Consumer Response to Nutrition Claims

Abstract

Nutrition has become a major concern for the majority of Sri Lankan consumers who are accumulating remarkable knowledge due to the development of health education, through the implementation of various governmental and volunteer projects. The nutrition claims accompanying food related products draw much attention of such sensitive consumers in the country, and the response expected is highly positive. In this scenario, marketers of such products have a social responsibility towards communicating and educating the consumers correctly about diet related disease issues. In Sri Lanka, many local products enter the market without nutritional labels. Given the liberalized economic environment in Sri Lanka, local food producers face immense competition from the imported products, specially from the products of giant multinational companies that have nutritional labels. Therefore, it is imperative to study the impact of nutrition claims on consumer buying behavior in Sri Lanka which is the major objective of this study. A questionnaire was administered to collect primary data, selecting a sample of 148 respondents from the Colombo district. The research findings reveal that majority of the consumers are knowledgeable of nutrition claims, and nutrition information appeared in food labels. The survey found that doctors were the most preferred and most trusted source of information. Further findings disclose that consumers highly prefer the labels which contain more detailed information and simpler wordings. Thus, it can be concluded that the local food marketers will immensely be benefited if they incorporate relevant nutrition information in their marketing communication.