Inspiration or risk? How social media marketing of plant-based meat affects young people’s purchase intention

Abstract

As an alternative protein product to animal meat, plant-based meat is considered to play an essential role in improving animal welfare and protecting the environment. However, why do a few consumers choose plant-based meat but others do not? Despite the increasing research on plant-based meat marketing, little is known about the psychological mechanism by which plant-based meat marketing affects consumers’ purchasing decisions. We utilize dual-system theory to understand how social media marketing of plant-based meat influences cognitive fluency, customer inspiration, perceived risk, and purchase intention. Four studies (i.e., Studies 1, 2, 3, and 4) show that social media marketing can increase young people’s purchase intention of plant-based meat more than traditional marketing. In Studies 1 and 2, increased intensity of social media marketing can enhance young people’s cognitive fluency and further promote purchase intention. Study 3 explores how cognitive fluency relates to purchase intention through two psychological mechanisms. We suggest that a higher level of cognitive fluency increases customer inspiration and improves purchase intention. However, a lower level of cognitive fluency reduces purchase intention by increasing perceived risk. Study 4 manipulated members’ in-group or out-group status to show a boundary condition for the effect of brand community identity on purchase intention. These studies provide insight into how brand marketers can use social media to promote consumer inspiration and advertising engagement, how managers can offer fluency-increasing mechanisms to ensure a low level of perceived risk, and how enterprise practitioners may want to consider brand community publicity to attract out-group members.

Study of the Correlation between Streaming Video Platform Content on Food Production Processes and the Behavioral Intentions of Generation Z

“…(1) Perceived Trust: Modeled after Deng et al [45], this section included three questions designed to capture respondents' trust in food safety information. (2) Perceived Risk: Following Li et al [46], this section encompassed three questions that aimed to assess the perceived risks associated with food consumption. (3) Community Experience: Drawing from Zhuo et al [47], this domain was explored through two questions that investigated the influence of community experiences on food safety perceptions.…”

Effect of visual crowding in packaging on consumers' buying intention

“…The main focus was on the visual processing of the perceptual-level conditions, which is the ease or difficulty with which the perceiver processes the visual features of the stimulus (Oppenheimer and Frank, 2008;Graf and Landwehr, 2015;Zhang, 2010). The research on perceived fluency in marketing mainly focuses on advertising and other textual materials (Ye, 2020;Li et al, 2022), and packaging, as one of the product elements, has not yet been studied. Therefore, this study introduces perceptual fluency into the field of packaging and explores how visual crowding in packaging affects consumers' buying intention by affecting their perceived fluency.…”

“…The research on perceived fluency in marketing mainly focuses on advertising and other textual materials (Ye, 2020; Li et al ., 2022), and packaging, as one of the product elements, has not yet been studied. Therefore, this study introduces perceptual fluency into the field of packaging and explores how visual crowding in packaging affects consumers' buying intention by affecting their perceived fluency.…”

Leave the Milk for the Calf and Spread the Word: Exploring Factors Determining US Consumers’ Willingness to Try Plant-Based Milk Alternatives and Their Word-of-Mouth Sharing about Plant-Based Milk Alternatives

“…In this light, insights into consumers' willingness to try plant-based milk alternatives are as essential as understanding their word-of-mouth sharing. For plant-based milk alternatives, the topic area "word-of-mouth" is not yet widely explored, even though it appears to be important as many consumers of plant-based milk alternatives are active on social media and in other communication channels [22][23][24] where they seek dialogue about brands, product experiences, and lifestyle [22,25]. Recent works related to willingness to try plant-based milk alternatives in a US context are equally scant, despite the importance the products hold in US consumer markets [9].…”