Chinese Consumer Attitude towards Nutraceuticals

Abstract

Once the average income per capita reaches $8,000 US, citizens will pay more attention to their bodily health Beijing and Shanghai have reached this threshold in 2009. In order to provide insight for manufactures trying to enter this industry in China, this study proposes to (1) explore and further fine-tune the attitude scale that measures the willingness of consumers to purchase nutraceuticals while improving the percent variance explained by applying factor analysis and regression analysis and (2) understand the nutraceutical consuming preferences and purchasing habits of Chinese consumers.268 questionnaires were distributed and collected with only 216 of them valid. The statements on the attitude scale loaded onto four dimensions, perceived reward from using nutraceuticals, part of a healthy diet, efficacy of nutraceuticals, and necessity of nutraceuticals. The results showed that all four dimensions of the attitude scale affected consumer willingness to use nutraceuticals while the best predictors vary for products with different health claims, which indicates that consumers do not view nutraceuticals as a homogeneous group. The attitude scale is great for market testing, but each product category should be tested independently.