2014)

According to the theory, agents settle on utilization decisions in order to

maximize their happiness, or utility (Lohmann, 2008).

Contemporary theory constructs rational decision in light of an arrangement

of decision axioms that should be fulfilled, and normally does not indicate
where the objective (preferences, desires) originates from (FernndezHuerga, 2008).

6. Literature Review

Buyer Behaviour towards Availability of Organic Food Products;

Previous studies indicate that consumers see organic food products as free of
contamination and with great health and environmental benefits (Gracia & de Magistris,
2013; Lee & Yun, 2015; Paul & Rana, 2012).

Organically produced food products are regarded as solution to food quality issues in
spite of lack of scientific research to prove the perspective (Gracia & de Magistris,
2013);

The belief in health benefits influence the considerations of prices (Paul & Rana, 2012).

Pricing, Price Sensitivity and Quality

Pricing and price manipulations is have been found to result in low consumption of unhealthy food and lead to rise in demand for healthy food products (Gottschalk &
Leistner, 2013).

Previous literature identifies high cost of organic food products as the main reason that
inhibits consumers from buying them (Aschemann-Witzel & Zielke, 2015).

Generally, most consumers are unwilling to spend more than 10% of the standard
product price (McEachern & Mcclean, 2002).

Consumer Awareness of Availability of Organic Food Products

In spite of the information available in the media, consumers are mostly

inadequately informed about organic products and their ranges of quality (Yiridoe,
Bonti-Ankomah, & Martin, 2005).

Wier and colleagues found out that consumers may have greater confidence in
product if they get information about place of origin of the food product on the
package (Weir, et al., 2012).

. Consumer knowledge on availability regarding food product is important in

influencing product choices (Gottschalk & Leistner, 2013).

Dimensions of food availability have been identified in literature to include

availability of food products (Grunert, Hieke, & Wills, 2014), consumer awareness
of availability of certain qualities of particular food products (Gottschalk &
Leistner, 2013), consumer awareness of availability in terms of product brands and
packages (Lassoued & Hobbs, 2015), availability in terms of product price ranges
(Mayfield, et al., 2016), among others;

Gottschalk and Leistner (2013) found out that consumers were more interested in
locally-grown food products and in simple comparison between organic and nonorganic food products. But did not specify if the consumer interest was on fast
moving food products or not.

Bravo and colleagues ). found out that availability of organic food influences
consumers altruistic behaviours that determine the choice (Bravo, et al.,
2013)

Research Gaps

Inadequate connection between consumer choice of organic food products

and product availability.

Most efforts in previous literature address availability generally and are not
clear on its effects on consumers choice.

This research seeks to address effects of various facets of availability in

respect to market, supermarket business schemes and strategies and in the
light of customer preferences. It will focus on fast moving organic food
products.

7. Conceptual Framework

8. Methodology

Questionnaire survey research design will be used; reason method is relatively

easy use and data easy to analyse; large sample of the given population can be
contacted at relatively low cost; they are simple to administer; and that the
format is familiar to most respondents.

The target population for the study will be consumers drawn from Nakumatt,
Tuskys, Uchumi and Naivas.

Random sampling will be used and will compose of 20 respondents drawn from
each of the supermarkets in Nairobi. Reason random sampling will be used due to
ease of assembling the sample. It is also fair way of selecting a sample from the
population since every consumer is given equal opportunities of being selected.

Both primary and secondary data will be collected in the study. Primary data will
be obtained from questionnaire responses while secondary data will be obtained
from sources such as organizational publications, internet sources, reports etc.

5-point Likert scale rating will be used to transform responses to scalable

quantities to ease analysis.

Data will be both quantitative and qualitative. Reasons for use of quantitative
methods are that they are standardized, making them effective in comparing
research findings with similar studies. Additionally, they allow researchers to
summarize vast sources of data. Qualitative methods reliable and valid
because they employ prescribed procedures.

Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive statistics in SPSS to

obtain mean, standard deviations, frequencies etc.

Qualitative data will be analyzed using inferential statistics as well as content

analysis approaches

Ethical guidelines of research will be observed. Data will be used solely for
research purposes and necessary consents will be obtained from authorities.