Taste, health, or sustainability: effects of claim themes on consumer choice of new food products

Purpose Claims are commonly used as packaging marketing strategies to promote food products. Whether different claim themes differentially influence first-time product choice remains unclear. We investigated the influence of taste, health, and sustainability claims on consumer choices regarding new versions of a traditional food product, the potential moderating effects of consumers' nutrition involvement and environmentalism behaviour on claim effectiveness, and how claim themes relate to product attribute expectations. Design/methodology/approach Through two within-subjects survey experiments, participants evaluated traditional and new product variations paired with different claim themes. Across six product pairs, participants chose between the two products, resulting in 2,808 observations. Findings No significant effect of claim theme was found, although the health claim tended to slightly outperform the taste and sustainability claims in promoting product choice. Individual differences in nutrition involvement did not moderate the effectiveness of the health claim. Results were mixed regarding the moderating effect of environmentalism behaviour on the effectiveness of the sustainability claim. Overall, claim effectiveness was positively associated with expectations regarding the corresponding product attribute. Practical implications Understanding how taste-, health-, and sustainability-focussed claims influence purchase decisions can help businesses tailor product positioning and marketing strategies to increase market success. Originality/value These findings suggest that broad claim themes may be less important than product expectations and other product or packaging characteristics in shaping first-time choices of incremental food innovations. The results further highlight the importance of congruence between claims and expected product attributes in strategies promoting healthier and more sustainable food products.