Food advertising contents influencing organic food purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour and the moderating role of gender: the case of Thailand

In recent years, the consumption of organic food has increased, which has a direct impact on consumers' health as well as on the sustainable development. Thailand's organic food consumption is relatively low compared to European countries. This study aims to examine the impacts of the food advertising contents (emotional appeal, informativeness and advertising creativity), product knowledge (PK), attitude (Att), subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC) on purchase intention and actual purchase behavior toward organic foods, based on the Theory of planned behavior (TPB). This research also investigates moderating effects of gender on the various relationships between the impacts of food advertising content and product knowledge. However, consumers' purchase intention and actual purchase behavior toward organic foods are impacted by food advertising contents, PK, Att, SN, PBC and gender. This study is needed due to the gap in both literature and understanding relating to the influence of food advertising contents, PK, Att, SN, PBC toward the organic foods purchase intention and actual purchase behavior. The study's results can strengthen the context (Thailand) because it will provide valuable consumer data. The study's findings will be used to obtain some recommendations both at policy level, such as measures to promote knowledge about organic foods, and at industry level, such as strategies to increase the market share of organic foods in Thailand. Research gaps are indicated in food advertising content, which has not been investigated based on consumer demographics (gender). There are few studies on the impact of product knowledge about TPB. This study had been performed to reduce these gaps by investigating the moderating effects of gender on the various relationships between the influence of food advertising content and product knowledge, quantitative method was used. This quantitative study aimed to explore the impacts of food advertising contents on PK; PK is related to Att, SN and PBC; the effects of Att, Sn, and PBC on purchase intention; the effect of the purchase intention on actual purchase behaviour; the moderating role of gender on the relationship between food advertising content and PK. Drawing from the literature review, the research model and hypotheses were developed to bridge the research gaps and answer the research questions/objectives. The research model was tested using structural equation modelling (AMOS). The data used to test it was collected from questionnaires sent to 900 Thai consumers who are living in Thailand. The sampling frame could not be available for the whole Thai population, and using probability sampling was impossible. The study needed to use a sample of Thai retail consumers using snowball sampling, a non-probability-based sampling technique. The data were also used to perform multivariate analysis of the data, that included exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling, to ensure that the scales developed were accurate and reliable. The finding revealed that the The finding revealed that subjective norms strongly impacted Thai consumers' purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour toward organic foods. It also revealed that informativeness is the highest contributor to product knowledge toward the purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour of the consumer toward organic foods. The results showed that (1) the emotional appeals, informativeness and advertising creativity strengthened product knowledge; and (2) product knowledge is positively related to attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control; and (3) attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have a positive impact on intention to purchase; and (4) intention to purchase has a positive impact on actual purchase behavior; and (5) gender did not moderate the relationship between emotional appeals, informativeness, advertising creativity and product knowledge. TPB was used as it is widely regarded as reliable and is used to investigate all kinds of human behavior. However, the TPB framework does not explain a sufficient proportion of the intention variance. This study expanded TPB related to purchase behaviours by adding more variables to improve TPB's predictive accuracy, such as the food advertising contents and product knowledge, to predict the consumer’s purchase intentions regarding organic foods. Previous studies have indicated that new relevant variables might theoretically impact intentions and behaviour to improve the explanatory power of the TPB. The study also considered gender moderates the relationship between food advertising content and product knowledge. Previous studies showed that females tend to buy more than males after exposure to organic products and advertising because they better know the benefits of organic foods. Previous studies found that Thailand is a high context society, meaning Thai people rely more on implicit communication than explicit messages. As a result, Thais read more into what is said than what the words themselves might mean. For most Thais, meaning matters more than what is said. The implications for academic theory relate to the need to take into these food advertising contents that create more greater intentions to buy organics. For practice, marketers need to create these food advertising contents that is a visual communication strategy to increase product knowledge and the intent of buying organic foods. The food advertising content on the organic food product label communicates product information, At the same time, the promotional elements appeal to the needs and values of the target audience and the unique attributes of organic foods.