Health-related ad information and health motivation effects on product evaluations

Aim and Objective

Test the effect of health-related ad information on perceived product healthfulness and purchase intention

Investigate whether consumers’ health motivation moderates the effects, because of the way health motivation affects processing of health-related information in ads

Polymeros Chrysochou & Klaus G. Grunert, MAPP Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector

More info: Chrysochou, P. & Grunert, K.G. (2013). Health-related ad information and health motivation effects on product evaluations. Journal of Business Research, In Press.

Methods

Independent measures: Multiple operationalization of each type was used

Dependent measures: Perceived healthfulness and purchase intention

A full factorial design was used combining levels of each type into mock ads (the attached pictures are experimental stimuli shown to participants)

Online experiment conducted in Denmark (N=572)

Conclusion/Implications

When evaluating a food product presented in an ad, consumers tend to rely more on health image-ry, whereas consumers with higher levels of health motivation tend to rely on process claims

Effective advertising and public policy campaigns that aim at communicating healthfulness of food products can benefit by the use of visual elements

Public authorities should consider monitoring the use of such visual cues rather than focusing solely on monitoring the use of health-related claims on food products

Figure 1. Conceptual representation of types of communication elements in food advertisements

Functional claims

(e.g. Calcium)

Health imagery (e.g. Exercise)

Process claims (e.g. Organic)

Health message is directly conveyed Health message

is inferred

Results

Health imagery has the largest impact on consumers’ product evalua-tions, while functional claims and process claims have much smaller ef-fects (Figure 2)

Health motivation shows significant interaction with process claims on product evaluations (Figure 3)

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Non-Present Present

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Functional Claims

Process Claims

Health Imagery

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Non-Present Present

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Functional Claims

Process Claims

Health Imagery

Background

Three types of health-related ad elements are distinguished that differ in the way a health message is con-veyed (Figure 1)

Functional claims are statements made on a product asserting the existence or absence of a functional component

Process claims are arguments about a food product’s production process (e.g. organic, traditional).

Health imagery denotes visual elements employed on an ad that have an underlying health-related meaning

Each type affects product evaluations (Kozup et al., 2003 ; Bauer et al., 2012; Branthwaite, 2002), but have been studied in isolation

Figure 3. Interactions effects between health motivation and process claims

on perceived healthfulness and purchase intention

Figure 2. Main effect of health-related ad elements on perceived healthfulness and purchase intention