Isolating price promotions:The influence of promotional timing on promotion redemption

This research investigates how the timing of the promotional encounter, whether consumers encounter a promotion in isolation or at the moment of choice alongside other products, influences how consumers evaluate and redeem a promotional offer. Three studies demonstrate that isolated promotions for premium brands are more effective than traditional shelf promotions in persuading consumers to purchase the promoted product as these promotions alter how consumers evaluate and justify purchasing the promoted products. Specifically, isolated promotions lead consumers to focus relatively less on the price of the promoted product compared to its quality. This reduced focus on price assuages the negative effect of guilt associated with purchasing a more expensive, premium brand. These findings offer insights into consumer response to promotions, the most effective timing for promotions, and the best ways to optimize promotional strategies

Consumer Risk Reactions to Food Product-Harm Crises Over Time: Evidence From Cross-Cultural Field Studies

Consumer/Household Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

Consumer Food Safety Risk Attitudes and Perceptions Over Time: The Case of BSE Crisis

Recent research has shown that by decoupling the risk response behaviour of consumers into the separate components of risk perception and risk attitude, a more robust conceptualization and prediction of consumers’ reactions to food safety issues is possible. Furthermore, it has been argued that the influence of risk attitudes and risk perceptions on consumer risk behaviour for contaminated food products can be used to formulate effective agricultural policies and strategies in case of a food crisis. The question arises whether or not the influence and magnitude of these risk variables changes over time and, hence, whether policies and strategies must be adapted. The BSE (mad cow disease) crises in the USA, Germany and The Netherlands in 2001 and 2004 provided us with a natural experiment to examine the relationship between risk attitudes and perceptions and behaviour over time. The results show that in some countries consumers risk behaviour changed, whereas in others not. These results are useful to policy makers and decision makers in food industry in developing more efficient supply chain management and public policies.consumer risk behaviour, food safety, risk attitude, risk perception, time, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Stop spooning dosing:milliliter instructions reduce inclination to spoon dosing

BACKGROUND: Does the use of teaspoon units in dose recommendations on Drug Facts panels of liquid medicine lead to dosing errors and could any such errors be reduced if millimeter units were used instead? FINDINGS: Participants given dosing instructions in teaspoon units were twice as likely to choose a kitchen teaspoon as those given instructions in milliliter units (31.3 vs. 15.4 %). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that spoon usage—and the inherent risk of dosage errors—could be reduced by more than 50 % simply by changing the units of measurement given in dosing instructions

Are you being served? Managing waist and waste via serving size, unit size, and self-serving

Food serving sizes are on the rise and this increase is one factor contributing to both obesity and food waste. Hence, reducing serving size is a potentially effective strategy for lessening overconsumption and food waste— but it carries the risk that consumers may perceive the smaller serving size as too small, lowering satisfaction. This research examines the role of serving size, unit size, and self-serving on the amount of food served, consumed, and wasted, with the main objective of reducing both overconsumption and food waste while maintaining consumer satisfaction. Across four experiments, we demonstrate that consumers who are served food in smaller units consume less but waste more, while consumers who serve themselves food in smaller units consume less and waste less. When self-serving food in smaller units, consumers benefit from pause moments providing decision-making opportunities that draw attention to the serving decision, as reflected in longer serving times and greater overestimation of the served amount of food. Consequently, consumers presented with smaller unit sizes serve themselves less food—resulting in decreased consumption and waste, without lessening consumer satisfaction. These findings offer a wide range of win–win implications that are of relevance to consumers as well as to managers of restaurants, food services, and health professionals

When imperfect is preferred:the differential effect of aesthetic imperfections on choice of processed and unprocessed foods

Some companies design processed foods to contain aesthetic imperfections such as non-uniformities in shape, color, or texture. Simultaneously, consumers annually discard millions of pounds of unprocessed, safe-to-eat fruits and vegetables owing to aesthetic imperfections. Why design processed foods with aesthetic imperfections when people discard unprocessed foods because of them? Seven studies, including a choice study at a grocery store and an incentive-compatible study, show that the effect of aesthetic imperfections on consumer preferences depends on whether foods are unprocessed or processed. While imperfections negatively influence preferences for unprocessed foods, they positively influence preferences for processed foods. We attribute this preference shift to consumers making opposing inferences about the human care involved in producing aesthetically imperfect processed and unprocessed foods. Building on research highlighting the positive effects of human presence in production, we thus show that perceived care drives food choice. We discuss implications for product design, retail promotion, and sustainability

Propelling pride to promote healthy food choices among entity and incremental theorists

Past research suggests that people's beliefs about the malleability of their body weight influence their motivation to engage in healthful behaviors: people who perceive their body weight as fixed (entity theorists) engage less in healthful behaviors than people who perceive their body weight as changeable (incremental theorists). Accordingly, current health interventions frequently aim at shifting entity theorists' beliefs about the malleability of their body weight. Instead of trying to change these beliefs, we test whether the elicitation of pride from past achievements can serve as an intervention to promote healthful behaviors among entity theorists. In addition, we contrast the effect of pride recall among entity theorists with the effect among incremental theorists. Specifically, we find that entity theorists chose healthier behaviors upon the recall of pride related and unrelated to the health domain - the source of pride does not seem to matter. For incremental theorists, however, the source of pride does matter. While health-related pride led them to persist in making healthy food choices, health-unrelated pride instilled reward-seeking behavior among incremental theorists. Prompting health-related pride might be a viable motivational tool to promote healthy food choices, as it is beneficial for entity theorists without thwarting the motivation of incremental theorists

Waste on Impulse? Food ordering, calorie intake and waste in out-of-home consumption

The fast-growing out-of-home consumption sector is responsible for monumental food waste. At the same time, this sector is transforming and increasingly introduces pre-ordering via smartphones and mobile devices to cater to consumers’ busy lifestyles. Drawing on construal level theory, we show in two behavioral studies that acquiring food for a distant consumption moment leads to more impulsive food acquisitions and higher calorie intake. Emphasizing the (un)healthiness of food by using traffic light labels does not dampen impulsive acquisitions at the point of sale, but does help consumers to consume fewer calories at the expense of wasting more food. Our findings introduce a dilemma for managers in the out-of-home consumption section. While making it easy for consumers to change or add to their order placed in advance boosts sales, this practice leads to more calories consumed and more waste.</p