Within-Category versus Cross-Category Substitution in Food Consumption

Substitutes are goods that can replace one another by satisfying, at least partly, the same consumers’ needs (Nicholson 1998). When a desired product is not available or its price is deemed too high, consumers may look for and switch to a substitute. Substitutes can be classified as within-category and cross-category substitutes based on whether they belong to the same or a different product category as the target product. Within-category substitutes are often less desired than the target as they are not the consumer’s preferred choice (i.e., the target), but—by definition—share many features with the target and satisfy the same consumer needs. Store brand potato chips, for example, would be a within-category substitute for Lay’s potato chips. However, substitution can occur across product categories, too, where the cross-category substitute satisfies a higher level consumer need as the target. For example, Rold Gold pretzels are not potato chips but they satisfy a consumer’s craving for snacks, so pretzels are a cross-category substitute for Lay’s potato chips. Although cross-category substitution is common (Park and Gupta 2011), surprisingly little research has examined how crosscategory substitutes influence consumption experiences. In the current research, we examine how the consumption of cross-category versus within-category substitutes influences craving for and consumption of the desired target food. Specifically, we show that although consumers prefer within-category substitutes over crosscategory substitutes when the target is not available, consuming a cross-category substitute actually satisfies consumers’ needs better than within-category substitutes.