Vision
To be a leader in organic food products that are safe, healthy, readily available at reasonable prices
Mission
The mission of the organic food product organization is to create trust and confidence of consumers in local organic products produced in Thai Nguyen City. Sustainable and community-based production will be maintained to enhance the socio-economic and health conditions of the area.
Executive summary
In recent consumer feedback sessions, consumers expressed their preference for the healthy, safe and environmentally friendly properties of organic food. In surveys, consumers have also cited the high, competitive prices of organic food as lower than conventional food.
And they mainly buy these products at supermarkets and organic food stores. Other distribution channels are of little interest to them.
To create trust and confidence of consumers in local organic products produced and to best serve the needs of consumers in Thai Nguyen city, we need to build a plan that organic food products can be widely known and sold at a reasonable price.
Current Marketing situation
The emergence of organic food began in the mid-2000s, more natural than conforming to the standards of international organic food organizations such as IFOAM etc, and not from domestic market, but for the export market. Most of the organic food products are extracted from nature, with products such as spices, honey, essential oils, herbs, tea and organic vegetables of Ecolink Company, Hanoi. Oganic (Vietnam Association of Safe Agriculture).
Then, stemming from the "fear" of consumers with unsafe food in the Vietnamese market, manufacturers had to find a new direction for organic food.
The organic food market is at a relatively rapid and stable development stage. Because, organic food is considered a safe product for health, environmentally friendly, etc. However, the organic food market is going through a difficult period due to several reasons, such as:
lack of production standards, many fake certified organic products, difficult consumers and even retailers product origin, difficult to understand the production process, etc.
Market Description
Thai Nguyen is a city directly under Thai Nguyen province, located in the dynamic economic development area of Thai Nguyen province (including Song Cong city and Pho Yen town), is a long-standing industrial center with Gang Thep industry center.
Thai Nguyen city has a total population of 340,403 people with 102,964 households.
Thai Nguyen city ranked 7th out of 18 grade 1 urban center directly under the province in terms of population size. The city has 249,004 people residing in urban areas, accounting for 73% of the total population: 91,399 live in rural areas, accounting for 27% of the city's total population (Thai Nguyen Provincial Statistics Office, 2020).
Because organic food is considered a safe, healthy, and environmentally friendly product, the market for this product in Thai Nguyen City has initially developed rapidly, strongly, and stably. Thai Nguyen's organic food market is mainly organic food, vegetables, meat, and fruits, with an estimated consumption of 210 tons/year in 2020 (Economic Department of Thai Nguyen City, 2020).
Many stores and supermarkets are distributing organic food in Thai Nguyen city.
However, consuming these products is concentrated in supermarkets such as Minh Cau supermarket, VinMart (Vincom), Thanh Do, Lan Chi mart. The total organic food market value of the five supermarkets in Thai Nguyen city is nearly VND 200 billion/year and accounts for most organic food consumption market share (approximately 52% of the total market value). Besides, consumer spending on health in Thai Nguyen city is showing signs of increasing, averaging over 5% of income, especially up to 47% of consumers in Thai Nguyen city are increasingly interested in healthy, fresh, and natural food products (Thai Nguyen Provincial Statistics Office, 2020).
Product review
Organic food is grown according to strict procedures and tests to provide a safe food source for consumers.
In the production process, no synthetic chemicals are used.
Organic food has sustainable value in agriculture and contributes to the protection of human living environment.
Organic food production requires an ecosystem that is qualified and verified through 600 different criteria in terms of soil, water source, geographical location, and influencers from organic organizations. world.
Products that meet organic standards will be printed with certification stamps of global organic organizations on the packaging.
Competitive Review
The emergence of lower-priced products, including conventional food and safety food, have increased competitive pressure. Key competitive products include the following:
Safety food products. The emergence of the concept of "safety food products" began in the 90s of the last century. There are assessment standards for food safety such as Viet Gaps, Global gaps, etc. Safety food is censored according to a process that is not as rigorous as that of organic food. Therefore, these products often have lower price than organic food products.
Conventional food products. Conventional food product is not certified by quality control organizations. They are usually sold in regular markets (not sold in supermarkets or organic stores, clean food stores). However, they have lower prices and better designs than organic food products.
Clean food products. Clean food products are produced in a natural way, still using chemicals in the farming process but ensuring enough time to harvest according to regulations. These products do not have safety or organic certifications of national and international organizations. Therefore, they are sold at a lower than organic food products.
And they have lower quality than the organic food products.
Channel review
Organic food products will be distributed through a network of retailers. Some of the most important channels are as follows:
Producers will display organic food products in stores.
Supermarkets will both carry organic food products in stores and online.
Organic food specialty stores will both carry organic products in stores and online.
Organic Farms will produce and carry organic food in farms and online.
Online retailers: Social network such as Facebook, Zalo, Tiktok, etc will carry organic food products and, for a promotional fee, will give organic food prominent placement on its page during the introduction.
Initially, the channel strategy will focus on the Thai Nguyen city; according to demand, we plan expand into others city, towns in Thai Nguyen province.
Strengths, Weakness, Oppotunities, and Threat Analysis Strengths
Organic food industry in Thai Nguyen City can build six important strengths:
1. Many agricultural farms in Thai Nguyen City
2. Organic food products are healthy option for convention food.
3. Safety food products offering 4. Protection of the environment
5. Food products contain more vitamins and minerals 6. Products do not contain preservatives or artificial colors Weakness
Organic food industry in Thai Nguyen City has five main weaknesses:
1. Price of organic food product is not competitive
2. Low education level of farmers to fully carry out organic farming.
3. Farmers have little experience in this field.
4. Poor quality management in production.
5. Farms are subdivided into small sizes, and most are not using good technology.
Opportunities
Organic food industry in Thai Nguyen city can take advantage of seven major oppotunities:
1. Government supports for organic farming.
2. Big and growing market potential
3. People awareness of the value of organic food products 4. People start to care more about their health.
5. Availability of free internet advertising.
6. Availability of organic specialty stores.
7. People's income increases thereby increasing purchasing power Threats
Organic food industry in Thai Nguyen city faces five main threats:
1. The organic food industry is very new in Thai Nguyen City.
2. High cost of organic food product
3. Costly and complex organic certification process 4. Lack of infrastructure facilities and certification bodies
5. Consumers lack of trust of Viet Nam certification for organic food product.
Objectives and Issues
- To improve patronage of organic food products - To improve on the organic agriculture
- To care about consumers’ health, and provide them with good food products that have no chemical involve.
- To improve the environment
Marketing Strategies Product strategies
Packaging. The products will be placed in packaging that will retain their freshness.
Providing factual health information on product packaging to capture the attention of these consumers, such as detailing the ingredients of more heart-healthy organic foods, nutritional fatty acid concentration, types of vitamins, fiber, antioxidant content, etc. These are the information that health-conscious consumers want to put in the product. However, they don't always search on their own.
Product quality. Diversifying products and improving the quality of organic food products that supermarkets sell. It can be done by: (1) increasing the number of product lines from organic farms with prestigious international accreditation certificates from Japan (JAS) and the USA (USDA, NSF); (2) strictly controlling the quality of products imported into the supermarket by tracing the origin.
Production ans supply of Organic Products. Producers should explore vertical farming such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics in order to have uninterrupted supply of vegetables and other crops.
Pricing strategies
Prices will be a reasonable level. To implement the price policy according to the goal of
"taking the top position in terms of quality". With this goal, enterprises set high prices to cover the extra costs to have good quality products. On the other hand, using the relationship between price and quality affects customers' perception of the quality of goods.
Distribution strategies
In term of Thai Nguyen consumers, they prefer the supermarket, followed by social internet and organic food specialty stores to buy organic food product. The major reason for this is the convenience and high quality they offer. In addition, selling organic food on the Internet is also highly recommended, since a lot of consumers prefer to buy organic food on the social internet. Data shows that the effect of unavailability barrier tends to be least among these consumers. Vietnamese organic food producers should focus on these sales channels to meet consumers’ needs.
Promotion strategies
The main ways for the respondents to know a new food product are shopping in the supermarket or vegetable market, family and friends’ recommendations TV and internet advertisements. It is necessary to increase consumers’ knowledge of organic food and develop positive attitudes towards organic food through variable channels (e.g. in store-ads, TV, newspapers, magazines, and websites). In addition, marketers could take advantage of the word of mouth marketing to inform consumers about the benefits and accessibility of organic food.
Budgets
Table 1. Marketing budgets
Marketing Strategies Timeline Budget (million VND)
Develop an online sales channel Yearly 500
Open more organic food store Yearly 500
Increase advertising through social media. Monthly 60
Improving the quality of organic food product. Yearly 300 Strengthen propaganda about the benefits of organic food Monthly 20
Linking organic food stores Yearly 100
Action programs
Organic food stores community. Organic small holder stores face problems due to their limited resources. Organic small holder stores in Thai Nguyen City can be characterized by having small store ownership, few variety and small quantity, low capital and poor government support. Therefore they face difficulty to meet consumers’ demand. To overcome the problems, organic small holder stores should join in a organic food stores community.
Within this community, they will have advantages such as to widen the market, knowledge sharing, trust building and create attractive event. By joining this community, organic food store will have wider market. In a group, owners collaborate together to meet the demand in terms of variety and quantity.
Advertising campain. We will build a website about organic food in Thai Nguyen city.
The website will provide complete information about products (such as product categories, product characteristics, etc.) and information about organic food suppliers. After that, we will add videos that showcase the outstanding properties of organic food that conventional products do not have. Besides, social networking sites such as Facebook, zalo, etc will be used to bring information about this product to consumers.
Self-controlling. Farmers will organize their extension network or employ their extension staff to be responsible for other non-perishable products, which are often harvested once a year. Producers will plan their production to reduce the problem of over-supply and unnecessary competition among organic producers.
Packaging. Producers will pack products with friendly materials. In addition to minimizing negative impacts on the environment, using eco-friendly packaging will help
to support brand promotion campaigns to consumers better. The types of environmentally friendly packaging will be used such as fully biodegradable bags, reusable paper bags, banana leaves.
Controls
We are planning strict controls to closely monitor the quality and consumers' behavior for organic food products. This will allow us to react very quickly to fix any problems that may arise. Other early warning signals that will be monitored for signs of deviation from plan include sales and expenses (monthly, quaterly, yearly). With market volatility, we are developing contingency plans to deal with rapid environmental changes, such as new competition, new policies, etc.
Họ và tên NCS: Dương Thị Thuý Hương
Tên đề tài luận án Tiến sĩ: Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến ý định mua sản phẩm thực phẩm hữu cơ của người tiêu dùng thành phố Thái Nguyên: Cơ sở cho một kế hoạch marketing.
Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh
Người hướng dẫn khoa học: TS. Rowena Monzo Libo – On
Đơn vị liên kết đào tạo: Trường ĐH Kinh tế & QTKD – ĐH Thái Nguyên Đơn vị cấp bằng: Đại học Central Philippine
Chương trình đào tạo: Chương trình Tiến sĩ Quản trị kinh doanh và Quản trị Công liên kết giữa Đại học Thái Nguyên và Đại học Central Philippine
NHỮNG KẾT QUẢ MỚI CỦA LUẬN ÁN
- Dựa trên các lý thuyết về ý định và hành vi người tiêu dùng, nghiên cứu đã xây dựng được mô hình gồm 7 nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến ý định mua sản phẩm thực phẩm hữu cơ của người tiêu dùng trên địa bàn thành phố Thái Nguyên, đó là thái độ, chuẩn chủ quan, kiểm soát hành vi, sự quan tâm đến sức khoẻ, sự quan tâm đến môi trường, niềm tin và giá.
- Kiểm định được mô hình nghiên cứu và tìm ra ý nghĩa của sáu nhân tố là thái độ, chuẩn chủ quan, kiểm soát hành vi, sự quan tâm tới sức khỏe, sự quan tâm đến môi trường và giá của thực phẩm hữu cơ.
- Nghiên cứu đã hoàn thiện các thang đo của các nhân tố cho phù hợp với đặc điểm của phạm vi nghiên cứu. Đặc biệt, nghiên cữu đã phát triển thang đo mới cho nhân tố “sự quan tâm tới sức khoẻ” dựa trên phỏng vấn sâu người tiêu dùng và chuyên gia. Và kết quả kiểm định giả thuyết đã cho thấy đây là yếu tố quan trọng thúc đẩy ý định mua sản phẩm thực phẩm hữu cơ của người tiêu dùng trên địa bàn TP Thái Nguyên.
- Nghiên cứu cho thấy có sự khác biệt đáng kể về ý định mua sản phẩm thực phẩm hữu cơ giữa các nhóm người có đặc điểm nhân khẩu học khác nhau.
- Từ cơ sở phân tích các nhân tố, nghiên cứu đã xây dựng một kế hoạch marketing chi tiết giúp các nhà kinh doanh thực phẩm hữu cơ có chiến lược marketing hiệu quả hơn trong tương lai.
KHẢ NĂNG ỨNG DỤNG TRONG THỰC TIỄN VÀ NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ BỎ NGỎ CẦN TIẾP TỤC NGHIÊN CỨU
* Khả năng ứng dụng trong thực tiễn:
- Việc hiểu rõ các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến ý định mua hàng đối với sản phẩm thực phẩm hữu cơ sẽ giúp người sản xuất có định hướng sản xuất đúng đắn và phù hợp với nhu cầu thực tế của người tiêu dùng. Đồng thời, giúp các nhà sản xuất chuyển đổi từ sản xuất thực phẩm thông thường sang thực phẩm hữu cơ một cách nhanh chóng và hiệu quả hơn.
- Các cơ quan quản lý/ngành Nông nghiệp sẽ tìm hiểu cách nhìn nhận của người tiêu dùng về sản phẩm hữu cơ dựa trên kết quả của nghiên cứu. Từ đó, họ có thể đưa ra các chương trình phát triển cho ngành sản xuất thực phẩm hữu cơ tại các thị trấn/thành phố.
* Những vấn đề bỏ ngỏ cần tiếp tục nghiên cứu:
- Đưa thêm các nhân tố khác vào mô hình để nghiên cứu sự tác động của chúng tới ý định mua thực phẩm hữu cơ.
- Mở rộng địa bàn nghiên cứu trên phạm vi địa lý rộng hơn.
Nghiên cứu sinh (Ký và ghi rõ họ tên)
Dương Thị Thuý Hương
INFORMATION OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Full name of Ph.D student: Duong Thi Thuy Huong
Dissertation title: Factors affecting purchase intention for organic food products among consumers in Thai Nguyên City: Basis for a marketing plan.
Major: Business Adminisstration
Scientific Supervisor(s): Dr. Rowena Monzo Libo – On
Training Location: Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration Degree Granting Institution: Central Philippine University
Training Program: The Joint Doctoral Degree Program in Business Management and Public Management between Central Philippine University and Thai Nguyen University
THE NEW SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS
- Based on the theories of consumer intention and behavior, the research proposed a model of 7 factors affecting the intention to buy organic food products of consumers in Thai Nguyen city, Viet Nam including attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, health concern, environmental concern, trust, and price.
- The research model was tested and the significance of six factors was found including attitude, subjective norm perceived behavioral control, health concern, environmental concern, and the price of organic food.
- The research completed the scales of factors to match with characteristics of the research scope. Specifically, the research developed a new scale for the factor of ‘health concern’ based on in-depth interviews with consumers and experts. Results of hypothesis testing also indicated that this factor plays a crucial role in promoting the intention of consumers to buy organic food products in Thai Nguyen city.
- The study showed that there are significant differences in purchase intention when consumers are grouped accorrding to their profile.
- From the basis of factor analysis, the research proposed a detailed marketing plan to provide organic food traders with more effective marketing strategies for their future business.
PRACTICAL APPLICABILITY AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
* Practical applicability:
- Understanding factors affecting consumers' purchase intention for organic food products will help businesses to have the proper production orientation to match the needs of consumers. Simultaneously, it allows manufacturers to switch from conventional food production to organic food more quickly and efficiently.
consumers view and assess organic products. They can come up with programs in their towns/cities to develop organic food production.
* Recommendations for further studies:
- Other factors should be added to the model to study their impacts on the intention to buy organic food.
- The research area should be expanded to a broader geographical area.
DM student
(Signature and Full name)
Duong Thi Thuy Huong