The effect of the number of ingredient images on package evaluation and product choice

Abstract

In the highly competitive context of food product sales in supermarkets, consumers may have difficulty processing deeply the information on a given package. This research examines how the number of ingredients depicted on packaging in addition to the picture of the whole product impacts its efficacy depending on consumers’ motivation (hunger), opportunity (via cognitive load), and ability (via need for cognition – NFC) to process information. Three studies find that, under high cognitive load, packages depicting many ingredients induce more mental taste imagery, heighten purchase intention, and improve taste evaluations. For consumers with high NFC (vs low), under high cognitive load, packaging not depicting ingredients (vs five ingredients) is preferred when consumers are motivated by hunger. Under low cognitive load and whatever the NFC, information is processed centrally and evaluation does not depend on the number of ingredient images depicted.