Marketing online food images via color saturation: A sensory imagery perspective

Less saturated, more eco‐friendly: Color saturation and consumer perception of product sustainability

“…Our results contribute to the literature on colors by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between color saturation and perceived sustainability, adding to the extant research on color saturation-a feature that is not yet well leveraged in visual marketing strategies (Liu et al, 2022). In this way, the research offers insights into the underlying factors and unconscious associations that influence consumers' assessment of product eco-friendliness, and highlights the need for more research on the impact of color features on consumers' perceptions of environmental sustainability.…”

“…These effects also extend to online environments: Recent research has found that food images presented online with high (vs. low) saturated colors increase the perception of freshness and tastiness, which then positively influences consumers' purchase intention (Liu et al, 2022).…”

“…Whereas prior marketing research focused predominantly on the effects of primary colors (e.g., red and blue; Labrecque & Milne, 2012) and other color dimensions such as lightness (Hagtvedt & Brasel, 2016, 2017), saturation has received scant attention, especially with regard to consumers' assessment of product sustainability. While previous research has explored how color saturation affects consumers' perceptions in various ways, such as increasing a product's perceived size (Hagtvedt & Brasel, 2017), enhancing its perceived freshness and tastiness (Liu et al, 2022), or influencing trustworthiness judgments (Skulmowski et al, 2016), our study focuses specifically on the impact of color saturation on consumer perception of a product's eco‐friendliness and the resulting effects on consumers' behavioral intentions. Indeed, some studies offer evidence about saturated colors' ability to trigger attention and emotional arousal (e.g., Gorn et al, 1997; Gu et al, 2019; Hagtvedt & Adam Brasel 2017; He & Lv, 2022), but the effects of low‐saturation colors remain unclear.…”

“…Likewise, other studies observed that products in vivid packaging are seen as healthier, tastier, and fresher than identical products in more muted packaging (Kunz et al, 2020; Tijssen et al, 2017). These effects also extend to online environments: Recent research has found that food images presented online with high (vs. low) saturated colors increase the perception of freshness and tastiness, which then positively influences consumers' purchase intention (Liu et al, 2022). Saturation also influences the perceived trustworthiness of a website (Skulmowski et al, 2016).…”

The Effect of Color Saturation of Travel Pictures on Consumer Appeal

“…The cultural dimension of psychological distance was found to have both adverse and positive effects on choosing the destination for the consumer. Among them, the positive factor is often associated with destination attractiveness; the distance brought by culture can bring a sense of novelty to tourists and positively attract them [51,52]. Moreover, cultural tourism programs are more attractive to tourists from other cultures [53].…”