Abstract:
The aims the study of were to determine the factors affecting the customers decision on imported food buying the purchasing behavior for food that imported from oversea countries 2) to compare of personal factors which affected to imported food buying of consumers in Amphur Koh Samui, Surat Thani Province 3) the correlation between behavior of imported food consumers and the marketing factors resulting in purchasing oversea food among consumers in Amphur Koh Samui, Surat Thani Province. The population comprised of 405 samples operated through accidental sampling method from who bought imported food in Koh Samui area, Suratthani Province. The instrument of gathering data was questionnaires. Then, the data were analyzed by the statistics tools that were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, T-test, F-test and Chi-Square test.
The results revealed that the majority of respondents were females, 21 - 30 years old and married. The educational levels were high school or vocational college. Most of them were working as company officers with the average income of 8,001 - 10,000 baht each month. Regarding to the behavior of oversea food buying, the imported food items were fresh vegetables and fresh fruits. The place of purchasing was Tesco-Lotus Supermarket with the main reason of the products varieties. Most imported food products were from Australia. The buying frequency was 1 - 5 times per month. The buying period was after 4 p.m. and those respondents spent less than 2,000 baht on buying imported food. Moreover, most consumers knew the information from quotation advertisements. However, another consideration of marketing factors found that overall factors did impact on the buying decisions on imported food at moderate level. The sorting of marketing factors from highest to lowest degrees were following by products of imported food, prices, places, promotions, persons providing services, services processes and social and culture characteristics. Furthermore, when comparing to personal conditions that influenced to imported food buying decisions of consumers in Amphur Koh Samui, Surat Thani Province found that age, educational level, occupation and average income made a difference to the imported food buying decisions at the significance level of 0.05, whereas there were no difference of sex and status to buying decisions. Other considerations related to the correlation between marketing factors and the consumers behavior on buying imported food found that imported food products, prices, places, promotions, services processes, and social and culture characteristics did correlate to the consumers buying behavior at the statistics significance level of 0.05. However, there was no correlation between personals who providing services and consumers purchasing behavior.