Awareness, attitude and purchase intention's influence on the response to the out of stock of organic yogurts

Abstract

In Portugal, the consumption of organic products is a growing trend, since consumers are becoming more concerned in having a healthy diet and adopting a lifestyle which takes into consideration not only how food products can impact their wellbeing but also how sustainable they are from production to consumption. Following this trend, retailers are also taking actions, such as creating areas in the supermarket dedicated only to healthy food products.
This study focused only on organic yogurts, since they represent one of the most consumed categories among organic food products. The main purpose of this thesis is to understand consumers with different levels of Awareness, Attitude and Purchase Intention towards organic yogurts, on how they react to the lack of availability of their preferred organic yogurt. Six in-depth interviews and a survey were used in order to reach a more detailed analysis.
The main conclusions taken from the study are that Awareness and Attitude towards organic yogurts are positively related and both variables influence positively the Purchase Intention of organic yogurts. The main response given by organic yogurt consumers, when confronted with the Out of Stock of their preferred organic yogurt, is to still choose their preferred organic yogurt, waiting for it to be restocked at their usual store or to look for the exact same one at a different store. On the other side, non-organic yogurt consumers when faced with the OOS of their preferred yogurt, opt for another non-organic yogurt with a different flavor or from another brand.

Date of Award	11 May 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paulo Alexandre Mendes Ramos Romeiro (Supervisor)