The Influence Of The Cuteness Of Functional Food Packaging On Consumers’ Willingness To Purchase

In recent years,cute packaging has become more and more popular and common,and many functional foods have also started to adopt cute packaging,for example,honey packaging with bear-like patterns,and wolfberry packaging with cute cartoon characters drawn on it.The packaging of the product will have an important impact on the consumer’s consumption decision.In addition,as the income of our residents grows and the quality of life is getting better,people are more and more concerned about their health and functional foods.In view of the increasing popularity of cute packaging in the market and the increasing concern of consumers about functional foods,this paper has combed through the literature on the influence of cute perception on consumer behavior and consumer attitudes toward functional foods,and found that a lot of literature has been done on the positive influence of cute perception on consumer behavior,but very little literature has been done on the negative influence of cute perception on consumer behavior.Some research has been done on consumer attitudes toward functional foods,but very limited research has been done on consumer attitudes toward functional food packaging.So,what are consumers’ attitudes toward functional foods with different levels of cuteness packaging? What is their willingness to purchase? Does it have a negative impact on consumer behavior? What are the mechanisms of influence?In the above context,this paper investigates the effect of cuteness of functional food packaging on consumers’ purchase intention.Specifically,this paper first deduces the relationship between perceived cuteness and perceived efficacy through normative theory and its related literature,and based on this relationship,deduces the effect of functional goals(yes vs.no)on consumers’ purchase intention through mediating product perceived efficacy moderated by package cuteness.And therefore,the research framework and research hypothesis of this paper were proposed.To test the proposed hypothesis,two experiments were designed,Experiment I used a 2-factor(cute packaging vs.control)within-group design,manipulating the degree of cuteness,to test hypothesis H1.Experiment 2 used a 2(package cuteness: high vs.low)× 2(functional goal: yes vs.no)mixed trial design to test H2,H2 a,H2b by manipulating the within-subjects variable cuteness and the between-subjects variable functional goal.The results show that the common theory of "cute = low efficacy" holds true,i.e.,the cuter the functional food packaging,the lower the perceived efficacy of the product.The functional goal(yes vs.no)mediates the effect of perceived efficacy on consumers’ purchase intentions by mediating the perceived efficacy of the product.When confronted with a functional food product without a functional goal,consumers are more likely to purchase a functional food product with a high degree of cuteness;when confronted with a functional food product with a functional goal,consumers are less likely to purchase a functional food product with a high degree of cuteness.This paper extends the current research on the negative impact of perceived cuteness on consumer behavior and consumer attitudes toward functional food packaging by proposing the common theory that "cuteness = low efficacy".The internal mechanism by which the cuteness of functional food packaging affects consumers’ purchase intentions is empirically analyzed,with perceived efficacy mediating this process.The theoretical boundaries of this paper are extended to propose and verify that functional goals(yes vs.no)mediate the effect of perceived efficacy on consumers’ purchase intentions through perceived cuteness of functional food packaging.Certain suggestions are also provided for food companies when marketing functional foods.On the one hand,food companies should recognize that the packaging of different products should be different,and for functional foods,companies should reduce the cuteness of their packaging.On the other hand,food companies should carry out market segmentation for consumers who buy functional foods and differentiate their marketing for consumers with and without functional goals.