Abstract
The current research focused on the (in)congruity between pictorial (ingredient item depiction) and textual (ingredient list) information on food packaging, namely, an apple–mango juice. Specifically, the influence of these information sources on expected and perceived flavor intensities, mismatched perceptions, perceived deception, and intention to purchase was studied by taking into account the possible moderating role of consumers’ thinking style. Three studies were performed, the first and third at a Dutch University by means of surveys and sensory tests, and the second via an online survey. The results showed that, overall, most consumers did not perceive the incongruity between pictorial and textual information as mismatching. However, a perceived mismatch from packaging, whether originated by the design manipulations or not, did increase perceived deception and lowered willingness to purchase. This effect was robust for both mismatches, among packaging elements (pre-consumption) and from expected and perceived flavor ratios (post-consumption), but was more substantial for the post-consumption mismatch. Although the moderating effect of cognitive processing style regarding expected and perceived flavor ratios from pictorial and textual (ingredient list) information was not confirmed, the results indicated that the effect of salient textual information is substantial, independent of a particular processing style or label usage.
Highlights
The mismatch from packaging elements was found to be non-significant (p = 0.062). In this model, only the mismatch between expected and perceived flavor ratio was significant (p < 0.05) with a constant of 1.840 and a B of 0.402, indicating that an increase in mismatch perception between the expected and perceived flavor ratio of one unit, increased perceived deception by 0.4 point out of seven, which was much larger compared to the increase in perceived deception from the mismatch in the non-tasting group. These results suggest that a mismatch between the expected and perceived flavor ratio plays a larger role on perceived deception than the mismatch in pictorial and textual packaging elements
The Moderating Effect of Image/Ingredient List Usage on Expected and Perceived Flavor Ratio. To see whether this effect would be stronger for people relying more on the ingredient list, the image or on both, people were classified into one of these three categories by subtracting their self-reported scores on image-ingredient list use
The results showed that consumers did not perceive the incongruity between pictorial and textual information as mismatching
Summary
Depiction of ingredient item images on the front of a packaging is one of the most frequently used cues explicitly linked to the content of the product and is usually prominently positioned on the front-of-pack (FOP) label [4]. These images allow consumers to create expectations and draw inferences about the product, its quality, and its taste [3,5,6,7]
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