Healthy food and/or supplements may be used in the context of a healthylifestyle or as a means to compensate for an unhealthy lifestyle. Consumers areincreasingly taking charge of their health and manipulate food choices or usedietary supplement regimes. By analysing usage across segments, marketerscan determine the optimum audience for any specific health and wellnessproduct. Marketers can develop marketing plans to the common motives, beliefsand behaviours of the optimal target segment, and communicate with themthrough common sources of influence with meaningful messages that speak totheir motivations. Healthcare professionals can mount high quality, targetededucation and intervention programmes for consumers by getting to know theirclients' beliefs. It is, therefore, important to identify healthy food and supplementuse of South African consumers.Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine which demographicfactors and other beliefs are associated with an individual's choice between theusage of supplements or the eating of healthy food.Subjects/Setting: A random sample of 1997 metropolitan consumersrepresentative of the gender distribution, age distribution and population groupsin South Africa was chosen. The data were weighted, so that they would berepresentative of the total South African metropolitan consumer population.Questionnaires consisting of 17 food related sections were designed byresearchers in cooperation with business partners. One of the sectionscontained a number of statements about food, dietary supplements, health anddisease. MARKINOR, a marketing research company, was contracted to collectthe data. Consumers preferring healthy food were compared with supplementchoosers with regard to demographic and belief factors. Explanatory variablesincluded gender, age group, monthly income, race, living standard measure(LSM), education and children, as well as different eating habit and food relatedstatements.Statistical analysis: The quantitative data produced by the survey wereanalysed by using the Statistica -programme in order to generate the relevanttabulations, descriptive statistics and statistical tests.Results: About 61% (n= 6 526) of the respondents reported healthy foodpreference, while 20% (n= 2 086) stated they preferred supplements. Especiallymales, people older than 50 years, individuals with a monthly income of R9 000- R17 999, Indians, LSM 7 or 8 respondents, individuals with secondaryschooling and people with no children indicated a preference for healthy food.These individuals indicated the belief that food is not only for enjoyment but alsofor health maintenance. The South African consumer preferring supplementsincluded: females, 18 to 49 year olds, people with a monthly income of up toR2999, blacks, LSM 2, people with no or primary schooling and/or people withchildren. The main focus of dietary supplement choosers was the medicinalvalue of supplements and the enjoyment value of food.Applications/Conclusions: To our knowledge, this study was the first attemptto characterize the healthy food and supplement choosers in South Africa.Further research is needed to identify which supplements or healthy foods areused by South African consumers in order to ensure their health. It isrecommended that a suitable scientific instrument be developed to this effect.
