Background and Objective of the Study
The study investigates whether both the presence of the nutrition label itself and the content provided on the label (here: the presence [vs. absence] of health ticks) impact on consumer demand for certain food products. The authors – researchers from a university in Izmir, Turkey, Prof. Dr. Andrea Gröppel-Klein (Saarland University), and Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer – propose hypotheses that are grounded in cue utilization and consumer behavior theories. Next, they conducted a field experiment in a Turkish supermarket to test the hypotheses.
Design and results
The authors manipulated the product packages of three brands offering wafers (including a variety of flavors) to contain a nutrition label on front of the package with information on calories, fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt (in kcal and g per 100g, respectively). The nutrition information was complemented with either a health tick (56% of the products were eligible) or a placeholder for products that failed eligibility criteria. Total daily in-store sales of wafers were monitored before, during and after the manipulation. The results of the study showed that the presence of the label itself increased consumer demand for the follower brand (but not for the leader brands). The presence (vs. absence) of a health tick on the nutrition labels did not affect sales of more (vs. less) healthful foods. The findings thus indicate that consumers were partly more responsive to the nutrition label per se as opposed to the presence of a health tick on the label if the information is presented in a real-life context (i.e., without priming health goals). The results have important implications for public policy makers who aim to change actual behaviors.
Implications
The result that the content of the nutrition label did not matter is important because it indicates that quality signs per se may be more effective than information about which products are more healthful or in what way they are more healthful. Thus, consumers focus on very simple, heuristic cues when they do their grocery shopping. Consumers are unwilling to process information about nutrient content at the point of sale. Thus, the effectiveness of elaborate nutrition labels is likely low compared to motivational factors of consumers and other contextual factors (e.g., placement of the products).
Contact
Chair of Sport and Health Management
Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer
Team assistant: Mirjam Eggers
Uptown München Campus D
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Phone +49.89.289.24559
Fax +49.89.289.24642
info.mgt@sg.tum.de