Consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods. The influence of carrier, benefit and trust

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to examine factors that influence willingness to buy functional foods. Data were collected from a representative mail survey in Switzerland (n = 249). Results suggest that consumers are more inclined to buy functional foods with physiological health claims compared with psychological health claims. Health claims were most positively evaluated when attached to a product with a positive health image. Results further show that participants who have trust in the food industry are more likely to buy functional foods compared with participants who do not have trust in the food industry. Older consumers were more interested in functional foods than younger consumers.

Introduction

New technologies allow for the altering of foods in ways that provide additional health benefits to consumers. Such functional foods are products that promise consumers improvements in targeted physiological functions (Diplock et al., 1999). It has been suggested that the functional food market will continue to grow in the near future (Menrad, 2003). Compared with Japan or the US, the European market for functional foods is less developed (Bech-Larsen & Scholderer, 2007).

The success of functional food will depend on consumers’ acceptance of the products as part of the daily diet (Lähteenmäki, Lyly, & Urala, 2007). As noted by Bech-Larsen and Scholderer (2007), little research has examined the factors that influence consumers’ acceptance of functional foods.

Consumers do not perceive functional foods as a homogenous food category (Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2004). A study conducted by van Kleef, van Trijp, and Luning (2005) explored food (carrier) and health claim compatibility for 100 hypothetical products. In their exploratory study with a convenience sample of 50 persons, they could not find a significant interaction between health claim and carrier. This result implies considerable flexibility in the design of functional foods, since the attractiveness of the health claim is not affected by the carrier. Participants rated physiological health claims as more attractive than psychological health claims. Attractiveness of functional foods is influenced by the carrier. Carriers with a good health image are more attractive than carriers lacking such an image. One should be cautious in generalizing these findings, however, because they are based on a small convenience sample. Recently, the finding that the carrier influences willingness to buy functional foods has been replicated (Ares & Gámbaro, 2007). Results of this study also suggest that functional foods based on carriers perceived as healthy (e.g., yoghurt) are more likely to be accepted by consumers. van Trijp and van der Lans (2007) examined consumer acceptance of a yoghurt with various nutrition- and health-related claims. Results of their study suggest that consumer perception differs by benefit being claimed. Products with the added benefits of reducing the negative impact of stress or improving concentration had lower consumer appeal than products strengthening the body's natural defense system.

It has been suggested that there may be individual differences in the extent to which people are likely to buy functional foods (Frewer, Scholderer, & Lambert, 2003). It is therefore important to ascertain the factors that influence consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods. Perceived reward of using functional foods has been the strongest factor influencing willingness to buy such foods (Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007). Research suggests, furthermore, that the food-neophobia scale moderately predicted willingness to use functional foods (Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007). Social trust also seems to be an important factor in the perception of functional food benefits (Urala, Arvola, & Lähteenmäki, 2003) and the acceptance of new food products (Siegrist, Cousin, Kastenholz, & Wiek, 2007). Bech-Larsen and Grunert (2003) hypothesized that, in addition to health claims and food types, processing method and cultural values (e.g., negative attitudes towards manipulation of natural resources) may influence consumer acceptance of functional foods. However, they found only modest correlations between cultural values and attitudes towards functional foods. Organic processing methods increased perceived healthiness in the two European samples, but not in the US sample.

The benefits of functional foods may not be directly experienced by consumers. Producers therefore must communicate potential benefits to consumers. It is only when consumers believe that products deliver the claimed health benefits that they be inclined to buy them. Trust in the industry may be important for the acceptance of functional foods.

One goal of the present study was to replicate the findings reported by van Kleef et al. (2005) using a random rather than a convenience sample. We hypothesized that willingness to buy functional foods depends on the carrier and on the health claim. More specifically, we presumed that physiological benefits would be more acceptable than psychological benefits. Further, we presumed that consumers would be more willing to buy functional foods with a carrier perceived as healthy (e.g., yoghurt) compared with a carrier perceived as not healthy (e.g., chocolate). A second goal was to examine factors unrelated to the product that may influence consumers’ willingness to buy functional foods. We hypothesized that social trust is an important factor influencing participants’ responses. Furthermore, we expected, that older people are more willing to buy functional foods than younger people and males.