Increasing Consumption of Larger Product Sizes through Symbolic Congruity: Size Label Color and Product Temperature

In product packaging, size labels provide semantic information indicating the relative magnitude of a product, and color influences consumer perceptions in both physical and physiological ways (i.e., Aydinoglu and Krishna 2011; Creusen and Schoormans 2005; Hagtvedt and Brasel 2017; Krishna et al. 2017; Labrecque et al. 2013; Prelec et al. 1997; Spence 2011). Among these associations lies temperature: red associates with aggression and warmth, while blue tends to represent calmness and cold (Bagchi and Cheema 2013; Bellizi and Hite 1992; Chebat and Morrin 2007; Labrecque et al. 2013; Mahnke 1996; Mehta and Zhu 2009; Mehta et al. 2017; Szocs and Biswas 2014). Importantly, color, size labeling, and temperature can all accelerate (or decelerate) arousal, which can increase (decrease) consumption accordingly. The common view of color is that warm colors – especially red – are more arousing, while cool colors (i.e., blue) are more relaxing (Belizzi and Hite 1992; Crowley 1993; Gorn et al. 2004; Kaltcheva and Weitz 2006). Temperature itself can affect arousal, with warmer temperatures generally suppressing arousal (Cheema and Patrick 2012; Halali et al. 2017; Tham and Willem 2010). Further, larger product sizes lead to generally higher rates of arousal and consumption than smaller sizes (i.e., Scott et al. 2008; Aydinoglu and Krishna 2011; van Ittersum and Wansink 2012; van Kleef et al. 2014; Karemeas et al. 2015; Ilyuk and Block 2016; Roose et al. 2017).