A preliminary study of consumers’ perceptions of differences on health claims

Abstract

  This study aims to better understand consumers’ perceptions of health claims with abstract or specific expression among general consumers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six general consumers. The data were analyzed based on the research steps of the phenomenological approach. Two factors in the selection of abstract expressions for health claims were detected: “matching needs due to broad scope” and “high acceptance.” It was found that difficult words such as "visceral fat" lowered consumer acceptance. Furthermore, since knowledge is necessary to imagine any function, specific expressions were sometimes preferred to facilitate the “ease of benefit” inference. The tendency of general consumers to expect unexpected functions from abstract expressions was suggested; thus, it was considered important to devise optimal expressions and to validate them through consumer science research repeatedly.