Environmental Concern Challenges the Health Halo: Rethinking the Communication Strategy for Organic Foods in Emerging European Markets

The marketing of organic food has long been anchored in the health halo. This concept refers to the assumption that consumers primarily perceive organic products as instruments of personal health, with other benefits operating as a secondary motivation. While this premise is well established in two decades of Western European and North American consumer research, evidence from emerging European organic markets remains scarce and may not fit the inherited paradigm.

This exploratory study examines the hierarchy of psychographic antecedents of organic food consumption among Romanian consumers, testing whether the conventional precedence of health over environmental motivation holds in an emerging market context. Data were collected through an online structured questionnaire (N = 73) measuring three latent psychographic constructs: environmental concern, health motivation and experiential orientation. In addition, behavioral indicators of organic interest, preference and consumption were measured. Composite scores were used (validated through Cronbach's alpha). Non-parametric Spearman correlations tested the formulated hypotheses.

Results revealed a clear and consistent pattern that challenges the conventional health-first hierarchy. Environmental concern emerged as a correlate of organic food interest, preference and consumption at least as strong as health motivation, with a marginal lead in every comparison. Experiential orientation also proved a robust antecedent, particularly of preference for organic products. Demographic factors, such as age and generational cohort, proved to be weak and non-significant correlates, contrasting with much of the existing segmentation literature.

These findings suggest that communication strategies for organic food brands in emerging European markets should reorganize their message hierarchy: ecological arguments (such as verifiable carbon footprint, regenerative agriculture, short supply chains) should occupy a central narrative position alongside health considerations, rather than functioning as a secondary appeal. The persistent relevance of experiential orientation further suggests that storytelling around novelty, origin and sensory experience can complement the dual environmental-health core of brand communication.