Increasing consumers' attention capture and food choice through bottom-up effects

To guide consumers in their decision process, especially food products often carry labels indicating production method or nutritional content. However, past research shows that many labels are rarely attended to in the consumer's decision process. In order to enhance the effectiveness of such labels and to increase choice likelihood of labeled products, the label must capture attention. We address the question of how a single label on the product packaging can capture attention through bottom-up effects and increase choice through increased attention capture. To this end, we conducted a combined eye tracking and choice experiment manipulating the surface size and visual saliency - the two most important bottom-up effects on attention - of the Danish organic label across three food product categories. Results show a strong and significant increase in attention capture towards a larger and more visually salient label. Most importantly, the effect of attention capture carried over into increased choice likelihood. Both marketers and policy makers might benefit from this approach, which provides directions for designing product labels that can influence attention capture and product choice.