Who Chooses Functional Food?: Socio-Demographic Effects and Food Category Difference Estimated from Scanner-Panel Data

Functional foods have continuously spread in many countries. Japan is one of the largest functional food market in the world and the government approves them by scientific evidences. The country has managed functional food policies for around 30 years so that consumers in Japan are familiar with them. However, there is no research about the functional products in Japan using real purchasing log data from both marketing and policy viewpoints. This study is the first to reveal socio-demographic effects when consumers purchase functional foodstuff with a large amount of purchasing log data covering many different food categories. In addition, the differences among carriers were found and cluster analysis was conducted to clarify their differences. While previous studies using questionnaire-survey data report that socio- demographic characteristics have only minor impact on the acceptance of functional foods, it is found that socio-demographic factors affect the purchase of functional products in a real market environment. These results are useful and practical in consumer marketing and policy discussions.