The Perception of Dietary Supplements Among Consumers Engaged in Sports on a Regular Basis

The inaccurate perception of their own body image can be observed not only among physically inactive people, but also among those doing sports on a regular basis. Corporate marketing communication further increases these uncertainties and doubts in people doing sport on a regular basis, and thus they can easily become actual consumers of dietary supplements. The results of our primary research (n=737) show the sport-related activities, attitudes and segmentation of those engaged in sports regularly, including details about the dietary supplements market. Our results indicate that the group of people engaged in sports on a regular basis is far from being a homogeneous segment. 56.4% of them in general show a positive attitude towards dietary supplements and they constitute the potential consumers of the product range. Opinion leaders (coaches), reference groups and word of mouth advertising (fellow sportsmen) were found to play the key role in choosing particular dietary supplements.