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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the differential consequences of fear and anger for consumers’ responses to genetically modified (GM) foods, and to identify substantive concerns that differentiate consumers’ negative emotional responses into fear and anger in the GM food context.

With survey data obtained from university students (n=267), structural equation modeling is used to assess relationships between four types of consumer concerns about the genetic modification of food, fear and anger, and two types of consumer responses to GM food products.

Intentions to make complaints about GM foods are increased by anger, but reduced by fear. Readiness to use GM foods is reduced by fear, but not by anger. Fear is strengthened by health-related concerns, while anger is strengthened by market-related concerns associated with the genetic modification of food.

The generalizability of the findings is limited by the student sample. The study confirms the applicability of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion in the context of GM food consumption. The findings help GM food marketers and societal opinion influencers to identify consumers’ concerns that need to be addressed to manage consumers’ antagonistic or avoiding emotion-driven responses to GM foods.

This study is the first to show that discrete emotions of the same negative valence have distinct effects on consumer acceptance of GM foods, and to distinguish substantive concerns that in particular foster fear and anger in the GM food context.

This study aims to increase knowledge of the ability of nutrition labels to guide consumer choices in real-life environments.

Food consumption and plate waste data were collected from two self-service restaurants (SSR) with different customer groups over six observation days: three control and three intervention (with nutrition labelling) periods. Study Group 1 consisted of vocational school students, mostly late adolescents (N = 1,710), and Group 2 consisted of spa hotel customers, mostly elderly (N = 1,807). In the experimental restaurants, the same food was served to the buffets during the control and intervention periods.

The nutrition label in the lunch buffet guides customers to eat fewer main foods and salads and to select healthier choices. Increased consumption of taste enhancers (salt and ketchup) was observed in the study restaurants after nutritional labelling. Nutrition labelling was associated with a reduction in plate waste among the elderly, whereas the opposite was observed among adolescents.

The results provide public policymakers and marketers with a better understanding of the effects of nutrition labelling on consumer behaviour. Future studies should further evaluate the effects of nutrition labelling on the overall quality of customer diets and the complex environmental, social, and psychological factors affecting food choices and plate waste accumulation in various study groups.

This study aims to explore how certain consumer characteristics (dieting status, health motives and food values) together with products carrying ambivalent health and taste cues (light foods, convenience foods, “functional candies”) shape whether and why health and taste attributes are perceived as inclusive (“healthy is tasty” and “unhealthy is untasty”) or exclusive (“healthy is untasty” and “unhealthy is tasty”).

A qualitative methodology not yet applied in examining consumers’ healthiness and tastiness perceptions of food was employed. It included gathering three separate data sets through both personal and group interviews (N = 40).

Consumers’ dieting status, health motives and food values shape the perception of inclusivity and exclusivity of health and taste of light, convenience and candy products. Second, there are multiple sources for these perceptions including product type, ingredients, level of processing and marketing cues. These factors interact to produce a unique consumer understanding of the relationship between health and taste for each single food product.

To ensure optimal consumer response, food companies and health educators need to understand how different target groups form their inclusive/exclusive perceptions of health and taste for various foods.

The majority of pre-existing food consumption research supports imply that a good taste and a high degree of healthiness are incompatible with each other. The findings challenge this view. It appears that it is the “unhealthy is untasty” and “healthy is tasty” perceptions that predominate in certain consumer groups. A novel conceptual framework for understanding the ambivalence of health and taste perceptions in food consumption is offered.

This paper aims to investigate how differences in message content and in need for cognition influence consumers' sensory evaluation, product attitudes and purchase intentions in terms of spelt porridge and sea buckthorn juice.

Quantitative research methods were used. Four taste experiments were carried out among Finnish female consumers (n=129).

Health‐related product information had a positive impact on attitude towards and intention to purchase spelt porridge, and safety‐related product information had a positive impact on sensory experience of sea buckthorn juice. In addition, in the examination of the need for cognition effects revealed a tendency indicating that spelt porridge and sea buckthorn juice were experienced more positively among individuals high in need for cognition than among individuals low in need for cognition.

The instrument of need for cognition is also applicable to investigating actual behavioural elements such as sensory evaluation.

This paper has implications for novel food marketing.

The findings advance understanding of the roles of subtle message differences and need for cognition in consumers' food product experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether food products carry qualitatively different healthfulness images in consumers’ minds. The images explored in this paper go beyond the conventional healthful vs unhealthful dichotomy. The limitations of mainstream healthfulness perception research were pinpointed and a multi-dimensional conception of food product healthfulness images was introduced in an attempt to extend current theorizing.

A pilot test (n=17) was conducted to develop a tool for measuring multi-dimensional healthfulness images of food products. The main study (n=1,081) comprised of an internet survey exposing respondents to pictures of various commercial food products.

Empirical support for the existence of qualitatively different healthfulness images in consumers’ minds for food products was found. First, a food product perceived in overall as more unhealthful than its counterpart was still viewed as more healthful in certain specific way. Second, respondents reported to yield dissimilar health benefits (e.g. energy and appearance vs emotional well-being and self-management) from consuming two food products that were in overall perceived as equally healthful.

In their communication, food marketers should emphasize those healthfulness image dimensions that consumers strongly perceive to characterize their food product. Second, companies can learn from analyzing the role of their own and competitors’ branding and packaging solutions in shaping consumers’ food product healthfulness image experiences. Third, consumer target group understanding is helpful in managing these experiences.

The results can assist in the fight against obesity. It is possible that the wider use of more emotionally evocative and cognitively effortless food-related communication enabled by uncovering of qualitative healthfulness images can produce more healthy food choices in the long run due to their higher persuasive power in certain consumer groups.

This study was the first to show that food products can carry qualitatively different healthfulness images in consumers’ minds. It developed and introduced an easy measuring technique, based on the health-related motive orientation theory, for capturing them. It propagated for a multi-dimensional conception of food product healthfulness images and for the need to acknowledge the role holistic information processing and peripheral cues in their genesis.

This paper aims to advance theory‐building in the area of food consumption research, by exploring how consumers experience chocolate consumption in different contexts and by viewing these inductive findings in the light of the relevant existing body of knowledge.

A qualitative study is conducted on a non‐student sample of Italian consumers. The qualitative diary research technique is used as it is particularly suitable to capturing sensations, feelings, thoughts, and behaviours related to various chocolate consumption contexts. Content analytical and interpretive principles are followed in the production of the study findings.

Chocolate generates rich and complex consumption experiences as a function of various contextual forces. Seven main contextual chocolate consumption categories are identified: context of physiological need, context of sensorial gratification, context of memories and nostalgia, context of escapism, context of materialism, context of chocoholism, and context of interpersonal and self‐gifts. On the basis of these chocolate consumption categories and ideas from past consumer behaviour research, four more general contextualized chocolate consumption experience types are extracted: chocolate consumption experience as medicine, as mind manoeuvring, as regression and as ritual enhancement.

Past research has not explored how different chocolate consumption contexts shape and define these experiences, even though contextual variation in food consumption experiences is recognized as important. The nuances of chocolate consumption in various contexts are explored to the unprecedented depth, a conceptually novel typology of contextualized chocolate consumption experiences is presented, the field of application of self‐congruity theory is expanded and the profiles of chocolate consumer segments identified by past research are enriched.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a value‐based framework for the consumer e‐trust building process.

The data collection procedure consisted of two steps. The first was a brief questionnaire measuring potential informants' personal values. From this pool of potential informants, 30 were recruited for the interviews: five security‐ and five excitement‐minded consumers from three fields of electronic commerce; electronic newspapers, electronic grocery shopping, and electronic healthcare services.

The findings of the study reveal two value‐based external factors in e‐trust building that consumers perceive as risks in e‐commerce, and three value‐based behavioral patterns in e‐trust building that informants adopt to reduce perceived risks and build trust in e‐commerce. Furthermore, findings of the current study suggest that e‐trust building process is different based on individuals' personal values.

This study takes into account only two consumers' personal values, security and excitement, and ignores others. However, it identifies the role of the consumers' personal values in e‐trust building, and thus opens new perspectives for further e‐trust research. The study also identifies different strategies that consumers can use to build trust in e‐commerce.

This study opens new perspectives in e‐trust research by exploring the role of consumers' personal values in e‐trust building process. The study also provides new insights for other researchers to develop understanding on mechanisms that consumers use to build e‐trust.

This paper aims to extend current understanding concerning the cross-modal correspondences between sounds and tastes by introducing new research tools and experimental data to study associations and their reflections between music and taste.

The experiment design addresses the multidisciplinary approach by using cultural, chemical and statistical analysis methods.

The paper provides further evidence that exposure to the “sweet” or “sour” musical pieces influences people’s food-related thinking processes and behaviors. It also demonstrates that sweet or sour elements in the music may reflect to actual sweetness (as measured by sugar content) and sourness (as measured by organic acid content) of foods developed in association with music carrying similar taste characteristics.

The findings should be replicated and expanded using larger consumer samples and wider repertoires of “taste music” and dependent variables. Also, the level of experimental control should be improved; e.g., the “sweet” and “sour” music were produced using different instruments, which may have an influence to the results.

Ambient “taste music” that is congruent with the basic flavors of the dishes can be played in restaurants to highlight guests’ sensory experience.

By carefully considering the symbolic meanings of the music used in different social situations, it is possible to create multimodal experiences and even subconscious expectations in people’ minds.

Cross-modal associations are made between the tastes and music. This can influence on perception of food and provide new ways to build multimodal gastronomic experiences.

The impact of colour is acknowledged, yet empirical studies on colours with marketing implications are rare. The paper seeks to advance our understanding of the role of package colours in consumers' product experiences by studying the relationship between colour meanings and product. It also aims at offering insights into the meanings associated with colours in a product context.

Understanding of package colours was elicited by applying the preference‐consumption difference interview technique. The data were analysed applying means‐end chain. Accordingly, it was possible to detect, not only the multifunction played by package colours, but also meanings that colours conveyed at different abstraction level. As colour research within marketing was fragmented and no such colour theory exists, the paper developed a theoretical framework for the paper.

Based on the evidence, the proposed framework is further elaborated so that it could better capture the connections between colour and consumers' product experiences. Hence, the paper supports the significance of the functions emphasised by past research and uncovers the qualitative connections between packages colour meanings and product type.

Future research should extend the size of the sample, types of products, geographical area, and colours.

The evidence shows that colours should be carefully considered when launching new brands or, indeed, when brand packages are redesigned, the multifunction of colours should be taken into consideration.

The paper covers an area neglected by past research, which has implications for understanding consumers' brand preferences.