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ISSN : 1229-8778
From time to time, we find that some restaurants sell food products as well as ingredients of them. For example, a cafe selling tomato juice also sells tomatoes. This research investigates whether the sales of ingredients(e.g., tomatoes) affects consumers evaluation of final food products(e.g., tomato juice). Using a print advertising of a mango salad, Study 1 showed that the perceived quality of ingredients used for the mango salad increases when the store also sells ingredients(i.e., mangos) compared with when the store does not. We suggested illusory causation as a psychological mechanism. That is, when consumers are exposed to the message that ingredients is available for purchase, they make an erroneous inference that the ingredients being sold as stand-alone products would be used for a final product. Furthermore, relying on the price-quality association, they believe that the ingredient for sale has good quality worth the money. Consequently, the final product believed to be made of the good ingredient is evaluated more positively. To examine our contention, Study 2 employed two conditions: one is the ingredient(i.e., mangos)-selling condition and the other is the same but with an extra message that the mangos for sale are different from the mangos in the salad. This manipulation prevents consumers from connecting the ingredients for sale with the final product and thus removes the basis on which consumers evaluate the final product positively. As expected, the perceived quality of ingredients used for the mango salad decreases in the latter condition. Aiming to enhance the generalizability of our research, Study 3 used a print ad of a strawberry juice and obtained the same results with Study 1 & 2. Furthermore, the sales of ingredients(i.e, strawberries) also increases the purchase intention of a final product(i.e., strawberry juice). In addition, Study 3 removed the alternative account that ingredient sales increases the perceived variety of selling items and thus the store is perceived as having greater expertise, which in turn leads to the positive evaluation of the final product sold in the store.
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