An Integrated approach to new marketing dynamics analysis: the case of organic farming

One of the most relevant phenomena that, recently, affected Italian agricultural sector is the increasing number of farms and extension of land converting to organic farming. The slow organic products market shift from a “niche” to a wider consumption has highlighted the deep differences between conventional and organic production, distribution and consumption processes. In such a context, the consumer's behaviour analysis about organic products transpires to be complex as it involves either social-economic and psychographic characteristics. In order to address this issue a research has been carried out in two steps: in the first qualitative analysis step, 45 organic products consumers have been interviewed in person using laddering interview method; then, in the quantitative step data from a 203 consumers sample, representative of a region of South of Italy, has been analysed by a multinomial logit. The main innovative aspect of the research resides in the two-step approach (qualitative and quantitative analysis), that has enabled researchers to identify and quantify the importance of the environmental and hygienic component in organic products consumer preferences.