An Exploratory Study of the Use of Food Bloggers as Organic Food Promoters

Alsted, Caroline Cecilie ; Jensen, Kristina Hasled Møller

4. term

Integrated Food Studies (cand.tech.), Master

2017

2017-06-08

These years, we are experiencing an increased integration of social media in our society, which has shown to have an important behavioral influence on people’s lifestyle. One of the biggest social media phenomena is blogging, specifically food blogging, which more and more food companies have started to use as a promotion tool. The use of food blogging within an organic food promotion context has however, not been explored before, despite the Danish state claiming that more food actors need to participate in the promotion of organic food in a modern way. Therefore, this thesis seeks to explore how food bloggers can be used as promoting food actors to mediate organic food, using the Danish organic wholesaler Urtekram as a case example. Following a social constructionist approach, the data collection consisted of six semi-structured interviews, supplemented by an online ethnography of the interviewees’ social media, during the month of February 2017. The interviews were coded with inspiration from the post-modernistic Grounded Theory approach (Clarke, 2005) and the online ethnography observations were recorded in field notes, which were analyzed through a discourse analysis. The analysis provided insights into the structures behind Urtekram’s brand values and communication strategies, as well as the bloggers’ identity values and relations to organic food. It was found that the use of food bloggers is an evident strategy for food companies such as Urtekram, in terms of reaching a wide and segmented audience - however the promotion needs to be relayed through social media platforms, and not through websites or blogs only. The choice and intentions behind the use of food bloggers should furthermore be considered, as the studied bloggers are reluctant to promote organic food directly on their platforms, due to political and monetary associations, which are perceived as challenges. Instead, the bloggers’ promotion of organic food happens in a more implicit way, through the mediation of other food trends, drawing on some of the same elements as organic food, which along the way, might raise people’s awareness and consumption of organic food. However, further studies need to be generated within this subject in order to make any generalizations.

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