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This paper aims to investigate inferences consumers make about organic and all-natural labeled products in both food and non-food contexts using the health halo effect as a theoretical foundation.

This paper uses three experiments to test the effects of organic and all-natural labeling across three product types, food, personal hygiene and household cleaning, while controlling for environmental attitudes.

The results of the experiments in the context of food, personal hygiene and household cleaning products suggest that both organic and all-natural labeling produce halo effects. Distinct findings are presented across the three product types.

Findings indicate that consumers may make unwarranted inferences about both organic and all-natural labeled products and demonstrates that the health halo effect is a potentially robust phenomenon, pervasive across a diverse array of products. This research used a crowdsourcing platform for sample recruitment. Future research should validate the results of these experiments with other sample types.

This research suggests that consumers may make similar unwarranted inferences for diverse products bearing organic and all-natural labels. These inferences are particularly intriguing given the differing regulatory requirements for the labels

Organic and all-natural labels are ubiquitous in both food and non-food products. However, research on either label primarily exists in a food context and has not directly compared the labels. Understanding the inferences consumers make based on the labels across product types is imperative for both marketing and public policy.

While research shows that organic labels are perceived positively for most food products, the findings are more ambiguous for wine. This may be due to the complexity of the product. Accordingly, the labelling effect might be influenced by people's prior knowledge of wines and their attitudes towards organic wines and thus be more pronounced for certain consumer groups. Providing insights into those moderators could help to steer people towards sustainable wine consumption. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the effect of organic labelling on consumers' liking of, and their willingness to pay (WTP) for white wine, and the role of potential moderators.

A wine tasting experiment was conducted using a within-subjects design (n = 214). The mediating role of expected liking and the moderating roles of subjective knowledge and attitude towards organic wine were analysed using the MEMORE macro in SPSS.

The results do not confirm an overall positive halo effect of labelling on liking of organic wine. Nevertheless, a positive halo effect on actual liking was observed for those respondents who have a positive attitude towards organic wine. Furthermore, an overall positive effect of organic labelling on WTP was found. Mediation effects could not be confirmed.

This study used an experimental design that considers not only expected liking but also actual liking and WTP for organic wines. Using a moderation-mediation framework helps to better understand consumers' quality evaluation and WTP for organic wine. Finally, it could be shown that the organic halo is more complex for the product category of wine than others have previously stated.

Past research has demonstrated a health halo for food product labels (e.g. organic), resulting in inflated perceptions of a product’s healthfulness (e.g. low fat). While past studies have focused on labeling and related health claims, the health halo of brand names has scarcely been investigated. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the health halo of brand names featuring morality- and purity-signifiers.

The current research uses two experiments to examine the health halo of morality- and purity-signifying brand names on perceptions of nutritional and contaminant attributes. Mediation analysis is performed to investigate perceived naturalness as the mechanism for the brand name effects while moderated mediation analysis examines this mechanism across product types (healthy vs unhealthy).

The findings reveal that both the morality- and purity-signifying brand names produce a health halo on nutritional and contaminant attributes, regardless of product healthiness. Further, mediation and moderated mediation analysis provide evidence for perceived naturalness as the underlying mechanism driving these effects.

This research highlights unwarranted consumer inferences made based upon food brand names and, thus has implications for consumers, public policy and marketing managers.

While much health halo research has focused on labeling, this research examines the health halo of two brand name types which symbolically convey either morality or purity. This research provides additional contributions by investigating perceived naturalness as the underlying mechanism for the effects and is one of the few studies to investigate the health halo for both healthy and unhealthy products.

The mechanism by which organic labelling affects consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for wine is not yet fully understood. Organic labelling not only transports information about environmental benefits, but may also influence consumers’ perceptions of quality and taste. The purpose of this paper is to separate the information effect from the perception effect of an organic label on WTP.

Taste and quality perceptions of 110 German consumers and their WTP for white and red wines were collected in a second-price auction in conjunction with a blind tasting. Each measure was recorded under two experimental conditions: with and without organic labelling. Serial mediation analysis is used to identify the information and perception effect of an organic label on WTP. A moderating effect of commitment to organic consumption is considered.

Wines marketed as organic are perceived as tastier and of higher quality and value. The organic labelling effect is stronger for committed organic consumers. Mediation analysis confirms perceived better taste as a key driver for WTP, especially for less committed organic consumers. The findings highlight perceptions of wine quality as the main mediator through which organic labelling affects WTP for red wine and for committed organic consumers.

This paper adds to the literature by decomposing the signalling mechanism of organic labelling and by emphasising the role of individual characteristics in determining its magnitude and pathways. Implications from a marketing and wine industry’s perspective are discussed.

This paper aims to examine how repeated exposure to health-related products that contain flavors (e.g. cherry-flavored cough syrup) create “flavor halos” that can bias perceptions about the healthfulness of foods that contain the same flavors (e.g. cherry-flavored cheesecake).

Six experiments, using both between- and within-subjects designs, explore the effects of flavor halos in hypothetical and actual consumption settings. They test the underlying mechanism, rule out competing explanations and identify an opportunity to correct the cognitive biases created by flavor halos.

Flavor halos can be created via repeated exposure to flavored medicinal products in the marketplace. These flavor halos bias dieters’ judgments about the healthfulness of vice foods containing such flavors. Dieters are motivated toward a directional conclusion about food healthfulness to mediate the guilt associated with consuming indulgent products. Providing dieters with corrective information mitigates these effects.

The authors examine one way flavor halos are created –via repeated exposure to flavored medicinal products. Future research should explore other ways flavor halos are created and other ways to mitigate their effects.

Considering the prevalence of obesity, organizations striving to help consumers pursue health goals (e.g. weight watchers) can use flavors to improve dietary compliance. Health-care organizations can help consumers understand and correct the cognitive biases associated with flavor halos.

By identifying flavor halos, this work adds to the literature investigating how flavors influence consumers’ judgments about healthfulness. The results suggest dieters apply flavor halos as they engage in motivated reasoning to license their indulgent desires.

This study puts forth a consumer-oriented concept of clean labels and attempts to empirically investigate consumer perceptions of these labels.

A self-administered survey (n = 346) was used as the research instrument for data collection in the current study.

Results from an online survey indicate that consumers perceived less processed, elimination of undesired ingredients and ethical concerns as salient attributes associated with clean labels. Consumer-perceived benefits of these attributes include healthiness, social responsibility, sensory appeal, reliable product and low calorie. Additionally, canonical correlation analysis yields two significant associations between clean label attributes and the corresponding benefits. Attributes of elimination of undesired ingredients and utilization of familiar elements drive the benefits of healthiness, low calorie and social responsibility. Attributes of being less processed and with simple ingredients are associated with the benefit of sensory appeal.

This study systematically investigates the discrete clean halo effect by empirically examining the associations between the clean label attributes and the dimensionalities of benefits as perceived by consumers.

This paper aim to investigate how organic labeling impacts perceived value for money (PVFM) as well as attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty for private label brands (PLBs). This impact is tested for different product categories and retailers.

Two online experiments are conducted with different product categories (i.e. eggs and chocolate) and different retailers (i.e. Auchan and Carrefour). For each experiment, a multivariate analysis of covariance with brand type (i.e. PLBs and organic PLBs) as the independent variables, the PVFM and brand loyalty as the dependent variables as well as consumers’ characteristics, involvement with organic products and attitudes toward the retailer as the covariates is run.

On aggregate, organic PLBs prompt a higher PVFM as well as a higher attitudinal and behavioral loyalty than the PLBs. These results are consistent across the above-mentioned product categories and retailers.

This study advances knowledge on organic labeling for the PLBs.

Retailers gain insights on the perceptions and behaviors toward organic PLBs versus standard PLBs.

This study tests how an organic label impacts the PVFM and brand loyalty for the PLBs.

There is empirical evidence that the image of organic products has a stronger effect on consumer perception than the intrinsic characteristics. Against this background, the aim of this paper is twofold; first, to ascertain if the stimulus “organic food”, placed by storytelling, influences the perception of wine. Based on this, the study tries to discover wherein a positive perception of organic wine might be reflected (e.g. willingness to pay premium prices, better taste perception).

Focusing on the consumer perception and evaluation of conventional versus organic wine, it was decided to use an experimental design with a blind taste test procedure. The prediction was that subjects would rank a wine described as organic higher than a conventional wine – even if there is no objective difference. Consumer perceptions and attitudes toward the wines were assessed using a questionnaire including wine preference, buying and recommendation intention, and willingness to pay. Besides, consumer wine knowledge and consumer personal environmental orientation were measured as individual constructs.

In accordance with existing research insights, consumers tend to prefer organic products over conventional ones. In this context, the experiment shows that adding information on the product's process during a blind test leads consumers to increase their ratings in favour of the “organic wine”. Interesting is that consumers even give a better rating for “conventional wine” just described as being “organic”, indicating that the appearance and taste are perceived to be better, and the price intention is higher – thus, a pure signalling effect is achieved.

The key finding of the study was that even if they tasted the identical product, the respondents ascribe a significantly better taste to the organic-labelled wine compared to the conventional alternative. Besides, the willingness to recommend the organic wine and the willingness to pay differed significantly from the evaluation of the red wine presented as “conventional”. Moreover, regardless of their knowledge and attitude towards organic products in general, all respondents rated the so-called organic wine higher in all given attributes.

The aim is to investigate the choice and experience attributes of core – sweet (cookie) and savoury (cracker) – biscuits of a high premium, luxury or indulgent nature to investigate the possible opportunity for organic or other more healthily perceived product option developments.

The approach taken is a qualitative focus group study involving a series of core user adult consumer groups, aged between 25 and the late 1960s, in a southern county of the UK.

The adult consumption of biscuits involves a process that aspires towards an overall “better‐life”, sensual experience by momentarily escaping the everyday realm and aiming to emulate either a perceived “real” or a mythical, largely past‐related style of existence. This is often associated with meanings inherent in the terms “natural”, “rural”, “home‐baked” and “traditional” as well as “elegant” associations and production and selling agency values around small or local, pre‐modern source structures. Organic labelling is found to have a negative “horn” effect to buyers by countering other desired associations.

The study used a small sample in the county of Dorset in the south of England, but these are implications for new product development and marketing of luxury snacks.

Alternative areas of marketing focus to rational appeal are suggested that could help promote healthier biscuit choice options.

Irrational ideal and unreal aspects of consumer appeal are found to feature the creation of imagined or re‐created “moments of perfection” in a process of cognitive suspension.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate preferences for wine made from hand-harvested grapes, and the interactive effect between this attribute and organic certification.

Data were collected via an online choice experiment involving a sample of 408 Italian wine consumers. A random parameter logit was performed to estimate consumer preferences for wine attributes: harvest type, organic and the interaction between these. The experiment also includes geographical indications and price. Furthermore, a latent class model (LCM) is performed to investigate taste heterogeneity for the included wine attributes.

On average, consumers prefer the wine produced with hand-harvested grapes. The hypothesis of an interaction between organic and hand-harvested attributes is rejected. Using the LCM, the authors identify three segments with significant taste heterogeneity in terms of the magnitude and the sign of the parameters. Moreover, consumer attitudes towards food naturalness differ according to their belonging to the segments.

The novelty of this article is twofold. First, this study investigates, for the first time, the impact of the hand-harvested method on consumer wine preferences. Second, hand-harvesting and organic have independent values.