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How to communicate healthy products inside grocery stores

Benedetta Grandi (Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma, Parma, Italy)
Maria Grazia Cardinali (Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma, Parma, Italy)
Silvia Bellini (Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma, Parma, Italy)

British Food Journal

ISSN: 0007-070X

Article publication date: 17 September 2019

Issue publication date: 23 October 2019

518

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of nutritional information in the selection of healthy food products and test the effects of different communication stimuli on people with different levels of self-control (NFC used as a proxy). Specifically, the authors posit that easy-to-process and intuitive nutritional information can lead to a substantial change in the shopping behaviour. Furthermore, this work wants to test the effect on behaviours, emotions and judgements of two different communication signs (stars and silhouettes) in the promotion of healthy food products inside grocery stores.

Design/methodology/approach

After the development of a new nutritional display, the authors identified two different communication stimuli (stars and silhouettes) in order to test their impact on emotions evoked, judgements and behaviours. First, a pre-test was conducted using neuro-marketing tools (Face Reader) to detect the emotions aroused by the communications and then a main online between-subjects experiment involving 222 participants was carried out to understand the impact on choices and attitudes. Data were analysed using SPSS.

Findings

Results showed that communication plays a key role in helping customers choosing healthier products. Concerning the different communication stimuli, the authors found a significant difference in the emotion evoked by the different signs used. This difference translates into a judgemental change but not necessarily into a behavioural one.

Originality/value

To the authors’ knowledge, previous researchers have focused their attention only on the nutritional values communicated at a product level through different product labels, while nobody has tried to implement and test a category/segment level communication strategy.

Keywords

Citation

Grandi, B., Cardinali, M.G. and Bellini, S. (2019), "How to communicate healthy products inside grocery stores", British Food Journal, Vol. 121 No. 11, pp. 2637-2650. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-01-2019-0047

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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