The Effects Of Food Packaging Color Saturation On Healthfulness Perception

With the increasing obesity problem and the increasing incidence of diet-related diseases,more and more consumers are paying attention to dietary health issues,and marketing scholars have to pay attention to the health properties of food.In this context,the research on healthy eating consumption behavior has become a hot topic in the academic circle.So far,more and more studies have shown that food labels,food packaging,food brands and other external cues can affect consumers' perception of food health.However,as far as food packaging color is concerned,scholars have studied the influence of hue and saturation of food packaging color on health perception,and relatively ignored the influence of color saturation of food packaging.Since bright colors are often exciting,marketers often use bright colors for food packaging design.But do bright packaging affect how healthy consumers think their food is? In summary,we attempt to explore whether bright packaging will affect consumers' evaluation of food health,that is,whether the color saturation of food packaging will affect consumers' perception of food health.Specifically,this study mainly discussed the following three questions :(1)whether the color saturation of food packaging will affect consumers' perception of food health;(2)Whether taste perception plays a mediating role in the effect of food packaging color saturation on health perception;(3)Whether the sense of power plays a moderating role in the effect of food packaging color saturation on health perception.To explore the above questions,we designed and completed three formal experiments.Experiment 1 was a single-factor intergroup design to examine the main effect of food packaging color saturation on health perception.The experimental results showed that the color saturation of food packaging significantly affected consumers' perception of food health,that is,consumers perceived high saturation(vs.low saturation)packaged foods are less healthy.Experiment 2 was a two factor intergroup design of 2(food packaging color saturation: low vs.high)×2(sense of power: low vs.high).In this experiment,we explored the moderating effect of perceived power on the effect of food packaging color saturation on perceived health.The results showed that the sense of power moderated the effect of food packaging color saturation on health perception,that is,the sense of power was the boundary condition of food packaging color saturation on health perception.Specifically,for individuals with low sense of power,the impact of food packaging color saturation on health perception was significantly different;For individuals with high sense of power,there was no significant difference in the impact of food packaging color saturation on health perception.Experiment 3 was a single-factor intergroup design to test the mediating role of taste perception in the effect of food packaging color saturation on health perception.The results showed that the color saturation of food packaging significantly affected health perception,and the taste perception partially mediated the effect of the color saturation of food packaging on health perception.On the one hand,food packaging color saturation can directly affect health perception,that is,consumers think that high saturation(vs.low saturation)foods are less healthy;On the other hand,food packaging color saturation can affect health perception by influencing taste perception,that is,consumers think that high saturation(vs.low saturation)foods are perceived to be more palatable and thus less healthy.According to the above research conclusions,the following marketing implications can be obtained :(1)food manufacturers need to pay attention to the impact of saturation on consumers' health perception when designing packaging colors;(2)When formulating marketing strategies,marketers need to take into account the connection between food taste and health,so as to better meet the needs of market segments and promote sales.On the one hand,targeted marketing strategies should be developed for different target consumers.On the other hand,when using bright color to imply delicious food,we should also consider the negative effects of delicious food--unhealthy;(3)Consumers with a low sense of power should have a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the packaged food,such as carefully checking the nutritional information on the package,rather than evaluating the food only according to the color of the package.