Williamson Sara, Szocs Courtney
Department of Marketing, SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, NY 11568, USA.
Department of Marketing, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA.
Appetite. 2021 Oct 1;165:105301. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105301. Epub 2021 May 11.
Manufacturers often include smiling faces on food packages, especially those targeted towards children. Prior research suggests that anthropomorphized images in general, and smiling faces in particular, are an effective marketing tool that encourage food choice and consumption among children. However, it is not clear how adult consumers, who often make food purchases for children, respond to smiling faces on packaging when making decisions for a child recipient. The results of four experiments show that food packages with (vs. without) smiling faces activate child-related thoughts which leads to expectations of making a child happy with the food and ultimately greater purchase likelihood for the child recipient. The serial effects of smiling faces on purchase likelihood through child-related thoughts and the expectations of a child's emotional reaction are robust to an array of products with more and less appealing flavors. Further, a smile line in the absence of eyes does not catalyze the same serial mechanism. Overall, our findings suggest that marketers should exercise caution when utilizing smiling faces on food packages, especially when packages contain unhealthy foods; and, consumers should be aware of the effects that this seemingly innocent packaging feature can have on their product responses.
制造商经常在食品包装上印上笑脸，尤其是那些针对儿童的食品包装。先前的研究表明，一般来说拟人化的形象，特别是笑脸，是一种有效的营销工具，能够鼓励儿童选择和食用食品。然而，尚不清楚那些经常为孩子购买食品的成年消费者在为孩子选购食品时，会如何对包装上的笑脸做出反应。四项实验的结果表明，带有（而非没有）笑脸的食品包装会引发与孩子相关的想法，这会让人期望该食品能让孩子开心，最终使得为孩子购买该食品的可能性更大。笑脸通过与孩子相关的想法以及对孩子情绪反应的期望，对购买可能性产生的一系列影响，对于各种口味吸引力不同的产品来说都是显著的。此外，没有眼睛的微笑线条不会引发同样的连锁反应机制。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，营销人员在食品包装上使用笑脸时应谨慎行事，尤其是当包装内含有不健康食品时；而且，消费者应该意识到这种看似无害的包装特征可能会对他们的产品反应产生影响。
