The effect of naturalness claims on perceptions of food product naturalness in the point of purchase

Lunardo, Renaud; Saintives, Camille

doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2013.05.006

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…For example, in accordance with the reasoning of framing theory, naturalness claims on foods have been found to be more favourably received when presented at points of purchase which are in line with 'naturalness', e.g. in a farmer's market (Lunardo & Saintives, 2013). Health claims have been found to be preferred more when embedded in information that underlines the product's naturalness (Aschemann-Witzel & Grunert, 2015).…”

Section: Communicational Framingmentioning

confidence: 70%

Consumers’ categorization of food ingredients: Do consumers perceive them as ‘clean label’ producers expect? An exploration with projective mapping

Aschemann‐Witzel

Varela

Peschel

2019

Food Quality and Preference

159

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Consumers are said to increasingly assess processed food in terms of whether or not they perceive it to be 'clean label' food. This term refers to what is seen as little processed and 'natural' or 'free from' negatively associated ingredients, or even organic food. However, it is difficult for food producers to predict how their product ingredients will be perceived, and how they should position new products. The present study aimed at exploring how consumers perceive and categorize food ingredients, and testing this under different communication frames. These frames are positioning the product in relation to different consumer choice motives. Potato protein as a replacement for negatively associated ingredients was used a case study. Ninety consumers participated in a projective mapping task in Denmark that consisted of placing and characterising ingredients on a bi-dimensional surface. In a betweensubjects design, three groups of consumers had to map the ingredients of four products (dairy-free ice cream, vegetarian candy, plant-based sausage, and a protein drink). In each group products were presented as either sustainable, healthy, or plant-based. The results showed that consumers categorized ingredients in terms of firstly and secondly, objective type of ingredient or its function, and thirdly, subjective individual assessment of its value. Communicational framing had little impact, but ingredient-level differences emerged from the comparison of the frames. Despite product-related differences, a similar pattern emerged for the different food categories. Findings confirm that consumers perceive ingredients according to a 'known-natural-good' vs. the opposite category. Implications for food industry are discussed.

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Section: Communicational Framingmentioning

confidence: 70%

Consumers’ categorization of food ingredients: Do consumers perceive them as ‘clean label’ producers expect? An exploration with projective mapping

Aschemann‐Witzel

Varela

Peschel

2019

Food Quality and Preference

159

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Significantly, contextual factors have been found to impact consumers' assessment of naturalness. The naturalness of food products labeled as all-natural were rated higher when evaluated in the context of a farmer's market compared to the context of a grocery store (Lunardo and Saintives 2013). Presently, we investigated the impact of the natural label in a virtual grocery store.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Saliency of the natural label has been shown to depend on the type of point of purchase environment in which a product is being considered (Lunardo and Saintives ). Despite this, much of the prior research on natural labeling has been performed in traditional laboratory settings or consumer testing environments that lack ecological validity (see, for examples, Rozin and others , ; Rozin , ; Walters and Long ; Li and others ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this, much of the prior research on natural labeling has been performed in traditional laboratory settings or consumer testing environments that lack ecological validity (see, for examples, Rozin and others , ; Rozin , ; Walters and Long ; Li and others ). For instance, in a recent study, unlabeled or natural‐labeled food products were edited into photographs of either a traditional grocery store shelf or a farmer's market (Lunardo and Saintives ). Although the perception of naturalness was higher when the product was pictured in the farmer's market, it is unclear how relevant these findings are to real world scenarios wherein consumers evaluate products while being exposed to multifaceted contextual and social factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Natural Experiment: Using Immersive Technologies to Study the Impact of “All‐Natural” Labeling on Perceived Food Quality, Nutritional Content, and Liking

Liu

Hooker

Parasidis

et al. 2017

Journal of Food Science

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The "all-natural" label is used extensively in the United States. At many point-of-purchase locations, employed servers provide food samples and call out specific label information to influence consumers' purchase decisions. Despite these ubiquitous practices, it is unclear what information is conveyed to consumers by the all-natural label or how it impacts judgments of perceived food quality, nutritional content, and acceptance. We used a novel approach incorporating immersive technology to simulate a virtual in-store sampling scenario where consumers were asked by a server to evaluate identical products with only one being labeled all-natural. Another condition evaluated the impact of the in-store server additionally emphasizing the all-natural status of one sample. Results indicated the all-natural label significantly improved consumer's perception of product quality and nutritional content, but not liking or willingness to pay, when compared to the regular sample. With the simple emphasis of the all-natural claim by the in-store server, these differences in quality and nutritional content became even more pronounced, and willingness to pay increased significantly by an average of 8%. These results indicate that in a virtual setting consistent with making food purchases, an all-natural front-of-pack label improves consumer perceptions of product quality and nutritional content. In addition, information conveyed to consumers by employed servers has a further, substantial impact on these variables suggesting that consumers are highly susceptible to social influence at the point of purchase.

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“…Our results also show location is part of the overall healthiness evaluation of food to some consumers. Some sites such as traditional markets convey a sense of naturalness and freshness of products [42], thus leading consumers to perceive products sold in these places as healthier than the processed food and fresh products distributed by large retailers. This suggests an association between location and process value and confirms consumers rely on basic heuristics such as the "freshness" of the product to identify healthy options.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing Healthy Food: How Consumer’s Values Influence the Perceived Healthiness of a Food Product

Liñán¹,

Arroyo²,

Carrete³

2019

JFNR

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The healthy lifestyle trend represents an opportunity to food manufacturers to redesign their marketing strategy for healthy food products. The prevalent strategy of posting nutritional information may not be effective because consumers use general heuristic cues to infer how healthy is a product. The purpose of this study is to extend the comprehension of the healthy food concept from a consumer perspective by assuming values are the basis to conceptualize healthy food. A qualitative approach was applied to collect in-depth information from a group of consumers with different demographic profiles and health motivations. The qualitative information is analyzed using as reference the food consumption value framework. The results of the thematic analysis indicate consumer's conceptualization of healthy food is elusive, imprecise and intuitive. Product and process values are utilitarian values consumers use to assess how healthy is food. However, the physical setting and more intangible values such as the feeling of taking care of oneself also influence healthy food preferences. Based on these findings, a definition of "healthy food" based on four food values is proposed. This consumer-based definition of "healthy food", in addition to the conventional product-based definition, may be used by governmental health institutions and food manufacturers to persuade individuals to make healthier food choices by using more emotionally evocative and cognitively effortless food-related communication regarding the healthfulness of food products.

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The effect of naturalness claims on perceptions of food product naturalness in the point of purchase

Cited by 33 publications

References 43 publications

Consumers’ categorization of food ingredients: Do consumers perceive them as ‘clean label’ producers expect? An exploration with projective mapping

Consumers’ categorization of food ingredients: Do consumers perceive them as ‘clean label’ producers expect? An exploration with projective mapping

A Natural Experiment: Using Immersive Technologies to Study the Impact of “All‐Natural” Labeling on Perceived Food Quality, Nutritional Content, and Liking

Conceptualizing Healthy Food: How Consumer’s Values Influence the Perceived Healthiness of a Food Product

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