Relating Heavy Snacking to Variation in Consumption Across Snack Brands and Categories

While variation in consumption has been studied by several researchers, it is less clear whether frequent snackers exhibit higher variation in consumption of snacks. This study examines three main questions: (1) whether frequent snackers are associated with variation across categories or across brands within a category or both. (2) What is the relationship between variation in consumption across brands and that across categories? (3) What factors are associated with variation in consumption across categories and across brands? We address the above questions using individual level data on snack consumption collected on a mobile phone app over a two-week period. We develop a comprehensive model that considers several factors driven by satiation and satiety, consumption context, and planned consumption, factors that have been studied separately in prior research. Past work used either experiments or household purchase data. The novelty of our study is that we use individual level data with a rich set of covariates. The results show that frequent snackers exhibit greater variation in consumption across brands, but not across categories. The study also finds a positive relationship between variety seeking across brands and that across categories. In addition, we test association between a number of contextual factors and variation in consumption. These findings provide new insights and have important implications for managers.