Exploring the Facilitating Factors Affecting Functional Dairy Products' Consumption from the View Point of Stakeholders: A Study Based on Social Marketing Theory

Functional foods' market is growing steadily worldwide and new products are introduced to the market continuously. The development of functional foods requires knowledge of factors influencing their acceptance. Due to the information gap in this field in Iran, the present study aimed to identify the facilitating factors affecting functional dairy products' consumption from the viewpoint of stakeholders in Tehran. This qualitative study was conducted using a social marketing approach. Data were collected via eight focus group discussions and 40 in-depth interviews between May and September 2014. In total, 105 people participated in this qualitative research, including 10 stakeholders in production field, 9 stakeholders in supply field, 21 influencing stakeholders, and 65 women consumers (44 housewives and 21 employed women). Participants were selected by purposeful sampling technique with maximum diversity, and snowball sampling was used to identify key stakeholders. Data collection and directed content analysis were performed simultaneously using MAXQDA® software. Based on the results, the facilitating factors affecting functional dairy products' consumption were categorized in five main groups: i) factors related to product, including two subthemes – sensory and non-sensory characteristics; ii) price, including two subthemes – physical and economic accessibility; iii) place of the product supply; iv) promotion strategies, including five subthemes – informing, educating, recommending by friends, professionals and others, advertising, and supporting the production, as social marketing mix, and v) factors related to consumer as a new dimension, which included five subthemes – adequate knowledge, socio-demographic characteristics, positive attitude to the product, food taste, and food preferences. The findings of this study can be a source of valuable information for designing effective interventions to increase the consumption of functional dairy products in the community