Halal; Organic; and Preservative: Marketing Concept for Bread Industry

In the wake of global consumer awareness towards living and consuming in healthy ways, this paper examined consumer behavior towards purchasing two choices of bread, organic bread versus bread with preservatives. Data was gathered from questionnaire surveys on 260 respondents from Kuching town, the capital of Sarawak, which is also the largest state in Malaysia. In depth descriptive analyses were made with the findings indicated that in general, organic bread would be of preferred choice with the factors in the order of their importance, taste; freshness; durability; halal; health; texture; place; and price as the determinants for the preference. However, place plays vital role to sway consumer into buying preservative bread when the consumer finds the access to purchase organic bread is of difficulties. Halal on the other hand is the ultimate factor to govern Muslim consumers’ decision between these two alternatives. This research provides evidence on the importance of investigating consumer behavior in understanding factors influencing their choice in choosing bread, which will be a good marketing and also business strategy particularly in organic based businesses.

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