Food labeling effects in marketing

Abstract: As a source of food-related information, food labels have been found to play an important role in affecting consumers’ cognition, emotion and behavioral responses. Based on the different levels of information coverage, food labels can be divided into two categories: product-level labels and ingredient-level labels. We first comb the main effect of two kinds of food labels on consumers' cognition, emotion and behavioral responses. After that, we compare the similarities and differences between the two kinds of effects and their undelrying mechanisms and boundary conditions. Regulatory orientation theory helps to explain the different effects of the two types of food labels. The product-level labels more often initiate consumer preventive orientation, while the ingredient-level labels activate consumer promotion orientation. In addition, the two types of food labeling effects are driven by the halo effect, information processing, conceptual metaphor, social identity, attribute inference and other mechanisms. Besides, these effects are moderated by social demographic factors, individual differences, and product characteristics. Finally, we propose some feasible research directions based on the overall framework of food labeling effects constructed in this paper. " "