Consumer behaviors and brand dependence in processed agricultural products: The case of Sanliurfa

Human beings have to eat in order to maintain their biological life. The materials needed in the nutrition process are basically divided into two as plant and animal. The emergence of these materials is possible with agricultural activities. In the process of agricultural activities, plant and animal materials are produced by using soil, seeds and nature. Some of these materials are offered as raw (fruits, vegetables, etc.) and some of them are processed (milk, red meat, etc.) through marketing channels. With the increasing human population in recent years, the inadequacy of the amount of agricultural products supplied in the market has come to the fore. The solution to this problem has primarily been tried to be provided by increasing productivity in agricultural products. This increase is achieved by using industrial methods instead of traditional methods in production or cultivation. In industrial methods, pesticides, chemicals, preservatives, packaging methods that prevent the products from spoiling for a long time and extend the shelf life are used. With the use of industrial methods in agricultural production, different agricultural products have started to take place in the agricultural product market under the name of different brands. Consumers prefer these agricultural products, which are sold under different characteristics and brands. In this thesis, the behavior of consumers in the process of purchasing agricultural products and the factors affecting this behavior were investigated. In the research, consumers' behaviors related to brand awareness and fondness during the purchasing process of agricultural products were also investigated. The research was carried out in Şanlıurfa province. Primary data constitute the main material of the research. Primary data were collected using questionnaires. Assuming that the confidence interval is 90% and the margin of error is 5%, the sample is calculated as 203 people. Questionnaires were applied as much as the number of samples calculated in the study. In the analysis of the data, the desired assumptions were not provided in the use of parametric analysis methods. For this reason, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis variance tests were used. According to the results of the analysis, no significant difference was found between the groups of gender, marital status and rural connection variables. Significant differences were found between the groups of age, number of children, household size, education level, work area and income level variables. In general, it has been determined that the participants who are 45 years of age and under, have 2 or less children, have a household size of 4 or less, have a university or higher education, work in the public sector and have a high level of income, have a fondness for brands in agricultural products.