Study 4: “Local” by Facts or by Atmosphere?

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter reports an original experiment based on a variant of the ShopTrip set-up extended with an eyetracking component. The key research question was whether products carrying vague indications of localness in the shape of brand elements and visual cues on the front would tend to be preferred by consumers over alternative products displaying an equal degree of (un)localness according to the declared product facts when performing the pre-set shopping task “Buy Danish, and as local as possible!” This indeed turned out to be the case. Moreover, the eyetracking data revealed that less than half of the participants attended to the detailed product information panels that might have contradicted the all-local impression created by the packaging fronts (attended to by all participant), and that most of them failed to fixate on the passages in the detailed product information capable of doing so.KeywordsLocal foodDomestic food productionProduct originPlace brandingSimulated e-shoppingEyetrackingReal-time purchasing behaviourHalo effectsBrand biasSelective visual attentionScene-gist perceptionMiscommunication