Current Topic: Research

Imagine hurriedly entering the supermarket with a shopping list in hand, determined to exit swiftly. You scan the cash registers, seeking the shortest queue. However, just as you think you've made the fastest choice, you realize the wait time is longer than expected. Frustrating. Or is it?

Contrary to common belief that a linear relationship exists between wait time expectations and consumer satisfaction, waiting longer than expected isn't always detrimental to customer satisfaction. In this blog, we delve deeper into the relationship between waiting, expectations, and customer satisfaction.

Taste is taste, isn't it? Well, not quite! What if I told you that the color, shape, and packaging of a product can significantly alter the way we perceive its flavor? 

Imagine this: a vibrant, red soda can with a sleek, modern design. Your taste buds anticipate a bold and exciting, perhaps cherry-flavored experience. Now, picture that same drink in a plain, unadorned can. Suddenly, your expectations shift, and the taste seems more muted, subtle, or even unexpected. In this blog, we will uncover the secrets of how our senses collaborate with design, presentation, and surroundings to shape the way we taste things. Get ready to discover how the look and feel of a product can play a tantalizing role in the delightful dance of flavors on your palate.

Do you know any of the people in these picture? 

Neither do I. Actually, I ‘created’ them using this AI-powered website: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com

These people do not exist. Yet the powerful realism of these faces has the ability to create the belief that they do relate to actual people. This may be a problem in consumers’ perceptions of a brand, especially for the charity sector. And we’ll see why.

More and more consumers are interested in ethically produced meat. This includes the place and ways animals are raised and cared for. Previous research has found that telling about the better living conditions or organic production of beef products made them more preferable and increased willingness to buy these products (Risius & Hamm, 2017). Could providing this information also influence how beef products taste? Let’s find out!

Shoppers increasingly consider the naturalness of products. Typically, natural products are preferred in categories in which naturalness is considered important. But what does naturalness have to do with the package of the product? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Let’s look at the images below. Which of the products do you consider to be most natural?

Supermarkets display packaged and unpackaged versions of products across a number of categories in-store and online. Restaurants also display products with and without packaging. Starbucks, for example, instructs its employees to remove bakery items from their individual packages before placing them unpackaged in a display case, only to re-package them for the customer upon purchase. The question is: what effect does this have on consumer preference, and purchase likelihood?

In this blog, we will discuss how packaging food has an effect on perceived naturalness  (i.e., originating from plants, animals, or humans) and thereby on purchase intentions. Let’s dive in…