Light colours in packaging: food healthier/less tasty?

In food packaging, light and pale colours are often used to highlight product healthiness. What has been largely overlooked is that this seemingly positive health cue may also convey another crucial piece of information: detrimental taste inferences.
To contribute to a better understanding of when this cue is an asset or a liability, researchers at Kiel University in Germany conducted a series of experiments. They found that the health cue can indeed trigger negative taste associations in the consumer’s mind that backfire. Marketers therefore are advised to consider the identified contingencies carefully. An article about the research is published in the Journal of Retailing.
Click here for an abstract of the article.

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