The functional food market is constantly evolving, and food companies need to monitor changes in consumer attitudes in order to communicate health information effectively and ensure that their products truly meet consumer expectations. Since the use of online social networking sites (e.g., blogs, forums, newsgroups, image-sharing communities) has become commonplace and widespread today, online content is a ideal source of information for those examining consumer habits. The qualitative-type netnography, using ethnographic research techniques, contributes to the study of the culture of online communities by identifying consumer groups organized on the topic. In our research, we aimed to identify distinguishable and separable population groups in relation to the consumption of functional foods, namely probiotic dairy products, within blogs, forums, and other community arenas organized on online platforms. Our netnographic research highlights that consumers demand and actively seek out probiotic yoghurts, and that proper and understandable communication of the health properties associated with probiotic dairy products is particularly important. Consumer awareness and knowledge expansion play a key role in the market success of probiotic dairy products, but one of the biggest difficulties in the online space is the transmission of reliable, understandable and authentic information.

JEL codes: D83, I12