Lawrence L. Garber

The Effects of Food Color on Perceived Flavor

This research investigates the role that food color plays in conferring identity, meaning and liking to those foods and beverages that assume many flavor varieties. In a taste test experiment manipulating food color and label information, 389 undergraduates at a public university (53% male and 47% female; 79% between 18 and 21 years of age) were assigned the task of evaluating a successful brand of powdered fruit drink. Results from this study indicate that food color affects the consumer’s ability to correctly identify flavor, to form distinct flavor profiles and preferences, and dominates other flavor information sources, including labeling and taste. Strategic alternatives for the effective deployment of food color for promotional purposes at the point of purchase are recommended.

Measuring consumer response to food products

The failure of taste tests to predict the market performance of new food products (cf. Burger Kings new french fries, New Coke) illustrate the inability of marketing researchers to perform such tests effectively. Food scientists, with their expertise at testing the sensory effects of foods, can make an important contribution to the ability of food producers to predict consumer preference and choice. However, for their experiments to have the needed external validity to achieve such marketing objectives, food scientists must incorporate into their experiments certain elements of consumer purchase behavior and the marketing context in which food products are considered for purchase. In this paper, we discuss those aspects of consumer choice behavior and the marketplace that are pertinent to accurately predicting consumer food purchase behavior, and how they may be incorporated into experimental studies aimed at predicting food preference and choice.

Placing Food Color Experimentation into a Valid Consumer Context

Abstract Empirical research examining the effects of food color on food acceptability comes from the food science literature, but its applicability for predicting consumer purchase decisions is limited. By design or intent, that research does not consider that food choice is typically made from a consideration set filled with food brand alternatives that are close to parity, and that product and flavor information come in modes in addition to food color. We review the existing food color literature, recount its limitations for consumer behavior research, and provide a conceptual framework to guide the future empiricist in conducting externally valid food color research. Further, whereas in most prior research the food color manipulation includes a novel level merely to contrast with expected color, we consider novel food color directly, for its potential as an attention-getting and differentiating brand communications tool, and present strategies for its effective presentation despite food colors strong link to expected flavor.

THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF THE APPEARANCE OF NONDURABLE CONSUMER GOODS AND THEIR PACKAGING ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Publisher Summary Vision has primacy in our sensory world such that information to our brains mediated by the visual sense comes to have a particularly powerful impact on, for example, consumers’ experience of nondurables. In a retail frame, this means that visual information and processes play a key role in the impact of nondurable products and packages on the consumer at the point of purchase. Moreover, the nature of typical food and convenience store layouts, and how consumers are caused to move through and shop them, elevates the impact of visuals by dictating to consumers the physical spaces they must cross, the paths they must follow, and the spaces they must occupy to browse product categories and consider brands for purchase. This chapter reviews the literature on product and package appearance, looking specifically at the effects of the main visual elements that comprise appearance—color, shape, and size. Research into these effects has received spotty attention at best, though it is generally understood that appearance is a strong mediator of attention, consideration, and choice. A primary reason for this lack of attention may be because these visual elements and appearance in general are both hard to conceptualize in concrete terms and to test in empirical terms. A primary reason for both these inabilities is that these visual elements are strongly interacting, both with each other and their environment, making them hard to think about, because they are so hard to isolate, and their effects hard to test, because there are so many confounds to account for experimentally. This chapter discusses those many important aspects of the effects of product and package appearance, which forms a rich field for future visual researchers. Given that much research interest was being retarded by the fact that many marketing researchers simply do not know how to approach experimental visual problems, it proposes a visual research methodology that may have general application to many visual problems.

Consumer Based Strategic Planning in the Nonprofit Sector: The Empirical Assessment of a Symphony Audience

ABSTRACT This paper presents a case study that builds on prior arts audience research by taking a multiattributed approach to understanding symphony audience attitudes and behaviors. The results of an audience survey for a major symphony orchestra located in the southeastern United States are used to identify and profile distinct audience subsets for target segmentation purposes. The method used is presented in sufficient detail to guide arts administrators unfamiliar with audience research to design and conduct similar studies. Further, we examine a pricing question of current interest to many arts organizations: should this or any performing arts organization reduce or eliminate the volume discounts associated with performing arts series? Managerial implications are discussed, and recommendations offered.

The Effect of Package Shape on Apparent Volume: An Exploratory Study with Implications for Package Design

We examine a range of standard package shape types and test their effects on volume perception. Results show that consumers group most existing standard packages into four distinct shape categories, including cylinders, kegs, bottles, and spatulates. Each shape type has characteristic effects on volume appearance. Geometrically complex forms appear smaller than simple forms, suggesting that containers displaying different levels of geometric complexity evoke different consumer estimation strategies. For compound complex forms, composed of the conspicuous joining of two or more simple parts, including necks, shoulders, bodies, and feet, consumers key on the body as a sole indicator of volume.

The Association between Learning and Learning Style in Instructional Marketing Games.

To understand how learners of respective types respond to marketing games, a joint space generated by canonical correlation analysis is used to recreate Kolbs learning style-type plot and locate business students as points within it according to their learning style types. Two hundred twenty-three undergraduate students played The Marketing Game! and completed exit surveys soliciting their attitude toward the game experience and Kolbs learning styles inventory. Results indicate that marketing games offer all learners a positive experience. Such inclusiveness is achieved because students can frame the game experience to match their preferred learning styles. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

The Effects of Food Color on Perceived Flavor: A Factorial Investigation in India

ABSTRACT We extend research testing the effects of food color on flavor to a new cultural setting—India. We test color’s effect at three levels: flavor identification, perception, and preference. One hundred twenty-two graduate students at an Indian business school enrolling students from all parts of India were assigned the task of tasting and evaluating an orange-flavored carbonated water. Color at two levels (purple and orange) and label information at two levels (told orange flavor, told grape) were manipulated in a full factorial, between-subjects design. Results confirm that food color affects the consumer’s ability to correctly identify flavor as well as to form distinct flavor profiles and preferences. Food color dominates other flavor information including labeling and taste, though the strength of the effect is less pronounced in this setting. Strategic alternatives for the effective deployment of food color for promotional purposes are recommended.

The perceived size of packages of complex vs. simple shape depends upon the number of packages presented

A research gap exists regarding the respective effects of package shape and presentation context on size perception. Some prior research shows that complex packages appear larger than simple packages of equal volume. Other research shows the opposite. We resolve the dilemma by showing that shape and presentation context interact to create size impressions. Subjects estimated the relative volumes of sets of packages whose shapes are simple or complex, presented in package sets whose numbers range from two to 16. When packages are displayed in sets of nine or more, packages of simple shape appear larger than packages of complex shape. When packages are presented in sets of eight or less, complex packages appear larger than simple packages. This reversal suggests that the volume estimation strategies employed by consumers change when the complexity of the visual tableau before them leads to cognitive overload.

The perceived visual similarity of realtors: an exploratory study

Subjects rated the (dis)similarity of pair-wise combinations of female and male salesperson realtors. The selected realtors represent the range of appearance features, in terms of physical traits, grooming, and adornment. Subject responses were analysed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) to generate male and female perceptual maps, with 19 female and 19 male realtors shown as points in their respective appearance spaces. Their relative positions are interpreted to determine which aspects of appearance most differentiate between them. Those aspects that most differentiate between women realtors are hair length, mode of dress, apparent age, and hair colour, in that order. Those aspects that most differentiate between male realtors are apparent age, hair colour, and mode of dress. Other visual elements playing lesser differentiating roles are eyeglasses and, for men, facial hair. Based upon the findings, theoretical and managerial implications are presented.