<p> </p><p>Ecological issues are current topics which consumers face in every-day life. The growing awareness by the consumers that they can have an impact on protection of the environment, animals and their own health is the reason of the growing market of ecological products (Kinnear, Talor and Ahmed, 1974; Polonsky, 1994). According to the Swedish consumer agency the agricultural sector had increased highly since the 1990s. Hence the companies had increased its market activities significant under the last decade (Konsumentverket, 2007).</p><p>It appears more and more that the most important aspect for competitive positioning of companies providing ecological food is to understand the factors which drive consumers to purchase ecological food products. The KRAV label appears as an essential part of market ecological food. In this context it is very interesting to identify in which degree the consumer is affected by the third-party label KRAV.</p><p>The purpose of the paper is to identify information about the ecological consumer as well as the factors that influence consumers to buy ecological food products and in this context examine the awareness and importance of ecological labels, in Jönköping County.</p><p>The thesis is limited in its geographical area because the consumer survey is done in several cities in Jönköping County. The thesis considers general the ecological food industry and does not include other ecological industries such as clothes or furniture.</p><p>By studying former surveys and conducting a previous study a survey questionnaire was developed. 102 respondents from Jönköpings County were asked to fill in this questionnaire. The collected data were evaluated with the statistical program SPSS. Analysis of variance, correlation analysis and descriptive analysis were used.</p><p>The authors have got the impression that the ecological consumer in Jönköping County is mostly female and higher educated. The most important factors that influence the consumer positively to choose the ecological products are healthiness, environmental friendliness and better taste. If products do not include pesticides and are produced “animal friendly” it also influence the consumer positive. Negative factors that influence consumers are still a too high price, unavailability and bad/no information.</p><p> </p>

<p><strong> ABSTRACT</strong></p><p>The recent years mark the appearance of many Eco-label schemes in the attempt ofhelping consumer to recognize the products with less harm to the environment, forexample: Euro flower, Nordic swan, Blue Angle, Krav. These labels belong to the thirdparties, which get supports from government with object of achieving sustainabledevelopment. However there is still lacking a clear understanding about theeffectiveness of Eco-label in consumer consumption activities due to the lack ofresearch working on that field. We take this challenge as an opportunity to do the studyof investigating about the role of Eco-label in the process of leading consumers topurchase Eco-products. The research focuses on Swedish university students‘ choice onecological food.</p><p>A number of Swedish students in Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden are selected as thegroup of respondents for this study. In order to understand the effectiveness of Eco-labelin students‘ food products choice, four key factors are taken into account to invest igate:students‘ awareness on Eco-label, students‘ knowledge on Eco-label & ecological food,students‘ environment motivation, and the availability of ecological food & Eco-labelinformation. The demographic characters including gender and education backgroundsare known as the influence factors among these four factors.</p><p>The results proved the effectiveness of Eco-label as the guiding instrument for students‘product choice towards ecological food. It provided the evidence that three of these fourfactors above (accept the only one external factors: availability) can encourage students‘attention to Eco-label. In additional, student‘s attention to Eco-label can actually leadtheir purchase behavior on ecological food. With findings and recommendations, thestudy is expected to contribute to the field of ecological consumer behavior marketingresearch. However, the representative of the results is risky because of the limitedcontext and sample of the study.</p>

ABSTRACT The recent years mark the appearance of many Eco-label schemes in the attempt ofhelping consumer to recognize the products with less harm to the environment, forexample: Euro flower, Nordic swan, Blue Angle, Krav. These labels belong to the thirdparties, which get supports from government with object of achieving sustainabledevelopment. However there is still lacking a clear understanding about theeffectiveness of Eco-label in consumer consumption activities due to the lack ofresearch working on that field. We take this challenge as an opportunity to do the studyof investigating about the role of Eco-label in the process of leading consumers topurchase Eco-products. The research focuses on Swedish university students‘ choice onecological food. A number of Swedish students in Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden are selected as thegroup of respondents for this study. In order to understand the effectiveness of Eco-labelin students‘ food products choice, four key factors are taken into account to invest igate:students‘ awareness on Eco-label, students‘ knowledge on Eco-label &amp; ecological food,students‘ environment motivation, and the availability of ecological food &amp; Eco-labelinformation. The demographic characters including gender and education backgroundsare known as the influence factors among these four factors. The results proved the effectiveness of Eco-label as the guiding instrument for students‘product choice towards ecological food. It provided the evidence that three of these fourfactors above (accept the only one external factors: availability) can encourage students‘attention to Eco-label. In additional, student‘s attention to Eco-label can actually leadtheir purchase behavior on ecological food. With findings and recommendations, thestudy is expected to contribute to the field of ecological consumer behavior marketingresearch. However, the representative of the results is risky because of the limitedcontext and sample of the study.

Ecological issues are current topics which consumers face in every-day life. The growing awareness by the consumers that they can have an impact on protection of the environment, animals and their own health is the reason of the growing market of ecological products (Kinnear, Talor and Ahmed, 1974; Polonsky, 1994). According to the Swedish consumer agency the agricultural sector had increased highly since the 1990s. Hence the companies had increased its market activities significant under the last decade (Konsumentverket, 2007). It appears more and more that the most important aspect for competitive positioning of companies providing ecological food is to understand the factors which drive consumers to purchase ecological food products. The KRAV label appears as an essential part of market ecological food. In this context it is very interesting to identify in which degree the consumer is affected by the third-party label KRAV. The purpose of the paper is to identify information about the ecological consumer as well as the factors that influence consumers to buy ecological food products and in this context examine the awareness and importance of ecological labels, in Jönköping County. The thesis is limited in its geographical area because the consumer survey is done in several cities in Jönköping County. The thesis considers general the ecological food industry and does not include other ecological industries such as clothes or furniture. By studying former surveys and conducting a previous study a survey questionnaire was developed. 102 respondents from Jönköpings County were asked to fill in this questionnaire. The collected data were evaluated with the statistical program SPSS. Analysis of variance, correlation analysis and descriptive analysis were used. The authors have got the impression that the ecological consumer in Jönköping County is mostly female and higher educated. The most important factors that influence the consumer positively to choose the ecological products are healthiness, environmental friendliness and better taste. If products do not include pesticides and are produced “animal friendly” it also influence the consumer positive. Negative factors that influence consumers are still a too high price, unavailability and bad/no information.

Background for study:The ecological trend has grown in the latest years, and earlier studies has shown that women are most likely to buy ecological food. However, becoming a mother comes with new expenses connected with the baby. The aim of this study is to investigate how women’s buying behavior changes when they become a mother and we will connect this to ecological buying behavior..Purpose:The purpose with the thesis is to find out how and why the buying behavior of food changes after becoming a mother and in what way this affect the purchasing of ecological food.Researchquestions:What are the factors affecting mothers, when deciding to buy ecological or regular food? How and why does becoming a mother change the buying behavior of food?Theoretical framework:The frame of reference contains models of the buyer decision process that leads to the purchase, and the consumer decision making model show how the characteris-tics influence the purchase. The authors also used the means-end chain model to see which attributes affects the consumer.Method:To be able to carrying out with the study, we used an qualitative approach with focus groups as our method of data collection to get a deeper understanding for the subject.Conclusions:The conclusions to be drawn from this study is that the price is still the most important factor but also the time that many participants feel that they don’t have when it comes to grocery shopping. / Bakgrund till studien:Den ekologiska trenden har vuxit de senaste åren och tidigare forskning har visat att kvinnor är den mest troliga ekologiska handlaren. Att bli förälder innebär nya kost-nader på grund av barnet, målet med denna studie är att undersöka om kvinnors köpbeteende ändras när de blir mamma, med hänsyn av ekologiskt köpbeteende.Syfte:Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta reda på hur och varför köpbeteendet av mat förändras när man min blir mamma och på vilket sätt detta påverkar köpandet av ekologisk mat.Frågeställningar:Vilka faktorer påverkar mammor i deras beslut om att köpa ekologisk eller vanlig mat? Hur och varför påverkas köpbeteendet av att man blir mamma?Teoretiskt ramverk: Den teoretiska referensramen innehåller modeller av köparens beslutsprocess som leder till köp, och köpbe-slutsprocessen visar vilka egenskaper som påverkar köpet. Författarna använder sig utav means end chain modellen för att se vilka attribut som påverkar konsumenten?Metod:För att kunna genomföra denna studie använde vi oss utav en kvalitativ metod med fokusgrupper som vår datainsamlingsmetod.Slutsatser:Slutsatserna man kan dra ifrån studien är att priset fortfarande är den viktigaste påverkningsfaktorn men även tid som många av mammorna kände att de inte hade när det kommer till mathandlande.

Bakgrund: En marknad för ekologiska livsmedel har vuxit fram bland annat genom att konsumenter vill vara med och bidra till att skydda miljön. Flertalet livsmedelsbutiker har idag ekologiska livsmedel på sina butikshyllor, men långt ifrån alla kunder väljer att köpa dessa. Därför kan det vara en utmaning för dagligvaruhandeln att framgångsrikt marknadsföra det ekologiska sortimentet.Syfte: Syftet med den här studien är att ta reda på hur dagligvaruhandeln arbetar för att marknadsföra det ekologiska sortimentet. Därutöver ska denna studie utreda kring de drivkrafter och hinder som dagligvaruhandeln kan identifiera gällande dess markandsföring och försäljning av ekologiska livsmedel.Design/metod: Denna studie utgår från en deduktiv ansats. All empirisk data är insamlad från sju stycken intervjuer där respondenterna är butikschefer i varsin livsmedelsbutik. Livsmedelsbutikerna är belägna i Borås och dess närområden.Resultat: Den generella slutsatsen som vi kan dra av vår studie är att det har visat sig att flertalet marknadsföringstekniker inom dagligvaruhandeln är gemensamma bland våra respondenters livsmedelsbutiker. Däremot använder inte alla livsmedelsbutiker exakt samma uppsättning marknadsföringstekniker och inte heller i samma utsträckning. Drivkrafter gällande dagligvaruhandelns försäljning av ekologiska livsmedel har bland annat visat sig vara positiva hälsoeffekter och miljöintresse hos konsumenter. Samtidigt har hinder gällande dagligvaruhandelns försäljning bland annat visat sig vara okunskap hos konsument och högt pris.Originalitet/värde: Denna studie visar hur livsmedelsbutiker arbetar för att främja den ekologiska livsmedelsförsäljningen. Kunskap som tillförs i vår studie kan användas för framtida forskning inom ämnen som berör marknadsföring och försäljning av ekologiska livsmedel inom dagligvaruhandeln. / Background: Consumers want to be involved and help to protect the environment. A reason for this is that a market for ecological products has grown by. Today, most of the conventional stores in the FMCG sector have ecological products on their store shelves, but far from all customers choose to buy these. Therefore, it can be a challenge for the stores in the FMCG sector to successfully market the ecological assortment.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out how stores in the FMCG sector work to promote their ecological assortment. In addition, this study identifies the possible motivations and resistance regarding the marketing and the sales of ecological products from the FMCG sector perspective.Design/methodology/approach: This is a Swedish study based on a deductive approach. The empirical data is collected from seven interviews with respondents who are store managers in each grocery store. The stores are located in Borås and the neighboring areas.Findings: The general conclusion we draw from this study is that most marketing techniques in the FMCG sector are common among our respondents' respective stores. However, not everyone uses exactly the same set of marketing techniques, nor to the same extent. Positive health effects and environmental interest of consumers have shown to be motivating consumers mostly. Resistance including proven high price and lack of knowledge of consumers has proved the most sensitive.Originality/value: This study shows how stores in the FMCG sector are working to market the ecological sales. Knowledge from our study can be used for future research in subjects related to ecological sales for stores in the FMCG sector.

<p>The<em> Purpose </em>of this study was to examine what knowledge and which attitudes there are about environmental friendly food in the society. To do so an essay were constructed and distributed to five different working places. Altogether there were 50 essays distributed and 43 were returned. <em>The main result; </em>the respondents think that it is important for people to learn how to consume food in a more environmentally friendly way. The majority of the respondents recognized the eco-label KRAV but the European eco-label and Demeter were not recognized in a less extent. Few of the respondents knew what GMO stands for. Over half of the respondents thought that it is pretty important/important or very important to buy ecological food but only one third of them said that they commonly/always buy ecologic food. Slightly more than one third was shore that they could contribute to an environmental friendly development by consuming ecological food. <em>Conclusion:</em> the respondents know too little about what the eco-labels stands for. Far from everyone is convinced that it actually is environmental friendly to buy environmental friendly food.</p>

The Purpose of this study was to examine what knowledge and which attitudes there are about environmental friendly food in the society. To do so an essay were constructed and distributed to five different working places. Altogether there were 50 essays distributed and 43 were returned. The main result; the respondents think that it is important for people to learn how to consume food in a more environmentally friendly way. The majority of the respondents recognized the eco-label KRAV but the European eco-label and Demeter were not recognized in a less extent. Few of the respondents knew what GMO stands for. Over half of the respondents thought that it is pretty important/important or very important to buy ecological food but only one third of them said that they commonly/always buy ecologic food. Slightly more than one third was shore that they could contribute to an environmental friendly development by consuming ecological food. Conclusion: the respondents know too little about what the eco-labels stands for. Far from everyone is convinced that it actually is environmental friendly to buy environmental friendly food.

Trots en positiv inställning gentemot ekologiska livsmedel och en oro över vår planet, saknas det en prioriterad konsumtion av dessa varor. En del av miljöpåverkan är livsmedelsindustrin och de matval som konsumenter gör. Med en värdering om att göra ekologiskt hållbara val så är det påvisat att endast en ungefärlig tredje del konsumenter är beredda att ta sina värderingartill handling. Samtidigt visar det sig att konsumenters kunskap och medvetenhet om ekologiska livsmedel är för låg på grund av brist på engagemang till informationssökning. Generationen millennials har påvisats vara de maximalt miljömedvetna men trots detta uppträder de inte tillräckligt miljöansvarigt genom att de inte tar sina ekologiska värderingar till ekologiskhandling. För att få en förståelse för denna problematik undersöker denna studie skillnaderna i konsumentbeteenden mellan värdering och handling för millennials på ekologiska livsmedel. Studie gjordes genom en fallstudiedesign med en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. Undersökningen genomfördes genom två stycken fokusgruppsintervjuer bestående av totalt elva deltagare. Alladeltagare var inkluderade i generationen millennials. Med hjälp av teorin har studien omarbetat en teoretisk analysmodell som ligger till grund för empirin och analysen. Modellen kan även komma att replikeras för framtida forskning. Studien påvisar gällande skillnader mellan värdering och handling till konsumtionen av ekologiska livsmedel, att det finns en skillnad där millennials inte alltid handlar efter sinavärderingar. Konsumenter är kritiska till ekologiska livsmedel då det finns en brist i kommunikationen från företagen gällande kraven på dessa varor. Detta gör att konsumenter prioriterar varor som är närodlade, med lågt pris och kort datum istället för ekologiskt trotsvetskapen om bristen på information. Studien påvisar att millennials köpbeslut baseras på lojalitet och vanor men att det även påverkas av faktorerna i analysmodellen. Dessa faktorer består främst av uppväxt, ekonomiska förutsättningar, umgänge, självbild och sociala medier. / Despite a positive attitude towards ecological products and a concern over the state of our planet, there is a lack of priority consumption of these products. Part of the environmental impact is the food industry and the food choices consumers make. With a valuation of making ecologically sustainable choices, it has been shown that only an approximate third of consumers are prepared to take their values into action. At the same time, it turns out that consumers knowledge and awareness of ecological products is too low because of a lack of commitment to information research. The generation of millennials has been shown to be the most environmentally conscious, but despite this they do not behave sufficiently environmentally responsible because they do not take their ecological values into ecologic action. To gain an understanding of this problem, this study investigates the differences in consumer behavior between valuation and action for millennials on ecological foods. The study was done through a case study design with a qualitative research method. It was conducted through two focus group interviews consisting of a total of eleven participants. All participants were included by the generation of millennials. With the help of the theory, the study has reworked theoretical analysis model that forms the basis of the empiricism and analysis. The model may also be replicated for future research. The study shows current differences between valuation and action for the consumption of ecologic foods, that there is a difference where millennials do not always act according to their values. Consumers are critical of ecological products as there is a lack of communication from the companies regarding the requirements for these goods. This means that consumers prioritize goods that are locally grown, with low prices and short dates instead of organic, despite the knowledge of the lack of information. The study shows that millennial purchasing decisions are based on loyalty and habits, but that it is also influenced by the factors in the analysis model. These factors mainly consist of growing up, economic conditions, socializing, self-image and social media. Further on the study will be written in Swedish.

SUMMARY Research object – consumers of ecological food products. Research subject – consumer behavior of ecological food products Research aim – to present marketing decisions stimulating purchase of ecological products. Tasks: 1.To analyze outward and inward factors impact on consumer behavior. 2.To identify marketing tools influence on consumer behavior. 3.To prepare the research methodic of ecological products consumer behavior. 4.To conduct a sample survey and to identify factors impact of purchase of ecological food products. 5.To recommend marketing decisions stimulating purchase of ecological products. Research methods - Lithuanian and foreign authors scientific literature analysis and synthesis, logical abstracts, sample survey, data grouping, method of statistical analysis, graphic presentation. Marketing decisions recommended stimulating purchase of organic products are based on Lithuanian and foreign authors theoretical principles of outward, inward and marketing factors impact on consumer behavior, sample survey, identified consumers motives of purchase and usage of ecological food products, investigated marketing tools influence to ecological food products consumer behavior.