The effect of image of agricultural sales cooperative products on consumer satisfaction and purchase behavior: Kırşehir case

Cooperatives are a for-profit partnership structure and are based on mutual aid, solidarity and cooperation. Especially in recent years, the necessity and importance of cooperatives has increased with the globalizing economic and social life. There are approximately 2.6 million cooperatives and more than 1 million members of these cooperatives in various fields around the world. The weight and importance of cooperatives in the agricultural sector, as in many other fields, is a well-known fact. Although the origin of cooperatives in Turkey dates back to ancient times, it is known that modern cooperatives started with Mithat Pasha's Homeland Funds in 1867. Today, Turkish cooperatives have a strong structure with approximately 6.5 million members and approximately 60 thousand cooperatives. The agricultural-dominated texture of Turkish cooperatives is closely related to the agricultural sector in its economic and social structure. According to 2020 data in Turkey, the ratio of agricultural cooperatives to total cooperatives is 20%, and the ratio to the number of members is 54.1%. Among the agricultural cooperatives, there are 281 agricultural sales cooperatives and over 291,000 members of these cooperatives, according to 2019 data. The Law No. 4572 on Agricultural Sales Cooperatives and Unions emphasizes that agricultural sales cooperatives can be established with at least 30 producers and plays a role in the processing, purchase, sale and marketing of related agricultural products. In Turkey, the industrial value of hazelnut, olive, olive oil, sunflower, fig and cotton, and the sales, distribution and marketing of these products, which are important to consumers, are very important. From this point of view, in this study, the effect of the image of MARMARABIRLIK, FISKOBIRLIK and TARIS products, which are agricultural sales cooperatives, on consumer satisfaction and purchasing behavior was examined in the example of Kırşehir. For this purpose, the survey was conducted with 396 participants at a 95% confidence level, using a 5-point Likert scale. Correlation, regression, T-test and ANOVA tests were applied in accordance with the hypotheses of the research in the SPSS 22 package program. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the image of the respondents' agricultural sales cooperative products had significant effects on consumer satisfaction and purchasing behavior in the Kırşehir sample. Based on this result, it was emphasized that these cooperatives should take a more role in sales and marketing and the importance of using various market and business tools for this. Keywords: Fiskobirlik, Cooperative, Marmarabirlik, Agricultural Sales Cooperative, Tariş