Marketing “Frankenfood”

ABSTRACT

Most visual package research in marketing to date tests only the main effects of certain visual package elements in artificially isolated experimental contexts, though, in the store, these elements are presented to the shopper in active visual circumstances. Most food packages are highly cluttered with a number of visual and text elements all competing for the shopper's limited attention; this calls into question the external validity, and therefore the usability for practitioner purposes, of these results. Given that marketers often rely on a single visual element as the sole carrier of some particular promotional message, it is critical to ascertain whether single visual elements can break through such visual clutter to effectively deliver their promotional messages to the shopper. In this study, we manipulate the level of background activity of packages while testing the ability of one visual package element—its overall shape—to affect one particular piece of package information of concern to food shoppers— appearance of size or volume. Surprisingly, our results show that the main effect of package shape type on volume perception not only remains robust under visually cluttered conditions, but that the effect is actually heightened for certain, more geometrically complex package shape types. Managerial implications are discussed.     

The visual history of the Tableau Économique

This article looks at the history of the Tableau Économique from a visual point of view. It shows that Quesnay invented the Tableau to formalize visually his economic theory, and that he used different versions of the Tableau (‘Zigzag’, ‘Précis’ and ‘Formule’) for reasons of visual rhetorics. Accordingly, the visual history of the Tableau clarifies several problems identified by previous ‘ecommentors’. The paper concludes that the history of the Tableau as an image cannot be equated with that of Quesnay's abstract economic model without missing the Tableau Économique's raison d'être.     

A Green Picture is Worth A Thousand Words?: Effects of Visual and Textual Environmental Appeals in Advertising and the Moderating Role of Product Involvement

This study examined the main effects and interaction effects of textual environmental claims and green visuals on attitude-toward-the-ad (A_ad), attitude-toward-the-brand (A_b), purchase intention (PI), and green brand associations. In general, the use of textual environmental claims and green visuals lead to more positive advertising responses and more favorable perception of the brand's environmental effort. Textual environmental claims had stronger impact, but if no textual information was available, the use of green visuals could also generate positive perception of the brand's environmental effort. In addition, when textual claims or green visuals are present, participants perceived high involvement products as more environmentally friendly than low involvement products.