KOREASCHOLAR

In the last years a lot of research focused on functional food (FF) whose first definition was set in Japan, in the 1980s, for “food products fortified with special constituents that possess advantageous physiological effects” (Siro et al., 2008). The main research interest was on the reasons and motives of FF consumption (Annunziata, 2013; Bhaskaran & Hardley, 2002; Bonanno, 2012; Siro et al., 2008; Verbeke, 2005; Verbeke et al., 2009), and the price and affordability resulted among the main criteria at the basis of the consumers’ decisions. Notwithstanding the increasing importance of the FF market and of the price within the basket of FF products attributes, surprisingly, no studies has so far analyzed the capacity of consumers to correctly recall FF prices. The objective of this research is to examine the determinants of shoppers’ in-store price recall for functional yoghurt and fermented milk products (FY). The determinants are grouped as follows: - Products’ characteristics: Price promotion, Brand, Claim type - Shoppers’ socio-economic characteristics: Gender, Age, Level of education, Perceived Family income - Shoppers’ purchasing behavior: Functional yoghurt purchase frequency, Yoghurt category purchase frequency, Share-of-requirement, Reason of consumption Research interviews were carried out inside three large supermarket buildings in an average size Italian city. Shoppers were selected among the ones who chose a FY. Face-to-face questioning at the point of sale after the selection or purchase if something from the corresponding product category was bought is a widely adopted and tested method (Dickson & Sawyer, 1990; Evanschitzky et al., 2004; Le Boutillier et al., 1994; Monroe & Lee, 1999; Olavarrieta et al., 2012; Vanhuele & Dreze, 2002) and ensures shoppers’ interest, knowledge, familiarity with the products under investigation. The research applies the Dickson ad Sawyer’s (1990) methodology which was integrated with a filter question so to select only the already functional yoghurt customers, that is excluding first-purchase functional yoghurt shopper, which could create a bias due to the more intense purchasing and selection process that a first-purchase determines. The survey covered 207 shoppers, with a high representation of females (80.2%), with all ages equally represented, with good level of education (61% with Senior High School Diploma and above), and half employed and half unemployed. Price recall accuracy dependent variable was calculated adopting two indicators, commonly adopted in research on price accuracy and knowledge: the percentage absolute deviation or price recall accuracy indicator (PAD) and the price knowledge score (PKS). 24.6% of shoppers responded correctly, 38.2% responded within a 5% error from the correct price, and 20.3% declare not to know the correct price and did not attempt any answer. The research tests 11 hypotheses through a logistic regressions on a binary dependent variable measuring price recall by correct responses regarding a price (including incorrect responses ± 1% - 25.6%), or not correct responses (74.4%). Antecedent variables were included in the equation as independent variables. The model demonstrates a high prediction accuracy (74.4%), and the overall fit statistic (p-value for the Chi-square test=0.000) indicates a good level of fit between the hypothesized model and the data. Results show that shoppers’ price recall is more likely to be good when FY is on promotion, if there is high purchase frequency, if the FY is bought mainly for ‘hedonistic’ motivation, if the FY claim is the reduction of risks of disease. As far as socio-demographic information are concerned, results show that men (vs. women), younger shoppers (vs. older), high educated people (vs. low educated), and shoppers with perceived adequate family income (vs. inadequate income) have a higher propensity to a correct price recall. The present research expands knowledge on price recall determinants and on functional food purchasing experience. As other studies on price knowledge, this research suggests that shoppers do not follow rational criteria in assigning their resources and that the information available are variably processed and intertwined with personal motives of consumption. Functional food purchasing experience does not differ from the conventional food, as far as yoghurt is concerned. Similarly to conventional food, promotion and higher purchase frequency increases price recall accuracy. Limitations of the present research are that only one functional food, even though the category with the highest turnover worldwide, was investigated. Moreover, even though the sample includes a number of shoppers similar to past studies, the sample is only partially representative of the Italian consumers. Finally, a better balance in the sample between male and female shoppers would bolster the basis for the results. To conclude, these findings provide important insights for managers who make pricing strategies for a product with worldwide growing sales, but whose main selling obstacle is the high market price.

• Antonella Samoggia(University of Bologna)