towards organic food, thus providing another
path to influencing attitudes. Generally, the
deeper a belief is located in the belief
hierarchy, the more stable it is. Thus it is an
obvious advantage if personal values can be
activated and related to organic food.
There may be consumers who are environmentally interested, but who are not active
consumers of organic food. The marketers’ goal
wouldthenbetocreatepositiveintentions
towards organic products among non-users.
Actually, universalism values (which are motivated by concern for protecting nature) are
important to most people. They may not,
however, see the link between these values
and organic food. Therefore, activating universalism values or ethical beliefs (Verplanken and
Holland, 2002) may enhance the likelihood of
choosing organic products, thus increasing the
market share for such products. There may thus
be more potential in the organic food market
than its current status shows