The organic logo and claim: Purchase and health stimuli?

Purchasing organic grown and produced food products experienced a remarkable growth, which has still not reached its peak yet in the Netherlands. This remarkable growth indicates that consumers become more stimulated to buy organic products and according to many studies organic products are perceived as healthier. According to previous research organic logos and claims are signs or tools that promote the origin of certified organic products. However, one might suggest that after the many food scandals appeared, especially during 2013, also in the organic sector that consumers experience less trust in products that are labeled organic. Moreover, previous literature has shown inconsistent findings on the impact of organic signs on food packaging material on purchase intention and health perception of both healthy and unhealthy food products. Therefore, this study has tried to find answers to the research question to what extent the European organic logo and an organic claim affect purchase intention and health perception of both healthy and unhealthy food products. To answer this question it was split into two separate parts to ensure a clear structured paper. Hypothetical assumptions were formulated hypotheses based on these inconsistent outcomes, which were tested in an experiment. The experiment was characterized by a 3 x 2 betweensubjects MANOVA, in which the three represented logo conditions (no logo, organic logo, organic claim) and the two embodied product type (healthy, unhealthy). A survey questionnaire consisting of six different versions was dispersed among 196 respondents. Each respondent was asked to judge a product (healthy or unhealthy) with one of the three possible logo conditions on it (either no logo, organic logo or organic claim) to find answers on the impact of both the organic logo and the organic claim on purchase intention and health perception. The results yield a possible decreasing impact of the organic claim on a healthy product on purchase intention when comparing it to the healthy product with an organic logo. Yet, this result is not significant because the post hoc test was impossible to perform. Furthermore, there is no significant difference between the no logo condition and the organic logo condition on both product types for purchase intention. Also the three logo conditions on both product types turned out not to be significant on health perception, meaning that for health perception the logo conditions turned out to be equal.