Presented by
Dr Natalina Zlatevska &
Dr Stephen Holden
School of Business (Marketing)
Bond University

Abstract:
Obesity is a big problem! Health guidelines highlight that the food industry is well placed to contribute to a national strategy to reduce obesity through the introduction of new packaging that encourages consumption resistance such as smaller 100 calorie, mini or bite sized portions. It is believed that the availability of smaller portions provides consumers with the power to resist the temptations of larger packaged snack food items. However, these recent innovations thought to help individuals restrain consumption seems to be having a perverse effect, specifically, people who are restrained in their consumption eat more in total from a series of smaller package sizes than from one larger package size thereby disadvantaging the very individuals that social marketing efforts are supposed to benefit.

The surprising results of recent studies exploring perverse package size effects is a concern not simply because the statistics for dietary failure and unhealthy eating are steadily rising, but because the introduction of smaller sized ranges into retailing spaces may in fact be facilitating rather than inhibiting obesity trends. We believe that closer examination of the effects of package sizes on consumption volume, especially by individuals who are trying to regulate their consumption, is needed. More specifically, we need to look at the types of interventions that can reverse the perverse effect. We present a series of studies where we first endeavor to replicate previous results and then elaborate by adding conditions by which we attempt to eradicate or reverse the perverse package size effect.
 

When

21 October 2011
12:00pm - 1:00pm

Where

University Centre, BLD 06_04_03
Bond University

Contact Information

Doreen Taylor
Research Program Advisor
Faculty of Business
Telephone: +61 7 5595 0213