Older people’s perceptions towards conventional and functional yoghurts through the repertory grid method A cross-country study

Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate older people’s perceptions, across eight European countries (the UK, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Italy), towards functional foods. Design/methodology/approach – The repertory grid method was used to elicit reasons underlying preferences of five yoghurts with different functional properties and two conventional ones. Findings – Familiarity was the key driver in products’ separation. For the Italian case, as well as the Spanish, Portuguese, Danish and Swedish the first principal axis could be interpreted as novel-common axis, whilst it was not in the UK, Germany and Poland. Research limitations/implications – Behavioural intention to buy functional yoghurts was more strongly predicted and moderated by single item perceived need (PN) than single item affective and/or cognitive attitude (AA, CA), even though PN, AA and CA could be consistently assessed within the same latent measure (in all countries but Denmark). Nevertheless, beliefs/attitudes towards a novel category of products such as functional foods may be reasonably keeping moving. Originality/value – In this study, preference instructions pertaining to beneficial and imagery attributes, revealed idiosyncratic properties associated with functional yoghurts across eight European samples of older people.