What Motivates Consumers to Buy Organic Food: Comparison of Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, and Slovenia

Abstract

Knowing consumers' wishes is an important condition for making an efficient sales concept.

The goal of this article is to determine the consumer attitudes about organic food, their buying motives, and satisfaction with the offer of organic food products in the markets of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Slovenia. Comparing data collected for three countries will give insight into common and specific characteristics of these markets. Data were collected using consumer survey of organic food in three capitals (Sarajevo, Zagreb and Ljubljana).

Respondents in all three countries have a positive attitude toward organic food. The most important motives for buying organic food products in Croatia and Slovenia are the health value of organic food and care for the environment, and in Bosnia Herzegovina it is the idea of return to nature, health value and safety of organic food products.

In many characteristics there are no significant differences among consumers in these markets. Similarities among consumers and their geographic vicinity make it possible to create similar marketing strategies for organic food products in these markets. That is especially important for large organic food producers since these are relatively small markets.

KEYWORDS:

• Survey
• organic food
• consumers
• motivation
• satisfaction