To be or not to be confident in medicine: that's the question! An explorative study on consumer information inferences toward food supplements consumption

Abstract Purpose This study investigated how consumers' confidence in medicine and health information seeking and usage could be related to purchase intentions and satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A panel of 18 food supplements consumers were interviewed using soft laddering. Qualitative data were coded and used to develop a structured survey. Participants (N = 363) were recruited on a voluntary basis among the customers of an Italian company in this sector. Hypotheses were tested by linear regressions and generalized models. Findings Results showed that consumers' confidence in medicine interacted with health information seeking and usage influencing both purchase intention and satisfaction. Consumers with high confidence behave differently from those with low confidence. Research limitations/implications The authors used a sample based on one company's customer base. Practical implications Companies should segment their customers based on their level of confidence in medicine and adopt different marketing strategies for different segments. Social implications A broader knowledge of consumers' attitudes towards food supplements and medicines can improve the public policies aimed at increasing quality of life. Originality/value From a theoretical viewpoint, findings suggest to consider consumers' confidence in medicine along with other subjective and contextual variables in socio-cognitive models aimed at explaining food supplements' consumer behavior. From a marketing viewpoint, results suggest to consider confidence in medicine as a precious variable in segmentation strategies. While some communication strategies are valid for all customers (i.e. using experts as advisors, using scientific contents in ads), others (i.e. relying on the advice of trustworthy people, explaining the consequences of consumption) were proved to have different impact on consumers depending on their degree of confidence in medicine.