Despite the general consumer movement away from what they view as “industrial foods,” where synthetic and artificial ingredients are shunned in favor of unadulterated products, food marketers continue to break apart fundamental foods and beverages, add various ingredients, and offer them back to the public as “functional” products. But how do consumers view functional foods? What does it take for a functional food to make sense to consumers?
The average American consumer is not on the same functional-food wavelength as the industry that coined the term. Many functional products continue to pour into the marketplace, with some finding greater success than others.
Most consumers have quite a literal understanding of the term “functional food,” and that is: foods that have a function. But, while consumers are interested in the health benefits of their food, rarely does this interest translate into understanding and acceptance of “functional foods” created in factories or laboratories. Consumers are likely to view foods as functional because of ingredients with naturally occurring health benefits. Thus, products like olive oil are viewed as a source of “good fats,” or oatmeal “helps with cholesterol,” while most products marketed as cleverly contrived innovations with long ingredient lists are viewed with confusion and skepticism.
In addition to a strong desire for naturally occurring health benefits in their food, when faced with a product boasting specific health benefits, consumers make their best quick guess at how this functional food “came to be.” For example, consumers examining a pink translucent soft drink enhanced with calcium become confused because they can’t logically connect the product with its functional ingredient.
If the ingredients make sense to the consumers, the product is more readily accepted than one that raises questions about whether a product is a chemical or pharmaceutical or has been enhanced in any other way that seems unnatural. In order to succeed in today’s consumer-driven marketplace, new functional foods and beverages need to be based on culture, not the test laboratory.
Greg Prang, PH.D., is senior ethnographic analyst for the Hartman Group, Bellevue, WA. He brings to the company a rich experience concerning the consumption of leisure, commodity chain analysis, and the interface of consumer choices and sustainable development. For more information, visit hartman-group.com.