생수제품의 소비자지식수준과 정보요구에 관한연구

A number of diverse products are emerging along with the expansion of the bottled water market. This study examines whether a consumer has sufficient knowledge while searching and practicing alternative activity for the bottled water purchase. There is also a need to underline the consumer’s information preference in regard to bottled water’s information markings. The purpose of the study is to analyze consumer knowledge level and his/her information preference. Frequency and ANOVA analysese were employed in this study. The results show that the average consumer’s knowledge level for bottled water products was 12.95 out of 19. Consumers who answered that they are well informed of the bottled water products were 43.0%(average knowledge level: 14.2) while uninformed group was 57.0%(average knowledge level: 11.98). The well informed group possessed higher knowledge level than the later group. Moreover, among the bottled water producing nations, the consumer group preferring France(13.64) and Italy(13.05) possessed higher knowledge level than the consumers favoring the United States of America(9.00), Germany(12.00), and Korea(12.65). Hence, the consumer group favoring nations with history and brands’ reputation is not making habitual decision, but, practicing information research and alternative activity. Furthermore, in terms of bottled water’s information preference, consumers valued the information of catchment area, reliable institution’s evaluation report, and nutrients. In addition, only 41.2% of consumers were satisfied with current bottled water’s information markings while 58.8% were dissatisfied. The study suggests that the education for enhancing information sharing and increasing the knowledge level is recommended to allow customers to properly search and practice alternative activity for the bottled water products.