Analysis of the healthy lifestyle consumer

Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the healthy lifestyle consumer by examining demographic, personal value and psychographic antecedents. Design/methodology/approach A cluster analysis was used to divide consumers into healthy and unhealthy lifestyle segments based on their diet and exercise behavior. A logistic regression analysis was then run on these segments to test the impact of 17 hypothesized antecedents. Findings Results indicate that people who maintain a healthy lifestyle tend to be female, older, more educated, place less importance on the value of “excitement”, have a greater tendency to plan ahead and tend to experience less role overload. Research limitations/implications One limitation is that the response rate of the mail survey used to collect data was only 28.8 percent. Another limitation was that the specific types of diet and exercise behavior used to classify respondents into clusters did not encompass the full range of diet and exercise options available to all consumers. Practical implications The financial impact of the healthy lifestyle consumer on a number of industries is documented. A demographic profile of the healthy lifestyle consumer was obtained which should assist companies seeking to target this segment. The significance of two time‐related psychographic predictors suggests that companies looking to expand the market for healthy products may want to focus on ways of making their products/services more convenient to time‐pressured consumers. Originality/value This paper represents one of the first attempts in the marketing literature to study the healthy lifestyle segment.