The effects of food aesthetics on consumers. Visual stimuli and food marketing

In this study we analyze how the visual impact influences consumers, in particular considering the way a food is presented, exploring in this way how food marketing is also a question of food appearance. Do we eat firstly with our eyes? And if yes, which are the consequences of this process on food marketing strategies? Literature highlights that the way food is presented produces effects from a celebral and a physiological point of view, but also how it affects taste. In the first part of this research literature has been explored, paying attention in particular on hunger as a process which begins from eyes and, secondly,on how neatness makes food more desiderable. The second part of the study shows our experiment on consumers. Specifically 71 subjects were involeved, divided into four groups, that had to observe and evaluate some plates of fruit and bresaola, once arranged neatly, once disorderly. Data have been gathered and analyzed, in particular highlighting consumers’ expectation about the tastiness of the food and how much they would have spent to eat that food. Finally we discuss about the findings, in particular underlining how neatness counts in the presentation. From the point of view of managerial implications, these findings may be useful to understand the role of appearance to implement a winning food marketing strategy.