| dc.description.abstract | Conventional production of fruits and vegetables entail the use of pesticides and other
poisonous chemicals. Producers use these poisonous chemicals in order to make the crops more
profitable by for example making them more resistant to insects, in order to acquire a faster
growth rate or to obtain larger crops. This results in negative effects on the environment as well
as consumers health. The extent of these negative effects is beginning to receive more attention
from the public.
Organic production is the opposite of conventional production, where the use of pesticides,
genetically modified crops and other poisonous chemicals are banned. The negative effects on
consumers' health and the environment are in organic production greatly decreased, however, for
the farmer the cost of production and the risks are increased. Organic production therefore is less
preferred by producers while becoming increasingly demanded by the educated public. The result
is an area of interest where consumer knowledge is often shallow and it is easy for producers to
make claims for which they may not have evidence to support. (Aertsens et al 2010)
For these reasons, the importance of mindful consumer behavior when buying fruits and
vegetables is becoming more important. Inspite of this, the increasing attention and thereby more
studies done on the subject, researchers' opinions of how to increase the consumption of organic
products are still varied. One of many factors debated is how to educate the public and moreover,
how much education is needed. (Laroche, Bergeron, & Barbaro-Forleo, 2001).
The aim of this paper is therefore to examine if a small reminder/ educational quote is
sufficient to change consumer behavior in regards of preferring the more organic products. The
product chosen for the experiment is an apple due to the fact that fruits and vegetables account
for 10 percent of Swedish consumers’ spending. The country of interest is Sweden due to the fact
that the country is, relative to many other countries, well acquainted with organic produce, where
the consumption of organics is increasing yearly by approximately 4%. (Fagerberg et al. 2014)
The experiment was carried out through a survey, which was handed out at different locations in
the Vastra Gotaland region in Sweden. The respondents were chosen randomly at three different
locations.
The results of this experiment show that in similarity to past experiments, consumers are
willing to pay a little more for organic products. A deviation, which has not yet been examined, is
the object of this thesis, examining the power of suggestion on consumer behavior. The findings
of the experiment were that a small reminder of what organic production implies on average has
no significant effect on changing consumer behavior. However, in a few circumstances some significance was obtained. | sv |
