The green consumer participants were divided into three groups but these three groups generally had a similar way of thinking about the strategies. Therefore, we discuss the results of each discussion together in this section. The pros and cons of each strategy are set out below and summarized in Table 6-2.
Table 6-2 The Pros and Cons of Each Strategy: Summary of Focus Group Discussion with Green Consumers
Pros Cons
A) The target group for sustainable food
A1) Extend the target group from patients to the younger generations and develop branding
- easy to educate
- change attitudes today, change long term practice in the future
- able to convince family and friends
- no interest in health and sustainable issues
- easily change
- low purchasing power
B) Information and communication about sustainable food
B1) Give information via media
- access all groups of consumers
- present more information and educate consumers
- cost
B2) Standard certification
- create trust in itself - too many standards
- cost
B3) Promote social sustainability
- link local producers to consumers - strengthen, support and promote local communities
- looks deceptive if over advertised - conflicts with capitalism
C) Connecting providers and consumers
C1) Increase distribution channels
- convenience - time saving
- fresh food to the door whenever consumers want - consumers directly meet providers
- additional cost of transportation and service
C2) Activities bringing providers and consumers together to develop trust
- create good relationship, trust, and understanding between providers and consumers
money and time consuming
limited types of interesting activity
C3) Exhibition campaigns and product consultation (PC)
- educate consumers via direct communication with providers
- new sustainable food products - opportunity to get discounts on food
- cost
- no time to visit exhibition
D) The price of sustainable food
D1) Price Reduction
- decide to buy more readily - increase quantity of sales
- change attitudes of consumers that sustainable food is not always expensive
- extend target group of consumers
- low standard image
- questions about expiration / quality - limited period of discounts
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A The target group for sustainable food
A1) Extend the target group from patients to the younger generation and develop branding
Green consumers believed that the younger generation was a key target group for promoting sustainable food consumption in Bangkok in the long run. If young people were educated about sustainable food consumption, they would grow up with a green awareness and their behaviour would be permanently changed. The participants from one group said ‗it is already too late to educate adults to change their behaviour since they have been like this for a long time. You may have heard the Thai proverb ―You can't teach an old dog new tricks‖. Thus, children are our hope to establish sustainable food consumption in the future‘. Teenagers receive education at school and can easily grasp the reasons for eating sustainable food. Green consumers also believed that young people could influence other family members to change their behaviour by telling them about the benefits of eating sustainable food. If demand for sustainable food increased, the subsequent increase in production would lead to a reduction in price. Moreover, when more consumers ate good food, the country's population would be healthier which, in turn, would have a positive effect on the health infrastructure and the country‘s economy. However, the weakness of this strategy lays in the lack of attention paid by young people to the issue of sustainable food because most of them have no health problems. Green consumers accepted that young people were, by nature, more interested in movies, actors, and music than health and the environment. Also, young people tended to have shorter attention spans. They might be interested in sustainable food for a while, but any break in its promotion could lead to a failure of the strategy.
B Information and communication about sustainable food B1) Inform consumers about sustainable food via the media
Green consumers believed that the media are a powerful tool to educate consumers. The media can reach a wide range of consumers as most people in Bangkok regularly watch television. Seeing advertisements for sustainable food everyday would make consumers remember sustainable food and they would subsequently look for it when they went shopping. The media could also present information about the positive and negative sides of sustainable food to consumers and help a wide range of consumers obtain accurate information about sustainable food. Green consumers thought the information strategy would increase sustainable consumption in the long run by changing consumers‘ attitudes and subsequently their behaviour. However, green consumers were aware of the cost of media exposure. Sponsors would be needed to fund advertising and sustainable food articles did not easily catch potential sponsors' attention. Furthermore, green consumers were of the opinion that the issue of sustainable food was currently not of great interest to television and the newspapers. The target group of each media was very specific; therefore, the types of media suited for each targeted group of consumers needed to be analysed. Green consumers could not identify which type of media would be the most effective to reach the largest group of consumers with a positive message about sustainable food.
B2) Standard certification i.e. logo, storyline
Green consumers believed that standard certification was a good strategy because it increased consumers' trust in sustainable food. Green consumers trusted certified food more than non- certified food. Oral communication from providers or advertisements may sometimes be useful, but certified food sets a formal guarantee about its safety for human consumption. Standard certification was also helpful for places where shop personnel were not available to give customers information about the safety of food. Consumers looking for sustainable food can see the logo for themselves and be confident about what they were buying. When green consumers saw the standard symbol, they had no more questions about that food. As a result,
103 they thought the standard certification strategy could increase sales of sustainable food. However, green consumers realized that the process of standard certification was costly and could result in a price increase for sustainable food. Green consumers also complained about too many kinds of certification, which made them confused and question the authenticity of the different standards.
B3) Promote social sustainability
Promoting social sustainability builds bridges between domestic producers in rural areas and consumers in urban areas. The consumers become aware of the source of their food and can feel proud about helping the local community by buying their food. One participant, who was a member of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and a contracted organic vegetable delivery service, said that she visited organic farmers in the rural area before making the decision to contract a delivery service. Buying vegetables from CSA not only ensured her food safety, but it also made her feel good about helping a community. Another participant reported that she also had contracted an organic vegetable delivery with the CSA. ‗Since delivered vegetables are based on season and weather, consumers could see the situation of farmers by seeing the type and quantity of vegetables. If I get a small quantity of vegetables, I feel worried about the farmers because I assume that they are confronted with some problems.‘ Green consumers were somewhat worried about the over-promotion of social sustainability, since it might look rather deceptive and unreliable.
C. Connecting providers and consumers
C1) Increase distribution channels e.g. home delivery, restaurants, event fairs, and gift baskets
Green consumers agreed that increasing distribution channels would boost the sales of sustainable food to consumers in Bangkok. Traffic problems in Bangkok discourage consumers to go shopping at shops located far from home. As a result, new distribution channels such as regular delivery and internet shopping would facilitate consumers, especially those with a busy lifestyle. A delivery service helps consumers to save time when shopping and they can order sustainable food whenever they want. This avoids the need to store large quantities of food in their refrigerator. One participant liked this delivery strategy very much because it meant she could get fresh food every day. Moreover, providers who delivered sustainable food could obtain better insights into the quality of life of their consumers by observing housing, family members, jobs, etc. This information could help providers to improve their businesses. The deliveries also give providers the chance to communicate more with consumers and create personal relationships. When consumers feel that they can trust the providers, they will automatically trust the sustainable food they offer, no matter whether the foods are certified or not. However, green consumers realized that delivering food is costly for providers. This might make sustainable food deliveries too expensive for consumers with lower purchasing power.
C2) Activities bringing providers and consumers together to develop trust
Green consumers believed that doing activities together with providers would definitely develop a closer relationship between the two groups. When consumers met providers more frequently, they would start to trust them more. This trust in the providers would also increase trust in the sustainable foods they provide. This strategy encouraged consumers to buy sustainable food more regularly from their local shop. Moreover, some activities, such as farm tours, gave consumers a better understanding of the farming process and increase their willingness to pay more for sustainable food. Such activities also provided consumers with an open forum to tell providers about their needs and preferences. One participant took part in an
104 informal dialogue with providers and told them that she needed sustainable food for a patient who had cancer. As a result, the providers procured more types of sustainable food which were appropriate for cancer patients. Nevertheless, this strategy might be disadvantaged by the time and costs involved. Most of the general consumers in Bangkok did not have much time and felt that participating in these activities was a waste of time or money. Green consumers suggested that providers should set up more varied activities that everybody in the family could do things together during weekends. Green consumers with children complained that they would like to join activities such as yoga and informal meetings but had to take care of their children. If the activities were also interesting for children, they could bring the whole family to participate in activities more frequently.
C3) Exhibition campaigns and product consultation (PC)
Green consumers considered having product consultations (PC) to introduce sustainable food products to be advantageous consumers for several reasons. Firstly, PCs could give comprehensive information about sustainable food to consumers. In the same way, consumers could ask as many questions as they want. Exhibitions often showed new types of sustainable food products and gave consumers the opportunity to try new sustainable food products and to ask where they could buy them. Thirdly, many sustainable foods shown at an exhibition were normally discounted or offered with some sort of promotion. This allows consumers to buy cheaper sustainable food products. However, green consumers were aware of the expense of setting up an exhibition and employing a PC, which might increase the price of sustainable food while consumers in Bangkok might not have enough time to visit an exhibition.
D The price of sustainable food D1) Price reduction
Green consumers agreed that a lower price of sustainable food would convince more consumers to buy it. Since most consumers, especially general consumers, believed that sustainable food was much more expensive than conventional food, a price reduction would help change this perception and make consumers feel that sustainable food is not always expensive. More consumers would visit sustainable food corners more frequently and more middle class people would be able to buy sustainable food. The size of the group of sustainable consumers would increase, as would the sales of sustainable food. This would decrease the price of sustainable food in the future, due to larger production opportunities. However, green consumers thought that most discounted items were close to their sell-by dates and so often did not purchase these items. Short discount periods do not give consumers much time to benefit but, if the discount period was too long, the group felt that it might not be interesting.