Introduction
This report concerns an analysis conducted by Diligent Consulting Group on behalf of the Loving Organic Food Industry. The consulting group wanted to establish the motivation behind customers’ purchasing habits. The survey targeted 200 customers within the market segment, out of which 124 gave their responses. The information included age data of these customers within the previous quarter of making purchases. Therefore, the report includes an analysis based on 124 customers aged between 21 and 78 who have purchased organic products for the past three months.
Description of Organic Foods Industry
Organic foods are produced through means complying with organic farming standards. Organic farming methods recycle resources and ensure biodiversity is conserved. Ecological balance is promoted by regulating and restricting fertilizers and pesticide use in farming (Gopalakrishnan, 2019). The number of consumers purchasing organic foods has risen with the growing popularity worldwide (Ueasangkomsate & Santiteerakul, 2016). The growing demand increases concerns regarding the conventional methods of food production. Past studies show organic foods are more nutritious than those produced using conventional methods (Gopalakrishnan, 2019). Long-term strategies prioritizing sustainable supply chains of organic foods to consumers have become organizations’ objectives (Mie et al., 2017). Similarly, organic product purchases are motivated by the attachment to health, quality, and environmental safety standards (Gopalakrishnan, 2019). Organic foods make consumers concerned about their health and safety hence enabling them to be mindful in choosing the foods which they eat.
The Target Market
The consumption and demand for organic foods among consumers increase daily. 90% of organic food consumers are found in Europe and Northern America (Monier-Dilhan & Bergès, 2016). The consumption of organic food products in the US, according to the 2012 statistics, indicated total food consumption to be at 4% (Monier-Dilhan & Bergès, 2016). These trends are important to understand, hence the need for the company to comprehend the reason behind consumers’ purchases of organic food products.
The Shopping Trend and Lifestyle of Consumers
According to the United States Department of Agriculture organic market summary and trends, organic products are now available in about 20,000 food stores (USDA, 2021). Organic products’ sales account for over 4% of the total US consumable sales. Similarly, the organic foods industry statistics suggest a realized estimate of $28.4 billion in sales in the year 2012 (USDA, 2021). The sales, according to the Organic Trade Association, occur in supply chains and supermarkets. In contrast, 7% of the sales occur in marketing channels, farmers’ markets, and food services (USDA, 2021). The majority of organic food consumers are concerned with the health benefits, eco-friendliness of the products, and their animals’ welfare. This attribute made them pay any regular market price (USDA, 2021). Organic food products are consumed by the majority, shifting from being a way of life to maintaining their health conditions, preserving the environment, and preventing their animals from intaking harmful non-organic products.
Analysis
Analysis in this survey was performed using excel to analyze the age data of the 124 customers. The analysis visualized the age data using a histogram to allow for easier drawing of conclusions. The creation used bins of 4 types of widths to plot a histogram, providing the best visualization chart being used for concluding the data. The width lengths were five years, ten years, 15 years, and 20 years.
Importance of the Bins (Age-Groups)
The creation of the histogram entailed the use of different bin sizes. The applied bin sizes were 20, 15, 10, and 5 years, resulting in four different histograms possessing different appearances and representations for the age data categories. The bins with a width of 10 produced a suitable histogram representation compared to the others with varying widths. For example, the bin width of 5 had a small area covered by the histogram producing many frequency distribution bars. Similarly, the bin width of 20 produced a histogram covering the larger area on the histogram producing few frequency distribution bars.
Placing the bins to appear in groups ensured the histogram showed the underlying trend in them. The use of bins is important since it allows the created histogram to utilize the frequency distribution to show the area covered and avoid using the bars’ height to provide conclusions. The histogram’s height, to conclude, will fail to provide a clear and true reflection of the analyzed data’s frequency.
Description of Results
A histogram refers to a vertical bar graph whose bars represent continuous grouped data. The data is grouped using bins which help the histogram acquire its shape and reveal more information regarding the data. The revealed information relates to the mode, mean, and median. The histogram created has one peak or unimodal, therefore, appearing to be skewed to the right of the distribution. The single peak shows the histogram is unimodal; it has one hump.
The Mean
The mean is the average of the data set represented on the histogram and provides the largest value of all central tendency measures since it is affected on the right by the outliers. The histogram is seen to be skewed to the right but possesses a peak on the left of the distribution and the data values moving to the right. The mean on the histogram is probably located to the right of the distribution and is therefore found within the age group of 41 and 50.
The Median
The median refers to the middle value in a set of data. The histogram is unimodal and single-peaked, and it is skewed to the right of the distribution. We know the histogram’s mean is probably located to the distribution’s right, while the mode lies on the left of the distribution. Therefore, the median on the histogram is located between the mean and the mode values of the data set represented on the histogram, such as between the group ranges of the two categories of 31-40 and 41-50.
The Mode
The mode in a set of data refers to the value appearing more than once. The histogram created using the bins of width ten appears to be singly peaked and is therefore unimodal. Given that it contains only a single peak and is skewed to the right, this histogram’s highest peak provides the location where the data set model lies. Therefore, the mode may lie on the left of the distribution and is therefore found within the age group of 31 and 40.
Recommendations
The loving Organic Foods Industry should be aware of its market segment’s distribution to ensure it maintains its competitive advantage within the market. From the analysis, most of their customers are individuals of higher ages since the mean is located on the right side of the distribution. Similarly, the median indicates the individuals lying between the median and the modal ages are the frequent customers of the Loving Organic Foods Industry. They should formulate measures that will ensure all the age groups consume more of their food products too. High rates of consumption will boost sales and improve profit margins.
References
Gopalakrishnan, R. (2019). Advantages and nutritional value of organic food on human health. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, 3(4), 242-245. Web.
Monier-Dilhan, S., & Bergès, F. (2016). Consumers’ motivations driving organic demand: Between self-interest and sustainability. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 45(3), 522-538.
USDA. (2021). Organic Market Summary and Trends. Ers.usda.gov. Web.
Ueasangkomsate, P., & Santiteerakul, S. (2016). A study of consumers’ attitudes and intention to buy organic foods for sustainability. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 34, 423-430.