Pre-test 2: Shelving colour

Two colour store atmospheric stimuli manipulations are also sought for use in Study 2’s experimental supermarket design. Green shelving, as observed in more-healthy food stores in Study 1, provides one stimulus. A less-healthy food store colour will represent the other.

In Study 1’s observations, pink shelving or warmer colours were identified as representing a less-healthy food store. Associations of pink shelving to less-healthy food stores were small, however, and could seem out of place in a supermarket context (Appendix E). Furthermore, the warm colours identified as being more prominent in less-healthy food stores could potentially create problems for the investigator and the retailer. As retail studies suggest, red can both have positive and negative outcomes for less-healthy food retailers. Bright, colourful, tense environments encouraged shoppers to reduce time spent in store, to increase decision-making speeds and increase impulse purchasing to escape a more unpleasant environment (Bellizzi et al., 1983). Warmer colours could thus hinder profit margins. The increase in impulse purchasing and weaker resistance to temptations due to the arousing properties of red (Bellizzi et al., 1983; Fedorikhin & Patrick, 2010) is attractive to retailers wanting to increase the

likelihood of less-healthy food purchases through diminished self-control. However, red can also reduce the chances of consumers selecting healthier options due to colour pairings with danger and traffic light signals (Reutner et al., 2015). Therefore, red was not further investigated.

With no additional insights from the less-healthy food stores in Study 1, further findings from the independently analysed supermarket and grocery stores in the observational study were sought instead. Black and grey shelving were significantly absent from more-healthy supermarket and grocery stores (Appendix E). Of the less healthy supermarket and grocery stores, 96.3% had grey shelving and 93.3% had black shelving. With the marginal association of less-healthy stores having directionally more stores than expected with black shelving absent (section 3.7.6.2.2), grey shelving was selected to represent the less healthy store environment. Associations with both green and grey colours, thus, will be pretested.

4.3.1 Participants and method

Pre-test 2 examines if green (versus grey) shelving is representative of a more-healthy (versus less-healthy) store environment and might create a message of healthfulness for individuals by activating associations to health-related concepts and related product categories.

For pre-test 2, 52 participants were invited via social media and email to complete an online questionnaire generated through survey design software Qualtrics (Appendix H). Participants were exposed to both colour (green and grey) stimuli in a repeated measures design in which the colours were presented as colour blocks. As participants independently viewed the colour blocks they were asked to reveal any association they had with the colour, and if the colours brought back any memories or thoughts. On a separate online page, participants were asked to rate the properties of the colour based on its healthfulness, pleasantness, familiarity, stimulation (Appendix H) and the appropriateness of the colour for supermarket shelving on 7-point Likert-type scales (1 = very unhealthy, very unpleasant, very unfamiliar, very calming or extremely inappropriate to 7 = very healthy, very pleasant, very familiar, very stimulating or extremely appropriate).

4.3.2 Analysis and findings

As a result of a paired samples t test, analysis of participants’ responses of the colour’s healthiness revealed that participants perceived green to be significantly more-healthy (M = 5.58, SE = 0.187) than grey (M = 3.15, SE = 0.185; t (51) = 8.6, p < 0.001, r = 0.76).

Analysis of participants’ responses to colour pleasantness and stimulation also showed that participants perceived green to be significantly more pleasant (M = 4.89, SE = .154) than grey (M = 3.79, SE = 0.154; t-test, t (51) = 3.55, p < 0.002, r = 0.44), and significantly more stimulating (M = 4.33, SE 0.242) than grey (M = 3.08, SE = 0.176; t (51) = 3.808, p < 0.001, r = .022). In contrast, participants rated grey to be significantly more appropriate for supermarket shelving (M = 4.68, SE = 0.159) than green (M = 3.98, SE 0.159; t (51) = -2.17, p < 0.04, r = 0.28). To ensure spurious variables such as pleasantness and stimulation of the colour are controlled for, Study 2 will further test these constructs.

Analysis of frequency of verbatim responses (Appendix I) shows that green was predominately (54%) associated with verbatim responses of nature and outdoors, and also reminded participants of healthy products and foods, sports, relaxing, summer, happiness, calmness and picnics. Other associations, including confectionary, traffic lights, correction, green for go and motorway signs, were revealed.

Grey was predominately associated with the rain, bad weather, cloudy days, concrete or cement, blandness, sadness, and buildings. No food-related associations were generated for grey in pre-test 2. Thus, these findings support the assumption that green (versus grey) shelving could create a message of healthfulness. Since colour was tested outside of the supermarket environment and as colour blocks (versus store shelving), this may be one reason for a lack of associations between the colour green or grey and healthier or less healthy foods.

Research also shows that green packaging causes shoppers to associate the products inside as being healthier (Schuldt, 2013; Van Rompay, Deterink, & Fenko, 2016). Based on this evidence, green shelving could potentially impact associations to products in the store. Green and grey shelving were thus selected as contrasting stimuli in terms of healthiness for further testing.

4.3.3 Discussion and hypothesis development

Exposure to a non-consciously perceived green (versus grey) shelving prime is anticipated to influence the health composition of shopper food baskets in the experimental supermarket study. A positive relationship between the green shelving prime and healthier food choices is expected for three reasons (1) the health-orientated prime activates knowledge structures that makes health-relevant information highly accessible, guiding subsequent processing (Loersch & Paynee, 2011) and behaviour, as supported by spreading activation theory (Collins & Loftus, 1975), (2) the non- conscious nature of the store atmospheric cues will act as a reminder or prompt for shoppers to engage in health behaviours, supported by nudging theory (Thaler & Sustein, 2008), and (3) shoppers might misattribute incoming information to their own internal response, in turn guiding behaviour, as supported by the situated inference model of behaviour (Loersch & Payne, 2011) (see Section 2.3 for a discussion of these relationships as well as an outline in the integrative framework).

Previous evidence shows that green colours or cool colours in-store affect product purchasing (Barli et al., 2012), and help with decision-making during the shopping process (Bellizzi et al., 1983). As green shelving was most frequently observed in more- healthy food retail environments in New Zealand in Study 1, the colour green provides an opportunity for learned colour meanings from these stores to be transferred to the supermarket context, as will be tested in Study 2’s experimental supermarket design (Chapter five). Shoppers hold expectations and associative links between healthier stores, healthier foods and the colour green. This was also shown in Kontukoski et al. (2016), where green (referred to as kiwi) was associated with an imaginary salad restaurant, and was perceived to be more congruent with a salad dish. As these authors note, expectations partially arise from previous experiences (Kontukoski et al., 2016) and should make learned colour green meanings more easily accessible for shoppers when exposed to the colour (Labrecque et al., 2013).

Conversely it is also plausible that a green shelving prime would be negatively related to the health basket composition of shopper food baskets for the reason that a misleading health halo could be created (via an assimilation effect; Chandon & Wansink, 2007; Wansink & Chandon, 2006) or an appetitive cue may be activated, signalling an open and safe environment to consume foods or a green for “go” in terms

of green colour pairings with the traffic light system (Elliot & Maier, 2012). However, previously associated evidence with the colour green and healthiness, and the strong theoretical arguments support, on balance, a positive relationship. The following hypothesis is therefore proposed for the next study (Study 2) in this body of work:

H2: Shoppers exposed to green shelving (priming stimulus) will purchase more

thematically congruent baskets of food (healthier foods) than shoppers exposed grey shelving (priming stimulus).