Healthy Food: Determinants of Price Knowledge of Functional Dairy Products

ABSTRACT

Agri-food business pricing practices assume that consumers know about prices and that price is an impediment to healthy food purchase and consumption. The present article assesses functional dairy food shoppers’ price knowledge accuracy and its determinants. The data were gathered from 207 face-to-face interviews with shoppers at the point of sale and were analyzed with binary logistic regression testing a number of set hypotheses. Results show that healthy food price knowledge is higher than for conventional food but still low, and consumers tend to underestimate the price paid. Price knowledge accuracy increases with high purchase frequency, promotional products, hedonistic consumption, and for enhanced function products. Results provide a basis for higher sustainable pricing strategies. Consumers’ inability to distinguish misleading pricing strategies calls for regulators to ensure fair and ethical market practices, especially for healthy food.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer
• dairy
• functional
• healthy food
• price recall

Notes

¹ Growth rates of the FF market are at a higher rate compared to other conventional food, with a CAGR of 5.21% until 2018 (Global Industry Analysts “Global Functional Foods and Drinks Industry” 2014). Estimation of global sales are between $180 billion in 2017 (PwC Report “Food as Pharma”) and $207 billion in 2016 (BCC Research).