NEW PUBLICATION: Perception of health claims among Nordic consumers

Sunday, 22 November 2009 11:16

In the study of Grunert et al. (2009), the health claim perceptions of 4,612 consumers in Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were studied. Information given in health claims was studied by dividing health claim into components and combining these components in various ways.

Claims were constructed by combining different active ingredients (familiar / unfamiliar), type of claim (combination of information about ingredient, physiological function and health benefit) and other claim characteristics.

The study was designed with a web-based instrument giving different combinations of health claims to the respondents. Respondents decided which of a pair of claims sounded better, was easier to understand and more convincing in their opinion.

Results showed that familiar ingredient was favoured over unfamiliar one. Two groups of consumers were identified. One group favoured “long” claims that give all the information: active ingredient, physiological function and health benefit. The other group liked better “short” claims giving only information about the health benefit.

Reference: Grunert, K.,  Lähteenmäki, L., Boztug, Y., Martinsdóttir, E., Ueland, Ø., Åström, A. and Lampila, P. (2009). Perception of Health Claims Among Nordic Consumers. Journal of Consumer Policy, 32 (3), 269-287.

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