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Smartphone apps can create value for consumers by supporting their health goals. The purpose of the study was to reveal people's preferences for Self‐Determination theory derived app features of health‐related apps that can potentially promote motivation and sustained use of such apps. Three discrete choice experiments, followed by a ranking task, were used to assess consumer preferences for specific app features that can support the basic needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness among respondents from Germany and Spain (N = 719). Participants preferred the autonomy supporting app features, namely making changes to the menu recommendations or self‐selecting their rewards. The competence supporting features of levels of progress and feedback that provided encouragement together with facts were preferred across countries; however, presenting the feedback in a dynamic display was disliked in Germany. The relatedness supporting feature, presence of an anthropomorphic cue with the menu recommendations, was preferred in Germany but disliked in Spain. Health and fitness apps can benefit from including features that bring value to consumers by responding to their psychological needs and help them achieve their health goals. Allowing choice flexibility in app recommendations, providing feedback that is encouraging in addition to informative, and including gamification elements in health apps, can respond to consumer preferences and thereby increase engagement with apps. The study contributes to understanding how the theoretically derived features of health apps can be included in the design of apps to match consumer preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a consensus that for a brand being perceived as authentic is an asset. However, an authentic brand is only half of the equation, as a brand must also appear in advertisement that seems authentic. Drawing on the selective accessibility model (SAM), this paper examines in the context of food brands (a) the joint effect of perceived brand authenticity and advertising images on consumers' purchase intentions toward the advertised food product; (b) the mechanism that drives consumers' purchase intentions, in which perceived similarity functions as a mediator; and (c) the moderating function of role overload in these relationships. Two studies employed a 2 (advertising image: ideal vs. authentic) × 2 (perceived food brand authenticity: inauthentic vs. authentic) between subjects design. Study 1 (USA) used a manipulation to determine high versus low authentic food brands (fictitious brands), whereas Study 2 (Germany) used actual food brands that consumers perceive to differ in terms of authenticity. Results confirm that brand authenticity serves as an asset. However, the interacting effect of perceived brand authenticity and advertising image is qualified by overall brand evaluation. In line with SAM, participants perceived similarity of one's own situation with the adverting image depicting "family dinner" situation serves as mediating variable. The results provide insights into when and why food brand marketers should employ authentic advertising images and how they can target those consumers who are more prone to respond positively to authentic ads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When channels of distribution change, consumer competences have to adapt. We define supermarket competence as the set of skills and knowledge that enables consumers to locate, evaluate, and choose among product offerings in a supermarket to fulfill their shopping goals. We develop a scale that measures three components of supermarket competence: finding and locating products, understanding and using packaging information, and interpreting prices. To test the structure and reliability of the scale, it is applied to three consumer samples in China. Supermarket competence is found to be related to shopping trip satisfaction, perceived shopping risk, and use of brand information. In addition, consumers with different levels of supermarket competence are found to differ in their demographic characteristics and in their shopping behavior. Policy implications for strengthening consumers' supermarket competence are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poaching rhinos to sell their horns is one of the most pressing threats to wildlife and constitutes an illicit yet extremely profitable business. Employing construal level and reactance theory, two studies examine which marketing campaign is most effective in countries where the crime is actually taking place by distinguishing supply (=poachers in Kenya) and demand (=consumers of Chinese traditional medicine in China). Both studies follow a 2 × 2 between‐subject design with an additional control group whereby temporal distance and social distance are manipulated to outline weaknesses of current antipoaching campaigns and identify alternatives that are more effective. Results suggest that economic and identity‐related factors can explain consumers (China) and poachers (Kenya) intentions to purchase traditional Chinese medicine with rhino horn or sell rhino horn. In both countries, marketing campaigns featuring temporal distance were superior to close counterparts; yet, the mediating variables differ for each country. Close temporal distance elicits reactance. Interestingly, poachers do not seem to discriminate between close and far social distance. The findings have lifesaving implications for wildlife, profound practical implications for non‐governmental organizations, and governmental agencies' additional theoretical contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copycats or "me‐too" brands imitate prominent features of market leaders with the intention to benefit from consumers' positive associations of the imitated brand. However, the imitated market leader can be perceived as being local (=in‐group) or global (=out‐group). Employing social identity theory, Study 1 examined the interaction between copycat strategy and perceived globalness of the brand, showing that consumers have higher purchase intentions for global copycats versus a local counterpart. Study 2 shows that the interacting effect of copycat strategy and perceived globalness is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. Further, authors demonstrate that a global copycat elicit greater schadenfreude (vs. local brand), which in turn increases consumers' purchase intentions. Subsequent mediation analysis shows that ethnocentric consumers experience schadenfreude upon encountering copycats of global brands, which in turn increases purchase intention, whereas low ethnocentric consumers show higher purchase intentions for local differentiated brands because they deem a copycat strategy as unacceptable. Finally, Study 3 examines whether the results from Studies 1 and 2 continue to hold for theme copycats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review research on eye movements in decision making and show that decision makers are subject to several visual biases such as the size, salience, position, emotional valence, predictability, and number of information elements. These biases lead decision makers to allocate their attention in ways that are arbitrary to their goals and sometimes bias their choices. We show that while some visual biases can be minimized, others are unavoidable. Consequently, it is impossible to present information in a completely neutral way. Any presentation format will bias decision makers to attend or ignore different information and thereby influence their choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We propose a new approach for guiding eye movements by controlling the predictability of object locations. We hypothesize that when a high (low) relevance object has a predictable location, observers are more (less) likely to fixate it compared with objects in unpredictable locations. We tested this hypothesis in three decision‐making studies, manipulating the location of a product label in an unpredictable, a predictable, and a mixed visual environment. In Study 1 and Study 2, we find that participants are less likely to fixate a low and medium relevance label in a predictable location, and in Study 3, we find that participants are more likely to fixate a high relevance label in a predictable location. Our findings suggest that predictable locations increase while unpredictable locations decrease top‐down control. The approach can be used to increase or decrease eye movements towards specific information depending on the goals of the choice architect. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resveratrol is an ingredient widely researched, with growing evidence of health-promoting effects. However, the reactions of supplement or food consumers to resveratrol has not been researched, and the ingredient is yet unknown to most consumers. We used respective literature and our own resveratrol consumer studies with Danish and U.S. consumers to look at current findings and future research directions for three questions. (1) Which factors determine consumer interest in a yet unknown functional ingredient such as resveratrol? (2) How should resveratrol be marketed as a new functional ingredient to be understood and favorably perceived? (3) What could be the effects of adoption of an ingredient such as resveratrol on the healthy lifestyle of a consumer? Literature and first results indicate that personal relevance and familiarity are crucial factors; however, consumers show little interest in resveratrol and lack relevant knowledge, especially in Denmark. Favorable attitudes were explained by health outcome expectations, use of complementary and alternative medicine, and interest in the indulgence dimension of food. Nonscientifically phrased communication led to more favorable attitudes in Danish consumers; scientifically phrased communication, though, made U.S. consumers more likely to retain favorable attitudes in the presence of contradictory evidence. We discuss future research directions in different cultural backgrounds and market contexts and for different foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer attitudes play an important role in the acceptance of new technologies. The success of food innovations depends on understanding how consumers form and change attitudes toward food technologies. Earlier post hoc explanations suggest that evaluative conditioning can change consumer attitudes toward food technologies. The present study tests how evaluative conditioning can affect consumer acceptance of new food technologies. Furthermore, authors investigate whether evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction after a two-month period and whether the evaluative conditioning effect prevails in a product-related context. Within an evaluative conditioning paradigm including between-subjects control groups in addition to standard within-subjects control conditions, participants were presented with three food technologies (conventional, enzyme, and genetic technology) paired with affectively positive, neutral, and negative pictures. Subsequent evaluative measurements revealed that evaluative conditioning can explain attitude change toward food technologies when affective pictures are used. Furthermore, results indicate that evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction after two months and acquired evaluative conditioning effect spills over in a product-related context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Even without official quality standards, food retailers generally do not offer abnormally shaped food based on the assumption that consumers reject food that deviates physically from some norm. Because this practice contributes significantly to food waste, the current study tests this assumption experimentally. A representative sample of 964 Danish consumers indicated their purchase intentions for two fruits and two vegetables with varying levels of food shape abnormality (normal, moderately abnormal, and extremely abnormal) and organic labels (organic label, no label). Food shape abnormalities influence consumers' purchase intentions, but only if the food deviates extremely from the norm; no differences in purchase intentions emerge for moderately abnormal food. Awareness of food waste issues and proenvironmental self-identities also drive purchase intentions, such that participants with high levels of these traits express significantly higher purchase intentions for abnormally shaped food. Thus, increasing awareness of food waste issues, particularly among those with strong proenvironmental self-identities, might encourage more consumers to purchase abnormally shaped fruits and vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This study examines the use of intrinsic and extrinsic cues in beef quality perception at the point of purchase and upon consumption by consumers with varying levels of familiarity with a particular beef product. High-familiarity consumers tend to use the color of the meat to assess beef quality, whereas low-familiarity consumers tend to believe that the brand is the most valid cue for assessing beef quality. However, due to the lack of consistency in sensory beef quality, high-familiarity consumers' ability to form quality expectations that are predictive of their quality experience is no better than that of low-familiarity consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers worldwide are increasingly concerned with sustainable production and consumption. Recently, a comprehensive study ranked 17 countries in regard to their environmentally friendly behaviour among consumers. Brazil was one of the top countries in the list. Yet, several studies highlight significant differences between consumers' intentions to consume ethically, and their actual purchase behaviour: the so-called 'Attitude-Behaviour Gap'. In developing countries, few studies have been conducted on this issue. The objective of this study is therefore to investigate the gap between citizens' sustainability-related attitudes and food purchasing behaviour using empirical data from Brazil. To this end, Brazilian citizens' attitudes towards pig production systems were mapped through conjoint analysis and their coexistence with relevant pork product-related purchasing behaviour of consumers was investigated through cluster analysis. The conjoint experiment was carried out with empirical data collected from 475 respondents surveyed in the South and Center-West regions of Brazil. The results of the conjoint analysis were used for a subsequent cluster analysis in order to identify clusters of Brazilian citizens with diversified attitudes towards pig production systems, using socio-demographics, attitudes towards sustainability-related themes that are expected to influence the way they evaluate pig production systems, and consumption frequency of various pork products as clusters' background information. Three clusters were identified as 'indifferent', 'environmental conscious' and 'sustainability-oriented' citizens. Although attitudes towards environment and nature had indeed an influence on citizens' specific attitudes towards pig farming at the cluster level, the relationship between 'citizenship' and consumption behaviour was found to be weak. This finding is similar to previous research conducted with European consumers: what people (in their role of citizens) think about pig production systems does not appear to significantly influence their pork consumption choices. Improvements in the integrated management of this chain would better meet consumers' sustainability-related expectations towards pig production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer acceptance of functional foods is analyzed from the perspective of consumer quality perception of food products. Four major dimensions of food quality are identified: taste and other sensory characteristics, healthiness, convenience, and naturalness. Functional foods provide, from the consumer perspective, synergies between healthiness and convenience, but may, in the consumer mind, lead to trade-offs between healthiness on the one side and taste and naturalness on the other side. This may explain the reluctance of European consumers to accept functional food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European consumers have a negative attitude towards the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production. Previous research also shows that these attitudes are quite resistant to attempts to change them by giving additional information. The aim of the study was to investigate if positive sensory experience with a GMO-based food product would influence consumers' attitude towards the use of GMOs in food production. An experiment was conducted in which subjects in the experimental group tasted cheeses, one of which was labeled as "produced using GMOs."

Product development managers and academics like to assure themselves and each other that new product development is one of the most critical areas of company competence and contributes positively to company success. But does top management agree? Because if they do not, the consequences will heavily influence the resource allocation to product development and career possibilities of new product developments manager. This study examines how top managers view the importance of product development relative to other central competence areas. Although asking managers about their perception is one way of evaluating the importance, its contribution to company success is another important measure. In this study, the impact of product development, relative to other important competence areas, is measured to assess further how critical product development is for overall company success.The authors investigate these matters in a survey of top managers in 513 Danish production companies. Ten areas important for achieving company objectives are identified. These are product development, market intelligence, production management, strategy and vision, sales, market responsiveness, promotion, internal co-operation, image, and supply management. Product development is rated a fairly important competence as it ranks number four, with sales, market responsiveness and production management ranking numbers one to three. Yet a distressing negative impact on overall company success is found for product development proficiency, whereas success is positively related to production management, image, and differentiation of products. Further analysis reveals that product development contributes positively to success by enabling product differentiation and enhancing promotion proficiency. Influenced by and influencing many other competencies, product development is found to be a central competence.Results support a nonfunctional and broad perspective of how bundles of competences interact and impact on success and establish a positive overall contribution to product development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the influence of research and development (R&D) skills and competencies and market orientation on business performance of food processing companies in Europe. Views on innovation and success; Factors affecting innovation activities; Variation of R&D competencies and market orientation among companies; Concepts of product and process orientation.

Consumers in central planning economies have developed different skills from consumers in market economies: while the former have developed skills in locating products, the latter have developed skills in comparing and deciding between products. In the food area, the former East Germany was characterised by a range of products that was quantitatively sufficient, but offered little variety and had low to medium quality. Products were sold at uniform prices in the whole country. Now, the variety and quality range of products is the same as in the West, and there are considerable price differences. Differences between East and West German consumer were analysed by comparing samples of consumers in Kiel and Rostock. It was analysed how they perceive food products (frozen ready meals and cheese), and how they relate them to values (using a means-end approach). While product perceptions are more focused in the West and more fuzzy in the East, the basic perceptual dimensions are the same: they are based on concrete product attributes. An analysis of the fundamental life values of East and West German consumers (using the Schwartz Value Inventory) showed that the East German sample scored higher on individualistic values. An analysis of how consumers link concrete product attributes to fundamental life values showed that (1) there are slight differences in values, (2) West German respondents got to the value level more quickly, (3) West German respondents started with more abstract attributes. These differences indicate that East German consumers, compared to West German consumers, are at a lower level of habitualisation of their shopping behaviour. While the purchase of food products in West Germany is to a large extent characterised by low involvement and inertia, the same purchases in East Germany seem to be characterised by high involvement and real decision making. These differences have implications for appropriate marketing communication. The West German food consumer will generally be difficult to influence, because s/he is not highly interested in the product, and communication therefore requires media and messages that attract attention, are based on peripheral (e.g. emotional) cues, and are highly repetitive. East German food consumers will be interested in the product and in information about the product, and communication should therefore be more informative, based on functional product attributes. Les consommateurs des economies planifiees ont developpe des savoir-faire differents de ceux adoptes par les consommateurs des economies de marche. Alors que les premiers ont appris a localiser les produits, les seconds se sont exerces a comparer et a choisir entre les produits proposes. Dans le domaine alimentaire, l'ancienne Allemagne de l'Est offrait une serie de produits quantitativement suffisants mais peu varies et de qualite mediocre ou moyenne. Les produits etaient vendus dans tout le pays a des prix imposes. Desormais, la variete et la diversite des qualites est la meme qu'a l'Ouest et l'on constate des variations de prix considerables. On a etudie les differences entre les consommateurs de l'Est et de l'Ouest en comparant des echantillons de consommateurs de Kiel et de Rostock. On a analyse leur perception des produits alimentaires (du fromage et des plats surgeles) et comment ils les rattachaient a des valeurs (a partir d'une approche moyens-fins). Les dimensions perceptives de base, qui emanent des caracteristiques concretes des produits, sont les memes partout, quoique la perception soit plus precise a l'Ouest qu'a l'Est. L'analyse des valeurs fondamentales de l'existence chez les consommateurs allemands de l'Est et de l'Ouest (grace au Schwartz Value Inventory) a montre que ceux de l'Est se portaient sur les valeurs collectives et ceux de l'Ouest sur les valeurs individuelles. L'analyse du lien que les consommateurs etablissent entre les caracteristiques concretes des produits et les valeurs fondamentales de la vie montra qu'il y avait de legeres differences dans les valeurs, que les repondants de l'Ouest determinaient le niveau des valeurs plus rapidement et qu'ils s'interessaient tout de suite a des attributs plus abstraits. Ces differences suggerent que les consommateurs de l'Est sont, compares a ceux de l'Ouest, a un niveau plus faible d' habituation de leur comportement d'achat. Se procurer des produits alimentaires en Allemagne de l'Ouest est dans une grande mesure caracterise par de l'inertie et une implication mediocre, alors qu'a l'Est l'implication est forte et la prise de decision motivee. Ces differences ont un impact en marketing sur le choix des communications. L'Allemand de l'Ouest sera generalement difficile a influencer dans ses choix de nourriture car il (elle) n'est pas tres interesse(e) par le produit et la communication, par suite, exigera des medias et des messages qui attireront l'attention, qui exploiteront des indices peripheriques (c'est-a-dire emotionnels) et qui seront fortement repetitifs. Les Allemands de l'Est s'interesseront au produit alimentaire et a l'information sur le produit, et la communication devra donc etre plus informative, basee sur les attributs fonctionnels du produit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive information about complex products with frequent product changes is delineated as an area where consumer information systems in videotex could be most promising. Four psychological principles for the design of such systems are presented and applied to construct an information system to support automobile purchases. Results from an empirical study show very favourable evaluations of this information system by videotex users. Several possible determinants of acceptance are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]