Fenko Anna, de Vries Roxan, van Rompay Thomas
Department of Communication Science, Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2018 Feb 5;9:53. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00053. eCollection 2018.
This study investigates the relative impact of textual claims and visual metaphors displayed on the product's package on consumers' flavor experience and product evaluation. For consumers, strength is one of the most important sensory attributes of coffee. The 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment ( = 123) compared the effects of visual metaphor of strength (an image of a lion located either on top or on the bottom of the package of coffee beans) and the direct textual claim ("extra strong") on consumers' responses to coffee, including product expectation, flavor evaluation, strength perception and purchase intention. The results demonstrate that both the textual claim and the visual metaphor can be efficient in communicating the product attribute of strength. The presence of the image positively influenced consumers' product expectations before tasting. The textual claim increased the perception of strength of coffee and the purchase intention of the product. The location of the image also played an important role in flavor perception and purchase intention. The image located on the bottom of the package increased the perceived strength of coffee and purchase intention of the product compared to the image on top of the package. This result could be interpreted from the perspective of the grounded cognition theory, which suggests that a picture in the lower part of the package would automatically activate the "strong is heavy" metaphor. As heavy objects are usually associated with a position on the ground, this would explain why perceiving a visually heavy package would lead to the experience of a strong coffee. Further research is needed to better understand the relationships between a metaphorical image and its spatial position in food packaging design.
本研究调查了产品包装上显示的文字声明和视觉隐喻对消费者风味体验和产品评价的相对影响。对消费者来说，强度是咖啡最重要的感官属性之一。这项2×3组间实验（N = 123）比较了强度视觉隐喻（咖啡豆包装顶部或底部的狮子图像）和直接文字声明（“特浓”）对消费者对咖啡反应的影响，包括产品期望、风味评价、强度感知和购买意愿。结果表明，文字声明和视觉隐喻在传达产品强度属性方面都很有效。图像的存在对品尝前消费者的产品期望有积极影响。文字声明提高了对咖啡强度的感知和产品的购买意愿。图像的位置在风味感知和购买意愿方面也起着重要作用。与包装顶部的图像相比，位于包装底部的图像增加了对咖啡强度的感知和产品的购买意愿。这一结果可以从扎根认知理论的角度来解释，该理论表明包装下部的图片会自动激活“浓即重”的隐喻。由于重物通常与地面上的位置相关联，这就解释了为什么感知到视觉上较重的包装会带来浓咖啡的体验。需要进一步研究以更好地理解隐喻图像与其在食品包装设计中的空间位置之间的关系。
