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Firms often emphasize "green" benefits for products that are only partially more sustainable than alternatives (e.g., a more sustainable packaging with similar product ingredients). The current article posits that such strategies can lead to a perceived claim–fact discrepancy and examines to what extent this makes consumers feel deceived and detracts from attitudes and purchase intentions, even though consumers can intrinsically value the (partial) sustainability improvements. In addition, given that marketing communication often relies on puffery such as exaggerated language and (visual) hyperbole, the article also investigates the effect of the use of puffery versus more subdued claims. Findings from two experiments unveil that when the actual sustainability of packaged products is (partially) discrepant with an overt sustainability claim, this leads to higher perceived deception. The use of puffery has both pros and cons, such that it adds to perceived sustainability but also to perceived deception, and it moderates the effects of actual sustainability. Furthermore, the results provide initial support for the idea that sustainability improvements in only peripheral attributes (packaging) are perceived as more deceptive than sustainability improvements in only central attributes (product contents). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Consumer concern for animal welfare is currently not fully reflected in the market share of animal-friendly products. Marketing strategies for animal-friendly products typically emphasize sustainability-related benefits, such as animal welfare, while existing research suggests that consumers prioritize personally relevant benefits, such as taste and curiosity. This study tests the effectiveness of positioning strategies emphasizing personally relevant benefits, namely curiosity, in a real-life experiment at the point of purchase, also measuring the effects of certified labels and the impact of consumer attitudes towards eating meat. It conducts experimental auctions with 101 Dutch university students and measures their willingness to pay (WTP) for a lunch meal with chicken meat. Results indicate that both the positioning strategy and the certified label significantly increase consumer WTP, with the highest WTP generated when both elements are present (without providing evidence for an interaction effect). This implies that to maximize sales of welfare-enhanced meat companies should combine positioning strategies that emphasize personally relevant benefits with certified labels that can support the claimed animal friendliness. Since our results also suggest that consumers with conflicting feelings towards meat are less sensitive to such strategies, some care should be taken when designing awareness campaigns about the negative effects of meat consumption. Consumer concern for animal welfare is currently not fully reflected in the market share of welfare-enhanced meat. A possible solution is developing marketing strategies that emphasize personally relevant benefits such as taste and curiosity, instead of having a sole focus on sustainability-related benefits, since existing research indicates that the former are more appealing to most consumers. This study tests strategies positioning welfare-enhanced meat as personally relevant in a real-life experiment and how consumer attitudes towards eating meat influence reactions to the positioning strategies. The study conducts experimental auctions with 101 Dutch university students, manipulating the positioning strategy and a certified animal welfare label and measuring participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for a lunch meal with chicken meat. Results indicate that all manipulations significantly increase consumer WTP, with higher WTP for certified labels than for the positioning strategy, and the highest WTP for the combination of both elements (without providing evidence for an interaction effect). This implies that companies should combine positioning strategies that emphasize personally relevant benefits with certified labels. Since the effectiveness of such strategies may be limited for consumers with conflicting feelings towards meat, some care should be taken when designing awareness campaigns about the effects of meat consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External cues regularly override physiological cues in food consumption resulting in mindless eating. In a series of experiments, this study shows that mindfulness, an enhanced attention state, improves consumers' reliance on physiological cues across consumption episodes. Consumers who are chronically high in mindfulness (study 1) or who receive a short mindfulness training that focuses attention on the body (study 2) compensate more for previous food intake in their subsequent consumption. Moreover, after a mindful body meditation, consumers are more aware of physiological cues that develop after consumption (study 3), rather than of the amount they have previously eaten (study 4). Furthermore, we argue and show that the focus of mindfulness matters: mindfulness trainings that focus attention on the environment or on the body similarly elicit state mindfulness, but only mindful attention with a focus on the body stimulates compensation for previous consumption and awareness of satiety cues. Finally, practicing mindfulness and specifically paying mindful attention to body sensations is related to a more constant body weight in a sample of the general population (study 5). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insights into how consumer attitudes toward nanotechnology are formed and develop are crucial for understanding and anticipating possible barriers in consumer acceptance of nanotechnology applications. In this study, the influence of affect and cognition on overall opinion is investigated longitudinally for emerging nanotechnologies, and compared with conventional technologies. Overall, in attitude formation toward nanotechnology applications, people rely relatively more on affect than cognition. Over time, reliance on affect decreases whereas reliance on cognition increases for nanotechnology. This suggests that over time nanotechnology applications have become somewhat more integrated within people’s already existing knowledge structure. However, for conventional technologies the influence of affect and cognition on overall attitude remains stable over time. The current study shows that it is essential to address both affective and cognitive aspects of public opinion of nanotechnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both consumers and organizations hold a dualistic attitude towards product innovativeness. Consumers are known to hold an inherent tendency to approach (neophilia) and avoid (neophobia) new food products at the same time. Similarly, at a managerial level it is not all that clear whether revenues of innovation strategies should come primarily from incremental or more discontinuous innovations. This paper reviews product newness in relation to new product performance. We describe studies that show that newness per se is not related to market performance but that it does so if it provides meaningful differentiation to consumers in the market place. We zoom in on the consumer perspective on how consumers respond to newness and briefly discuss three dominant approaches in the study of consumers and product newness. We then discuss how firms in their product development strategies and processes can enhance the likelihood that such meaningful differentiation is achieved. At a strategic level market orientation can be an important strategy to enhance product meaningfulness. At a more tactical level, we discuss problems with traditional approaches for idea generation and the fuzzy front-end of new product development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Understanding of the determinants of consumer confidence in the safety of food is important if effective risk management and communication are to be developed. In the research reported here, we attempt to understand the roles of consumer trust in actors in the food chain and regulators, consumer recall of food safety incidents, consumer perceptions regarding the safety of particular product groups, personality characteristics, and sociodemographics, as potential determinants of consumer confidence in the safety of food. Consumer confidence in the safety of food was conceptualized as consisting of two distinct dimensions, namely, “optimism” and “pessimism.” On the basis of a representative sample of 657 Dutch consumers, structural equation modeling was applied to simultaneously estimate the effect of the determinants on both “optimism” and “pessimism.” The results indicated that, to a considerable extent, both optimism and pessimism about the safety of food arise from consumer trust in regulators and actors in the food chain and the perceived safety of meat and fish rather than other product categories. In addition, support was found for the notion that optimism and pessimism are conceptually distinct, as these dimensions of confidence were partly influenced by different determinants. The results of this study imply that consumer confidence in the safety of food could be enhanced by improving both consumer trust in societal actors, and consumer safety perceptions of particular product groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The naming and labeling of products can affect consumer attitudes and subsequent behavior, particularly in the case of new food products in the market. The present study explores the effects of name framing on consumer attitudes towards cultured meat (CM), which is currently in the early stages of development. With a sample of 1532 Chinese consumers, we integrated several pathways to explain the name-framing effect by examining three different terms ("cultured," "artificial," and "cell-based") for CM. Results indicate that "cultured meat" and "cell-based meat" are more appealing than "artificial meat." Name framings of CM affect consumers' perception of benefits more than that of risks. Our comprehensive model identified evoked affect (perceived disgust) and naturalness as two crucial predictors of attitudes. These two predictors also act as substantial mediators of perceived benefits, and they activate the mediation of perceived risks (an insignificant mediator in cognitive processing). In addition, perceived naturalness mediates the name-framing effect mainly through perceived disgust. Our findings have implications for future strategies for communicating about novel foods (like CM) to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer choices are often influenced by the default option presented. This study examines the effect of whole wheat bread as a default option in a sandwich choice situation. Whole wheat bread consists of 100% whole grain and is healthier than other bread types that are commonly consumed, such as brown or white bread. A pilot survey (N = 291) examined the strength of combinations of toppings and bread type as carrier to select stimuli for the main study. In the main experimental study consisting of a two (bread type) by two (topping type) between-subjects design, participants (N = 226) were given a free sandwich at a university stand with either a relatively unhealthy deep-fried snack (croquette) or a healthy topping. About half of the participants were offered a whole wheat bun unless they asked for white bun, and the other half were offered a white bun unless they asked for a whole wheat bun. Regardless of the topping, the results show that when the whole wheat bun was the default option, 108 out of 115 participants (94%) decided to stick with this default option. When the default of bread offered was white, 89 out of 111 participants (80%) similarly chose to stick with this default. Across conditions, participants felt equally free to make a choice. The attractiveness of and willingness to pay for the sandwich were not affected by default type of bread. This study demonstrated a strong default effect of bread type. This clearly shows the benefit of steering consumers towards a healthier bread choice, by offering healthier default bread at various locations such as restaurants, schools and work place canteens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TikTok influencer videos are becoming increasingly popular for promotional purposes and are appealing to adolescents. Yet, the products' level of integration into the storyline of such videos influences their recognizability as advertisements, which is concerning as they expose adolescents to unhealthy social media food marketing, leading to unhealthy consumption. This study investigated whether a sponsorship disclosure in a TikTok influencer video with different levels of product-plot integration increases adolescents' persuasion knowledge and impacts their brand outcomes. This between-subjects 2 × 2 experiment included 245 Dutch adolescents with a mean age of 13.6 (SD = 1.42). Participants watched a TikTok video in which the brand Doritos was shown passively or integrated into the storyline, with or without a disclosure. The sponsorship disclosure significantly increased recognition of advertising (F (241) = 4.48, p =.035) and understanding of persuasive intent (F (241) = 13.28, p = <.001), regardless of product-plot integration level. Yet, brand attitude and product choice were not affected significantly by the disclosure. Overall, sponsorship disclosure in TikTok influencer videos helps create transparency and increase adolescents' recognition and understanding of commercial and persuasive intent. This study is the first to investigate disclosures in the context of popular short-format social media videos. • Disclosures help adolescents recognize advertising and understand the persuasive intent of TikTok influencer marketing. • Disclosures in a TikTok influencer marketing video do not impact critical beliefs or brand outcomes in adolescents. • Level of product-plot integration does not influence adolescents' persuasion knowledge and brand outcomes. • Disclosures are equally effective in TikTok influencer marketing videos with a high versus low product-plot integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on theories of cue utilization, this paper investigates whether and how packaging sustainability influences consumer perceptions, inferences and attitudes towards packaged products. A framework is tested in an empirical study among 249 students using soup products varying in packaging material and graphics. The findings show that (packaging) sustainability is a highly salient association but is only moderately important for consumer attitudes. A comparison between consumer judgments and life-cycle assessment indicates that consumers rely on misleading, inaccurate lay beliefs to judge packaging sustainability and are therefore susceptible to making ineffective environmental decisions. The research also demonstrates the power of packaging in shaping perceptions of food products. Particularly, it shows that changes in actual environmental impacts (by altering packaging materials) affect not only sustainability perceptions but also several other benefits, such as perceived taste and quality. At the same time, consumers' sustainability assessments are also highly influenced by mere graphical packaging cues that have no obvious actual sustainability consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]