COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University researchers found that by changing the label of a cookie or cracker, the perceived taste of the food can change.
In a study to be published in Food Quality and Preference, researchers found that using “consumer complaint” on a label had significantly lower liking rating than for food labeled with “new and improved.”
“We had both negative and positive bias – but the negative bias was much bigger. That negative context had more impact than saying ‘new and improved’ had on generating better ratings,” said Christopher Simons, associate professor of food science and technology at The Ohio State University and senior author of the study.
The study included 120 adults ages 18 to 70 who were given three plates with crackers and cookies. Ohio State said that researchers told participants they would evaluate a major supplier’s current typical factory sample, a new and improved prototype and a sample that had received customer complaints.
Participants then were asked to rate the food on a nine-point scale.
“With the negative contextualized messaging, there were more negative attributes selected — people didn’t like it as much, it wasn’t as fresh. People had a more negative opinion of it,” Simons said. “The positive messaging slanted toward being more positive, but not nearly as much.”
According to Ohio State, 70-80% of new food products fail to stay on the market. Researchers concluded that there is value in teasing out what customers perceive as negative and adjusting accordingly.
“If people are more sensitive to those taints, we can use it to our advantage as it relates to food,” Simons said. “You get a bigger bang for your buck by removing things people find negative than you do by optimizing those positive attributes. Take care of the negatives first, and you’re probably going to have a more successful product.”
