The congruence effect of food shape and name typeface on consumers’ food preferences

Abstract

Both food image and name are important in advertising and packaging, which means that identifying their effects on consumer preferences is of both conceptual and managerial importance. However, although an increasing body of research currently focuses on the impact of food attributes on consumers, whether the sensory correspondences between food shape and name typeface affect consumer reactions is an under-researched topic. This paper thus comprises five studies to demonstrate the congruence effect between food shape and name typeface, whereby consumers prefer foods with a round (angular) shape that are labeled with a round (angular) name typeface. This shape–typeface congruence effect is driven by the psychological mechanism of processing fluency, which derives from the sensory correspondences between food shape and name typeface. Finally, this study identifies an important boundary condition of the congruence effect, confirming it affects only the consumer response to hedonic and not utilitarian goods. Using multiple foods and typefaces, the findings provide significant implications for processing fluency, sensory correspondences, and food marketing.