Natural medical attributes and benefits of Spirulina : Segmentation based on consumers' knowledge

Abstract

Consumers today are more health conscious and more interested in health related products than ever before. This behaviour has led to the production of natural products such as the commercial production of microalgae. Of all the blue-green algaes, Spirulinahas received the greatest interest. Spirulina, a filamentous cyanobacterium is considered to be a wholesome natural source of nutrition, and is used for human food, animal feed, and inthe cosmetics industry. The medicinal use of Spirulina is due to its nutritional properties. Previous research on Spirulina showed that it has numerous beneficial effects on human health. The purpose of this research was to describe a quantitative study (n = 795) in Thessaloniki, Greece which identified consumer segments based on their awareness ofSpirulina and its medical benefits to human health. A further aim of the study was to explain the differences in awareness and level of knowledge of Spirulina’s beneficial role to health, on the basis of demographic and socioeconomic attributes. Two consumer segments were produced through K-means Cluster analysis, from the consumers that were aware of theSpirulina product (n = 343). These segments were tagged as “low knowledge consumer segment” and “moderate knowledge consumer segment”. Results also showed that clusters were statistically significantly different regarding awareness, age, occupation, and net individual monthly income.   Key words: Spirulina, health products, consumer awareness, knowledge, segmentation.