Suurmets Seidi, Clement Jesper, Piras Simone, Barlagne Carla, Tura Matilde, Mokhtari Noureddine, Thabet Chokri
Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Social, Economic, and Geographical Sciences Department, The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK.
Foods. 2024 Sep 13;13(18):2904. doi: 10.3390/foods13182904.
Food evaluation is a topic central to consumer research and food marketing. However, there is little consensus regarding how consumers combine sensory stimuli, product information, and visual impressions to shape their evaluation. Moreover, the bulk of research relies on studies based on questionnaires and declarative responses, raising questions about subliminal processes and their hierarchy in an evaluation process. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a study with more than 400 participants in Morocco and Tunisia and investigated how factors such as flavor/taste, product information, and packaging design in a variety of olive oils influence visual attention and are reflected in willingness to pay (WTP). We implemented incentivization through an auction to reduce the hypothetical bias in stated WTP values. The results revealed that, compared to tasting the oils, the provision of cognitive information led to an increase in consumers' WTP. However, a drastic increase in WTP occurred when the consumers were exposed to package designs, overshadowing the formerly dominant effects of product attributes. These findings support theories suggesting a visual perceptual processing advantage due to the picture superiority effect-a picture says a thousand words. Further, it underlines the importance of graphic design in food marketing. The findings have ramifications for food marketing, product development, and pricing strategies.
食品评估是消费者研究和食品营销的核心主题。然而，对于消费者如何将感官刺激、产品信息和视觉印象结合起来以形成他们的评估，几乎没有达成共识。此外，大部分研究依赖于基于问卷调查和陈述性回答的研究，这引发了关于潜意识过程及其在评估过程中的层级关系的问题。为了弥补文献中的这一空白，我们在摩洛哥和突尼斯对400多名参与者进行了一项研究，调查了各种橄榄油中的风味/味道、产品信息和包装设计等因素如何影响视觉注意力，并反映在支付意愿（WTP）上。我们通过拍卖实施激励措施，以减少陈述的WTP值中的假设偏差。结果显示，与品尝橄榄油相比，提供认知信息会导致消费者的WTP增加。然而，当消费者接触到包装设计时，WTP会急剧增加，掩盖了产品属性以前的主导影响。这些发现支持了一些理论，这些理论认为由于图片优势效应——一图胜千言，视觉感知处理具有优势。此外，它强调了平面设计在食品营销中的重要性。这些发现对食品营销、产品开发和定价策略具有影响。
