The role of reference groups in the decision - making process on the purchase of organic food products

Rezultat pojave trenda zdrave prehrane jest porast potražnje ekoloških proizvoda koji postaju sve dostupniji na našem tržištu. Osnovni cilj rada je bio utvrditi koliku važnost kupci pridaju mišljenju različitih referentnih grupa - prijateljima, obitelji, kolegama i stručnjacima pri kupovini ekoloških prehrambenih proizvoda. Istraživanje je provedeno putem online anketnog upitnika na uzorku od 609 sudionika. Deskriptivna analiza podataka pokazala je da se po važnosti najviše ističe mišljenje stručnjaka, zatim obitelji, te prijatelja i naposljetku kolega. Rezultati t-testa pokazali su da između žena i muškaraca ne postoje statistički značajne razlike u važnosti koju pridaju mišljenju pojedinih referentnih grupa. Koristeći rezultate ovog istraživanja, marketari mogu bolje razumjeti utjecaj referentnih grupa i na taj način usmjeriti marketinški miks, npr. u osmišljavanju promotivne strategije u kojoj nutricionist kao predstavnik referentne grupe stručnjaka promovira određeni ekološki proizvod.The result of the emergence of healthy eating trend is an increase in the demand for organic products that are becoming increasingly available in our market. The main goal of this paper was to determine how much importance customers attach to the opinion of different reference groups - friends, family, colleagues, and experts when buying organic food products. The research was conducted through an online survey questionnaire on a sample of 609 participants. Descriptive analysis of the data showed that the opinion of experts is the most important, followed by family, friends and finally colleagues. The results of the t-test showed that there are no statistically significant differences between women and men in the importance they attach to the opinion of researched reference group. Using the results of this research, marketers can better understand the impact of reference groups and thus direct the marketing mix, e.g. in devising a promotional strategy in which a nutritionist as a representative of a reference group of experts promotes a particular organic product