24 pages., Online via UI e-subscription, Researchers examined colors and pictures of food and drinks to determine what, if any, impact these aspects have on consumer beliefs regarding important product characteristics. Findings suggested that even when very concrete verbal information is used, graphical representations had a significant and long-term effect on product beliefs and purchase intentions.
18 pages., via online journal, As food products marketed as “gluten-free” become increasingly popular, many consumers start to exclude sources of gluten (e.g., wheat, barley, and rye) from their diets for both medical and non-medical purposes. The grain industry is facing a growing challenge to (re)boost consumers’ confidence in the healthiness and safety of its commodities. Using 561 participants recruited from the Amazon Mechanical Turk workers’ panel, this study implemented a 2 (pretzels vs. potato chips) * 2 (positive- vs. negative- frame) * 2 (wheat image vs. no wheat image) experiment to examine the effects of gluten-free labels on consumers’ perceived healthiness and safety of wheat, perceived benefits of labeled products, and their evaluation of the shown labels. Results showed that consumers evaluate the gluten-free labels most positively when they appear on products that could have contained gluten. For products that are naturally gluten-free, adding a gluten-free label only decreased consumers’ confidence in such labels. The presence of gluten-free labels increased consumers’ perceived benefits of the labeled products when they do not contain any misleading information (e.g., image of a wheat head). However, some gluten-free labels could have negative impacts on consumers’ perceptions of the healthiness and safety of wheat. Overall, food producers and marketers might have undervalued consumers’ literacy and overestimated their susceptibility to marketing strategies. We discussed the implications for food marketers, regulators, and communicators.
19 pages., Online by open access., Researchers studied a large set of eco-labels, combining data from three different sources. Findings suggested that experts and media were primarily concerned about "re-assurance" practices, looking for one or preferably multiple layers of "reassurance" that independent parties are overseeing the eco-label and the firms certified under it.
7 pages., Online via UI e-subscription, Through experiment methodology, authors investigated the relative influence of nutritional warnings and two marketing strategies commonly used in food labels, nutrition claims, and fruit images on consumers' healthfulness judgments. Findings documented the impact of nutritional warnings on perceived healthfulness.
