Top Health Concerns Similar among Consumers, Suggests New DuPont Research

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A new consumer research project from DuPont Nutrition & Health explores the food-purchasing priorities of more than 14,000 consumers. Among other findings, the research suggests that while consumers remain sharply divided when it comes to prioritizing convenience, taste, health benefits, and the price of food, there is plenty of common ground when it comes to the biggest health concerns of all consumers.  

DuPont’s new research, conducted with HealthFocus International (St. Petersburg, FL), distinguishes between six core consumer segments: “health wise,” “health helpers,” “weight strugglers,” “good life,” “taste driven,” and “just food.” While the “health wise” and “health helpers” groups both value healthy foods (“health wise” most of all), the “weight strugglers” are most concerned with losing weight. “Good life” consumers like to eat healthily without sacrificing taste, “taste driven” consumers are more focused on convenience and taste, and “just food” consumers look for easy and cost-effective options.

Despite the wide-ranging priorities of these consumer segments, tiredness and heart disease ranked among the top-three health concerns in every group. Stress was also a high priority for four of the six groups. The only exceptions were the “weight strugglers” and “health helpers,” who included obesity or muscle health/tone as a top-three concern, respectively, rather than stress.

Consumer Breakdown

Another interesting revelation is that two of the most opposite consumer groups, “health wise” and “just food,” account for the largest shares of the total consumer base by percentage-28% and 23%, respectively. The next largest segments are “taste driven” (19%), “weight strugglers” (12%), “health helpers” (9%), and “good life” (9%).

While “health wise” consumers were far more willing than other groups to give up taste and convenience for health benefits (followed by “health helpers”), it was actually the “good life” consumers who were most willing to “pay more for foods with health benefits.”

With the exception of the “just food” consumers, all of the other consumer segments shared a relative willingness to pay more for healthy foods-all within twelve percentage points of each other and hovering right around the average response.

Greg Paul, PhD, global marketing director of consumer segments at DuPont Nutrition & Health, says the research reveals how important it is to understand the food-purchasing motivations of each consumer segment because there is such a wide range of attitudes.

“Eighty three percent of global consumers consider diet and nutrition important to wellbeing, which is greater than wealth or physical fitness,” explains Greg Paul, PhD, global marketing director of consumer segments at DuPont Nutrition & Health. “We have become increasingly proactive about our health, yet well-defined and decidedly varied segments still exist. Consumers portray diverse behavior depending on their place in the spectrum of health and wellness.”

DuPont’s research includes consumers from 22 countries. An in-depth infographic of the research findings can be found here.

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Michael Crane
Associate Editor
Nutritional Outlook Magazine
michael.crane@ubm.com