Ethics audit as a marketing instrument and its potential for organic farming
Tallinn University of Technology, Faculty of Economics, Institute of Business
Administration, Ehitajate tee 5, EE19086 Tallinn, Estonia
*Correspondence: merle.ojasoo@ttu.ee
Abstract:
Demand for organic foods is growing quickly but remains to be a relatively small segment of the food market. In order to increase the market share there is important role in an effective and smart marketing communication. According to many researches consumers are mostly interested in additional ethical attributes in organic food producing. Organic food farmers’ ability to earn profit from experience marketing according ethical values in organic food production is rather weak. At the same time organic farming faces many significant ethical risks from unregulated area of organic food-production. Consumer trust in environmentally friendly or organic products is often being undermined by business scandals, unsubstantiated ‘organic’ claims and assessment practices. The current paper aims to improve ethics audit framework as a marketing instrument for organic farming companies in order to increase the trust between producers and consumers. This paper draws upon previous researches and adds new approach based on the needs of organic farming.
Key words:
ethical values, marketing communication, organic producing, risk assessment.