How much organic food do people rilly buy?

Like, do people who prefer organic end up spending 99% of their money on organics?

What’s the ‘share of wallet’ for organics?

An analysis of purchase data for 8,000 German households found that only 4% of homes spent 20% or more of their food budget on organic food.

About 15% spent 5 – 20% of their budget on organic food.

And 88% spent less than 5% on organics.

(Also, that 4% of homes very likely skews to the lower end, closer to 20% share of wallet than 90%. I smell a banana curve.)

Meanwhile, when polled, about 6% said they strongly preferred organics, and another 19% said they kinda prefer them.

So that’s 25% who are pro-organic.

(That leaves 75% who felt otherwise.)

So even though people may say they prefer organics, a bulk of their purchases are still conventional.

Caveats galore, but it’s a lovely empirical study. Read the whole thing! (Schäufele & Janssen, 2021)

MINI LESSONS:

🔸 Get that observational data, people! Don’t just rely on intent or surveys.
🔸 Banana curves are the norm in marketing. Get to know them!
🔸 Even ‘organic people’ still buy a lotta conventional. Be careful about stereotyping.

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