Effect of Marketing Mix Strategies on the Buying Behaviour of Organic Products: Comparison Between Consumers in Malaysia and China

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, organic food intake has been seen as a crucial component of sustainable transformation that have large impacts on the environment as well as on people’s health. Many customers’ consumption habits have shifted toward organic items, owing to the belief that eating organic foods is safer and free of toxins. The goal of this study is to examine the marketing mix impact of product, price, place, and promotional strategies on customer purchase of organic products among Malaysia and China consumers. A questionnaire was designed, and data was collected using purposive sampling from a total of 484 respondents, whereby 150 were Malaysians and 334 were China consumers. The structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was employed to test the hypothesized relationships using AMOS software. The result of the present study revealed that only price, product, and promotional strategies significantly influenced the respondents’ buying decisions towards organic products. Furthermore, nationalities moderated the relationship between product and promotion whereby the effect of these two marketing mix strategies were more pronounced among Malaysians compared to China consumers. The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of knowledge on consumer behaviour particularly towards organic food market and offers marketers, producers and practitioners’ insights to develop more effective marketing strategies to stimulate customers’ demand towards organic products.