The impact of Reduced-Sugar labels on consumers´ perceptions and purchase intentions when choosing for themselves and for others

Abstract

Over the years, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of making healthier purchase decisions and the use of nutrition labels, such as Reduced-Sugar, aims to ease healthy choices. However, the presence of such labels can lead to wrong inferences of other product attributes, thus influencing consumers’ buying decisions.This dissertation examines consumers’ perceptions of healthiness and tastiness towards Reduced-Sugar labels and investigates its effect from the perspective of utilitarian and hedonic products. Moreover, it accounts for the potential effect of decision targets (i.e., choosing products for own consumption or for others) on preferences and purchase intentions for products with Reduced-Sugar labels. Also, the role of anticipatory guilt was considered, as perchance affecting consumers’ decisions when choosing for themselves and for others.The study comprised one online survey, where participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (choosing for themselves or for others). The results revealed that consumers associate Reduced-Sugar labels with healthier and less tasty products. Furthermore, findings indicate that depending on the level of self-health awareness, the presence of labels affects consumers’ preferences and purchase intentions, and this effect is moderated by decision targets (self-other differences).It was also found that the level of anticipatory guilt triggered by engaging in products with Reduced-Sugar labels is less for consumers choosing for others than for themselves, and this effect is stronger in hedonic products.

Date of Award	27 Jan 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Niza Braga (Supervisor)