Evolving consumer trends for whey protein sports supplements: the Heckman ordered probit estimation

Cian Keogh,Zhifeng Gao,Chenguang Li

doi:10.1186/s40100-019-0125-9

Cian Keogh, Zhifeng Gao + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40100-019-0125-9

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Abstract

Despite the fast-rising popularity of whey protein sports supplements over recent years, there has been little research to investigate the driving forces behind the consumer choices. Using a consumer dataset collected in Ireland, we applied the ordered Heckman two-stage method to examine the evolving consumer trend and to determine the key factors that affect consumers’ choices. The study found that demographic variables, such as gender and income, do not significantly influence the decision on whether or not to consume whey, but exercise type is highly influential. The desire for power and strength is a stable key consumption driver, with endurance and flexibility becoming more important in the expansion of this industry. The study also found that whey is under-consumed by older age groups and under-promoted based on country of origin affiliation. Findings of the study provide further insights to relevant literature and have direct implications to the sports supplement industry as well as the dairy ingredient industry.

Highlights

Few sports supplements have experienced whey protein’s sustained and notable rise in recent years (Euromonitor 2016)
Whey consumption amount is captured by both the quantity of whey products consumed and the money expenditure on whey products. Qualitative variables such as gender and exercise type are included as indicator variables, with endurance being used as the base for exercise type
Results in model 1 show that demographic variables such as age, gender, and income do not have a significant influence on the decision on whether or not to consume whey, but exercise type does make a difference: relative to “endurance” type of exercisers, people who engage in “power and strength” types of exercises are more likely to consume whey protein sports supplements

Summary

Introduction

Few sports supplements have experienced whey protein’s sustained and notable rise in recent years (Euromonitor 2016). Whey protein represented a global market value of approximately USD 7.7 billion in 2016, and its market value is forecasted to reach around USD 9 billion by 2021, corresponding to an average annual growth of 4% (3A Business Consulting 2017). The expected increase in dairy production following the abolition of the EU milk quota regime, and governments’ promotion of value-added dairy products, will further push the growing market of whey protein-based sports supplements (e.g., Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) 2011). Strong growth of high-end protein products (i.e., products with higher protein concentrate like WPC80 and WPI) has been

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