ABSTRACT

Grounded in the knowledge of visual design and photography, this study examines the effects on viewers’ purchase intention of two visual design techniques used with food items in food advertising – repetition and alignment. We propose cross-modal correspondences between visual appeal and taste perception as a psychological mechanism in viewers’ visual information processing. Three studies were conducted to test the effects of the visual design principles and the proposed mediation of cross-modal correspondences. The findings of Study 1 and Study 2 reveal that repetition of food items enhanced viewers’ likelihood of purchasing the presented food through cross-modal responses between vision and taste. The findings of Study 3 show that triangular alignment of repeated food items generated a higher level of aesthetic experience and influences purchase intention through serial mediating effects of visual appeal and taste perception. Overall, the results of the three studies confirm the proposed mediation of cross-modal correspondences between vision and taste when individuals process a food image. Theoretical and practical implications for food styling in marketing communication are discussed.

摘要

本研究以视觉设计和摄影知识为基础，考察了食品广告中食品项目使用的两种视觉设计技术——重复和对齐——对观众购买意愿的影响。我们提出了视觉吸引力和味觉感知之间的跨模态对应关系，作为观众视觉信息处理中的一种心理机制。进行了三项研究来测试视觉设计原则的效果和建议的跨模态对应中介。研究 1 和研究 2 的结果表明，食物的重复通过视觉和味觉之间的跨模态反应提高了观众购买所呈现食物的可能性。研究 3 的结果表明，重复食品的三角形排列产生了更高水平的审美体验，并通过视觉吸引力和味觉感知的系列中介效应影响购买意愿。总体而言，这三项研究的结果证实了当个人处理食物图像时，视觉和味觉之间的跨模态对应关系的拟议中介。讨论了营销传播中食品造型的理论和实践意义。