The Analysis of the Consumers’ Behavior and Willingness to Pay for Liquid Nutritional Supplement in Taiwan’s Municipalities

隨著經濟的高速發展，使得現代人的生活步調加快、外食比例提高，造成現代人普遍有營養不均衡的情形，因此開始透過營養補充劑產品來補充身體不足之營養，其中飲品劑型的產品因為方便食用而逐漸開始受到關注。故本研究將探討台灣直轄市消費者在飲品劑型之營養補充劑的購買行為以及使用經驗，並分析不同族群消費者之特性，亦將分析消費者對飲品劑型之營養補充劑之效用函數估計，以瞭解消費者之選擇行為與願付價格。 實證結果發現購買營養補充劑飲品之受訪者以女性、年齡較輕、教育程度高以及平時有運動習慣者為主，較年輕的受訪者較會因為廣告、健康食品認證而提高購買意願，會注意營養補充劑是否有通過健康食品認證，且是其購買營養補充劑的考量因素之一並願意以較高的價格購買，另外購買便利性也是其重視的因素之一。而在消費者偏好的部分，發現消費者偏好的營養補充劑飲品屬性依序為腸胃功能改善、有健康食品認證標章、藥妝店與便利商店販售、以及無廣告。 建議在產品的行銷上，以女性、年齡層介於20-40歲及運動頻率較高者為目標族群，以這些消費者最重視的「產品保健功效」以及「健康食品認證」兩特性作為訴求。建議廠商應不誇大產品功效，並積極參與認證健康食品認證，而政府透過公正的第三方建立健全的食品認證流程，並對廠商的所廣告的功效進行把關，以保護消費者的食用安全。With the rapid development of economy, the pace of life and the proportion of eating out have been increased, causing people’s nutritional intake tend to be unbalanced nowadays. Thus they are trying to replenish the nutrition by taking dietary supplement products. Since dietary supplement products in drinks pattern are convenience to eat, it have gradually received extensive attention. Therefore, this study will analyze purchase behavior and user experience of liquid nutritional supplements of consumers who live in Taiwan’s municipalities, and then analyzes the characteristics of different groups of consumers. Moreover, this study will estimates consumers’ utility functions of the liquid nutritional supplements for understanding consumers’ choice behavior and willingness to pay. Empirical results show that the majority of respondents who have experience of buying liquid nutritional supplements are the respondents who are female, younger, well-educated and usually with exercise habits. Younger respondents have a higher propensity to increase their willingness to pay due to advertising and healthy food certification. Furthermore, they will pay attention on whether the products have healthy food certification on nutritional supplements and it is one of the considerations for increasing their willing to pay. Additionally, purchase convenience is also an important factor to them. For the consumer preferences, the analysis found that the most preferred attribute of consumers is improving gastrointestinal function. It follows by having healthy food certification mark, selling in drug stores and convenience stores, and ad-free. We suggest that the manufacturers of liquid nutritional supplements target on consumers who are female, younger, ages ranging from 20-40 years old, and who have higher exercise frequency. The product marketing should appeal to healthy claims and health food certificate, which is most valued by consumers. Manufacturers should not exaggerate product efficacy and should actively involve in the certification of healthy food certification. At the same time, to ensure consumers’ food safety, the government should establish a regular food certification process through an impartial third party and check the efficacy advertising of manufacturers