Consumers of products with health claims in the Western Balkans: Producers' perception and reality

Abstract

The study presented in this paper aimed to investigate how producers of functional foods comprehend their typical consumers in the Western Balkan countries and to what extent that perception differs from actual features of consumers of these products. Consumers sample included 3085 respondents, coming from six countries of the region. They were investigated by using face-to-face interviews, while stratified three-stage random sampling method was adopted in order to ensure nationally representative samples. Producers sample consisted of 29 companies, comprising all leaders in the sector of functional foods in the Western Balkans. They were examined through in-depth interviews. Results revealed that producers evaluate consumers' characteristics in a right manner concerning their age, income and education level, whereas their viewpoints on consumers family status, gender, and state of health failed to be corroborated by findings established by consumer survey. In addition, the Western Balkans consumers appear to contrast with their global counterparts in terms of gender and the importance of presence of children in the households. These conclusions suggest that producers need to modify their marketing communications in order to better address their targeted consumer segments. They should put more efforts in educating consumers about the benefits of the consumption of functional foods as well as in communicating with female population. Since this paper presents the first attempt to comprehend the validity of functional food producers' perception of their consumers in this region, it may be a valuable benchmark for future studies in the field.