From perception to purchase: evaluating physical versus psychological benefit messages in grocery retail

The concept of food well-being (FWB) has gained increasing attention as a holistic framework for understanding the role of food in individual well-being (Block et al., 2011).

Retailers have a key role in the promotion of healthier food choices, as most purchasing decisions occur at the point of sale, where marketing levers can influence behavior (Hecht et al., 2020).

In this context, the efficacy of in-store health promotion initiatives in influencing perceptions and purchasing patterns has been demonstrated by numerous studies (e.g. Hecht et al., 2020; Croisier et al., 2021). In recent years, consumers have demonstrated an increased awareness of their dietary choices and their impact on health, extending beyond physical outcomes (such as weight management and disease prevention) to encompass psychological dimensions of well-being, including mood regulation and stress reduction (e.g. Melnyk et al., 2020; Kushlev et al., 2020).

However, despite growing interest in benefit-framed and tailored health communication, evidences remain mixed on which benefit is most effective in retail settings and for whom. Previous research (e.g. Christy et al., 2022; Gustafson and Prate, 2019) has focused on demographic or cultural factors, but there is a gap regarding congruence between the benefit emphasized by the message and the benefit sought by consumers in food choices at the point of sale. The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of an in-store communication initiative that used a multifaceted strategy to provide reminders about healthy breakfast products, using messages that emphasizes the physical and psychological benefits. Building on literature on tailored health communication and regulatory fit, this research investigates whether congruence between the type of benefit highlighted and consumers' motivational orientation enhances message persuasiveness and purchasing behavior. Through a multi-method design – combining a pre-test, an in-store quasi-experiment and sales analysis, the present study aims to draws on complementary theoretical perspectives and evidence on when framing congruence affects perception and behaviour in real retail settings. By operationalizing tailoring through the benefits sought (physical vs psychological), our work advances a motivationally grounded and implementable form of message, where one-to-one personalization is typically constrained by time pressure and limited consumer engagement.

In the context of health communication, especially on healthy foods, the impact of messages depends on their design (Rothman and Salovey, 1997). A key concept is the gain versus loss framing of messages (e.g. Lee and Aaker, 2004). Based on prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979), this approach suggests that health messages should be framed in terms of benefits or costs (Rothman and Salovey, 1997), which have different effects on health decisions.

Individuals demonstrate greater risk aversion when options are losses, and seek risk when gains. The promotion of behaviors deemed “safe”, such as physical activity, is more effective when framed as a gain (e.g. Binder et al., 2020). This is because negative outcomes are possible with clinical examinations, but not with physical activity, which is perceived as low risk.

Research on message framing has been inconsistent due to interactions with recipient or situational factors (e.g. Gallagher and Updegraff, 2012). One way to account for individual differences is to tailor communication by developing personalized messages (Noar et al., 2007). This is defined as an assessment-based process using personal data to determine the most relevant information or strategies for an individual regarding a particular health outcome (Rimer and Kreuter, 2006). Tailoring matches content to needs and interests, so content is more likely to be attended to, processed and acted upon. By presenting personally relevant content, tailored communication can motivate people to pay closer attention, process information more carefully and incorporate it into their decision making, potentially leading to behavior change. The concept of tailored health messages aligns with several theories applied to health behaviors. Then, the study uses different theories as complementary lenses for understanding when tailoring can increase the effectiveness of a marketing strategy.

We draw briefly on three well-established accounts of why tailoring can work: fit with motivational orientation (regulatory focus), fit with readiness to change (stage-based models) and increased elaboration under personal relevance (dual-process persuasion). Taken together, these perspectives suggest that matching message characteristics to the recipient may increase engagement and persuasive impact, while emphasizing different mechanisms through which such effects may occur.

Regulatory focus theory suggests that people feel a regulatory fit when their strategy of pursuing goals matches their regulatory orientation. According to Higgins (2000), regulatory fit enhances motivation, comfort, positive affect and confidence during decision making and reinforces message engagement and processing fluency (Cesario et al., 2008). Matching messages to an individual's regulatory focus has been shown to result in more positive attitudes toward the persuasive content and higher compliance with the advocated action (Aaker and Lee, 2006).

The Transtheoretical Model claims that attitudes, strategies and skills vary at different stages of the change process, so interventions should be stage-matched rather than uniformly delivered. Tailored messages are more likely to facilitate movement through the stages. Other theories of behavioral change emphasize individual-level determinants of change, so messages can be tailored accordingly (Rimer and Kreuter, 2006; Prochaska et al., 2004). The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) posits that high motivation and ability encourage effortful message processing. Personal relevance encourages people to relate information to prior knowledge and experience, increasing the persuasive impact of messages (Petty et al., 2009). Matching message characteristics to qualities of the recipient may increase the likelihood that communication is processed more deeply and evaluated more favorably.

Although some studies have found tailoring to be effective, others have found no difference between tailored and non-tailored messages. One explanation for these mixed results is that much of the previous research in this area has focused on demographic factors (Christy et al., 2022; Briazu et al., 2024) and cultural differences (Gustafson and Prate, 2019). According to prior research, relatively less attention has been devoted to the match between health communication and individuals' health goals and benefits sought, particularly in real-world retail environments.

Importantly, the study does not aim to uses these theoretical perspectives to motivate expectations about when congruence between communicated benefits and consumer motivations may influence responses to in-store health communication.

Communication emphasizing tangible benefits has found to be a particularly effective strategy (e.g. Carfora et al., 2019). In fact, highlighting specific tangible health outcomes can lead to significant improvements in both behavioral intentions and actual health behaviors (e.g. Caso et al., 2021). For example, health messages that frame benefits in terms of personal or social gains have been shown to increase intentions to adhere to recommended behaviors, especially when delivered by trusted sources (Bayrak et al., 2024). Moreover, health messages that highlight concrete and short-term benefits, such as improved energy or appearance, have been shown to help them overcome barriers such as perceived effort and time constraints (Molenaar et al., 2020). Nevertheless, an approach that emphasizes psychological benefits has also been found to be effective (e.g. Matz et al., 2017). For instance, Matz et al. (2017) underscored the significance of tailoring messages to resonate with individuals' psychological profiles, thereby fostering heightened engagement and behavior change.

However, in the context of health nutrition, the persuasive impact of the benefits communicated (physical health and psychological health) shows mixed results.

According to some research, functional communication, particularly that emphasizing physical benefits, is considered the most effective in modifying behaviors (e.g. Bertolotti et al., 2020). However, Carfora et al. (2016) found that psychological benefits could be more effective in modifying specific behaviors, such as fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents and physical activity promotion (Conner et al., 2011). The study by Melnyk et al. (2020) also found a positive relationship between psychological well-being and healthy behaviors. In addition, psychological benefits may also have a direct impact on improving physical health (Kushlev et al., 2020). Building on prior research on benefit framing and tailored communication, we therefore examine whether.

The effect of communication on healthy eating is dependent on the product category. For example, consumers are more likely to ignore nutrition claims for indulgent or unhealthy products (Balasubramanian and Cole, 2002). However, they are more likely to accept health-related messages for intrinsically healthier products. This is because they are more congruent with the product's nature (e.g. Lähteenmäki, 2013). The concept of product health is linked to the concept of health risk and perceived health risk. This study focuses on breakfast products, specifically cereals, snacks and cookies. Firstly, the breakfast sector is experiencing greater diversity in nutritional benefits and rapid market transformation (Croisier et al., 2021). Secondly, eating a nutritious breakfast improves cognitive function and well-being (e.g. Hoyland et al., 2009). Those who eat breakfast regularly have higher intakes of key nutrients and a more balanced diet. Breakfast categories lie along a hedonic-healthiness continuum. Biscuits and snacks are perceived as indulgent and less healthy, whereas cereals are associated with positive nutritional values and are often perceived as “healthier” (e.g. Plasek et al., 2020). This perception is influenced by product communication in store. In fact, extensive research has demonstrated that on-pack communication and health claims (e.g. “whole grain,” “high in fiber,” “no added sugar”) have a strong influence on healthiness evaluations, sometimes generating a health halo effect (e.g. Kozup et al., 2003). Based on prior findings regarding perceived product healthiness and message acceptance across categories, we examine whether.

In collaboration with a large Italian retail chain, two field experiments were conducted in three stores in Northern Italy, two representing the experimental condition and the remaining one the control condition. The experiment consisted of the implementation of an in-store communication initiative using shelf strips, shelf talkers, banners, floor decals and aisle-end displays. The products in the experiment were all private label (PL) items selected based on their nutritional profile, their ingredients and claims reported on the packs. The selections have been made in collaboration with the chain. The efficacy of the experiments was measured by three main variables: display attractiveness, product interaction and purchase rate. Data were collected through direct in-store observation, semi-structured questionnaires and sales data analysis.

To test the hypothesis, the methodology section is divided into three parts. Firstly, we conducted a pre-test in order to measure the effect of the stimuli selected on the potential effect of a health communication on customers and the freedom of choice left by the interventions proposed, to ensure that the manipulations were accepted by the participants, using a convenience sample. Secondly, a quasi-experiment was conducted in a real environment to measure the actual behaviors of the shoppers. Thirdly, sales data were analyzed to provide a general and objective measurement of the effectiveness of the implementation.

The pre-test was a 3x2 between-within subjects experiment. Each participant was exposed to the traditional display and the manipulated one showing a nutritional communication (physical benefit or psychological one), but was randomly assigned to view one of the three shelves under investigation (cereals, snacks, cookies). The adoption of this experimental design made it possible to assess both the effect of the within-subject manipulation (changes in perception before and after viewing the shelf communication) and the between-subject differences (effect of different shelf communications). Following participant recruitment, a profiling questionnaire was administered to collect data on sociodemographic, psychographic and behavioral variables. Subsequently, a mixed-design (within-between subjects) experiment was conducted. A total of 102 participants for each communication stimulus have been involved in the study, with a total of 204 individuals. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the sample.

The experimental session involved projecting a simulated supermarket shelf onto the wall of a university classroom or a projector screen, depending on availability. For the physical health benefit the message used was:

While for the psychological health benefit we communicated:

The shelf simulation was presented as a video, allowing participants to view the entire shelf both from left to right and right to left, in an effort to minimize directional bias.

Participants were subsequently invited to engage in a simulated shopping mission designed to assess changes in product perception, shelf perception both before and after exposure to the communication. This phase was carried out through the administration of a structured questionnaire by the experimenter, accompanied by a brief qualitative interview. Table 2 shows the items used in the questionnaire.

A repeated measures ANOVA procedure has been followed to test the impact of the nutritional display over the traditional one and the effectiveness of the two communications tested. Demographic variables and general health interest were used as covariates, with the latter acting as a predictor of how individuals respond to nutritional messages and their general attitude toward healthy food (e.g. Paakki et al., 2022). The analysis revealed that the communication used did not reduce the perceived freedom of choice compared to the traditional display (M_TD = 5.81, M_HD = 5.63, p = 0.765, with no differences between the two stimuli proposed) but it increased the perceived healthiness of the display (M_TD = 3.87, M_HD = 4.42, p < 0.001, again with no differences between the two messages) confirming an impact on customers' perceptions. At the same time the overall satisfaction in front of the traditional and the healthy display does not change (M_TD = 5.49, M_HD = 5.55, p = 603). Finally, we did not find significant differences between the two benefits tested in terms of credibility (M_physical = 4.92, M_{psychological} = 4.87, p = 0.646) and emotions aroused.

Following the pre-test phase, a field experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the two different in-store communications presented. Specifically, we implemented the instore communication tested during the pre-study in two real stores in the northern part of Italy thanks to the collaboration of a leading Italian chain operating in the grocery retailing sector. The study involved a sample of 202 individuals (100 in the store where psychological communication has been implemented and 102 in the one where physical health message has been used), predominantly female (66.83%), with an average age of 47.78 years and a median age of 50 years. The majority of the participants were highly educated, employed in the public sector and had not seen the advertisement. Table 3 shows the characteristics of the sample.

Approached at the point of purchase in front of the shelves of the three product categories involved, shoppers were asked questions about the nature of the purchase, the reason of the purchase, their attitude towards health and nutrition, shopper profile, behavior within the category, wellness communication in the category, attitudes towards the supermarket chain, commercial brands and industrial brands. This comprehensive approach provided a detailed understanding of purchasing behavior and motivations. The scales used during the instore questionnaires are presented in Table 4.

To test the hypothesis that the impact of the communication varied as a function of the congruence between the benefit communicated and the benefit sought by participants (H1), we adopted a two-step analytical strategy combining a multivariate approach and follow-up univariate models.

Participants were exposed to one of two communication frames that emphasized either physical or psychological benefits and also reported on a 7-point Likert scale the importance of physical benefits (weight loss and diet, α = 0.719) and psychological benefits (stress reduction and mood improvement, α = 0.808) in the selection of food products. Participants were classified based on the score given to both dimensions in three groups: the first one with people who gave a greater importance to physical benefits, the ones who gave more importance to psychological ones and people who gave the same score. Because the theoretical hypothesis centered on the notion of benefit congruence, we created a binary variable indicating whether the type of benefit communicated was congruent with the participant's self-reported motivational orientation. Specifically, participants who preferred physical benefits and received a physically framed message and those who preferred psychological benefits and received a psychologically framed message, were coded as congruent (42.1% of the total sample). All remaining combinations, including those who valued both types of benefits equally, were considered non-congruent (57.9%). In this way, we could directly test the congruence hypothesis without the ambiguity inherent in a three-level measure of benefit preference.

We started with a multivariate analysis of covariance with all five indicators of communication effectiveness, namely, perceived healthiness of the product, perceived healthiness of the display, perceived advertising effectiveness, behavioral intentions with respect to the advertisement and satisfaction, as simultaneous dependent variables. Age, gender and Need for Cognition (NFC) were used as covariates to account for demographic and psychological factors that could affect message evaluation.

In fact, according to the ELM of Persuasion theorized by Petty and Cacioppo (1986), there are two ways in which people can process information: the central route or the peripheral route. The central route involves careful and thoughtful consideration of the message content and is used when people are motivated and able to process information carefully, focusing on the quality of the arguments. The peripheral route, on the other hand, is activated when people are not motivated or able to process information carefully. These individuals place their reliance on superficial cues, including factors such as the aesthetic appeal of the communicator, the quantity of arguments presented or emotional appeals (e.g. Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). When individuals have low involvement, they tend to rely on simple heuristics, rather than engaging with the message in depth (Rhine and Severance, 1970). When people already agree with the message, involvement influences the evaluation of sources and arguments to a lesser extent (Petty et al., 1983). Individuals with a low NFC – a trait reflecting the tendency to enjoy and engage in effortful cognitive activities (e.g. Petty et al., 2009) – are generally less motivated to process information via the central route and are therefore more susceptible to peripheral cues (Cacioppo et al., 1996). These individuals have been observed to prioritize simplicity in communication, opting for messages that are straightforward, clear and devoid of complexity (Haugtvedt et al., 1992). Consequently, they may be more susceptible to the heuristic or affective elements of a message than its substantive content.

This multivariate model tested whether congruence had a general effect across the set of outcomes considered together.

A multivariate analysis of covariance was first conducted to assess whether the congruence between the benefit communicated in the message and the benefit participants reported seeking influenced the overall pattern of evaluative outcomes. Although the covariates accounted for substantial variance in the multivariate model, the effect of congruence did not reach statistical significance at the multivariate level, indicating that the combined set of dependent variables did not differ reliably between participants in the congruent and non-congruent conditions. Given the theoretical interest in the congruence hypothesis, we proceeded to examine each outcome dimension separately through a series of univariate ANCOVAs that included age, gender and NFC as covariates; NFC was included because it dictates the message processing style: high-NFC individuals utilize the central route, while low-NFC individuals are more sensitive to peripheral cues (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986), thereby influencing overall message processing.

The univariate analyses revealed that congruence affected specific aspects of message evaluation, even in the absence of a global multivariate effect. Participants exposed to a communication that matched the type of benefit they personally valued reported significantly more positive evaluations of the display's healthiness. The pairwise comparison between congruent (M = 4.345) and non-congruent (3.758) participants showed a mean difference of 0.588 (SE = 0.234, p = 0.013), with higher scores in the congruent group. A similar pattern emerged for perceived advertising effectiveness, where congruent participants (M = 4.545) again reported higher evaluations than non-congruent participants (M = 4.064), with a mean difference of 0.482 (SE = 0.184, p = 0.010). These findings indicate that when the message aligns with the consumer's motivational orientation, whether physical or psychological, the communication is judged as more persuasive and the able to simply the selection of healthier products.

No significant effects of congruence were found for the perceived healthiness of the product itself, behavioral intentions derived from the advertisement or satisfaction ratings, as all pairwise differences were small and non-significant (all p > 0.26).

The analysis was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a targeted in-store intervention by comparing the sales performance of treated products across multiple retail locations and over time. To achieve this, we combined a longitudinal comparison with a quasi-experimental cross-store design. The dataset included detailed information on sales volumes, promotional activity, product characteristics, and store attributes for both the intervention period and the corresponding period of the previous year.

Given the presence of both temporal variation (current year versus previous year) and spatial variation (experimental stores versus a control store), our analytical strategy relied on regression models capable of isolating the net contribution of the intervention while adjusting for confounding factors. We also analyzed raw year-over-year changes in sales volumes to determine whether promoted products had direct improvements relative to the previous year by adding controls for promotional activity, which differed between years and represents a major driver of sales fluctuations in terms of presence-absence and promotion intensity.

To account for the experimental structure of the study, we estimated models which contrasted the performance of promoted products in the intervention stores to the performance of those same products in the control store. These models included an interaction term between treatment status and store type, thereby allowing us to detect whether the intervention produced impacts specifically attributable to the treated locations. Additional regressions were conducted separately for each store to explore heterogeneity in the effectiveness of the intervention across retail environments.

Finally, we checked whether the effect of the intervention differed across product categories. In all analyses, we applied robust regression methods to control for potential heteroskedasticity and included categorical controls for month, store, product positioning and customer profiles.

The results first show that, in the stores where the new strategy was implemented, experimental stores versus control, the products involved in the intervention realize a significant increase in sales, approximately +12.9%; p = 0.0069. This effect remains robust even after accounting for promotions in the previous year: approximately +13.2%; p = 0.0057.

This interpretation is further confirmed by the analysis conducted separately for each store and underlines a strong heterogeneity of effects. Only the store where psychological benefit was communicated shows a significant increase in sales for treated products (around +17.4%; p < 0.001), whereas the store with physical benefit does not show any appreciable change (around −0.7%; p = 0.885). Indeed, the control store displays a modest and statistically nonsignificant increase of around +6.2% (p = 0.166). This distribution of results suggests that the intervention had meaningful effects only in one experimental condition.

The analysis also tested if the project's impact varied by product category (H2). None of these interaction terms is statistically significant, all p > 0.10, which suggests that the intervention does not differentially affect purchasing behavior across products.

The absence of effects across specific product categories or customer types suggests that the main determinant of observed heterogeneity across stores is the communication message itself.

This field study tested the hypothesis that the effectiveness of in-store health communication depends on the congruence between the type of benefit emphasized in the message and the benefit sought by consumers. Building on research on tailored communication and regulatory fit, it was expected that messages highlighting either physical or psychological benefits would be better evaluated when they are aligned with consumers' motivational orientations. The results provide partial and context-dependent support for this hypothesis, offering empirical evidence on how congruence influences consumers' assessment of in-store communication under realistic retail conditions rather than demonstrating uniform effects across outcomes.

Results from the pre-test suggest that in-store communication highlighting well-being-related benefits can positively shape consumer perceptions and behaviors. In the pre-test phase, both physical and psychological health messages significantly increased the perceived healthiness of the display compared to the traditional one, without compromising consumers' perceived freedom of choice. This result confirms that health-oriented nudges can be implemented without eliciting psychological reactance, aligning with findings by Van Kleef et al. (2012) and Ogawa et al. (2011). At the same time, the comparison between pre-test and field results highlights how effects observed in controlled conditions become more selective when tested in complex retail environments.

However, in real environments, given the numerous stimuli, the impact can encounter some barriers and limitations.

Although the multivariate analysis did not reveal a significant overall effect of congruence across the combined set of communication outcomes, the follow up univariate analyses indicate that congruence exerts selective effects. In particular, consumers who received a message matching their self-reported benefit preference perceived the display as healthier and assessed the ad as more effective compared with participants in the incongruent condition. These findings support theoretical accounts that messages matching consumers' priorities are processed more fluently and judged more favorably (Aaker and Lee, 2006; Cesario et al., 2008). Rather than suggesting a general extension of these theoretical perspectives, the present results help clarify the conditions under which such congruence effects emerge in real shopping contexts. Congruence may therefore operate by reinforcing the perceived relevance and meaningfulness of the communication, which in turn enhances message persuasiveness at the point of purchase primarily at the perceptual evaluation stage.

However, the absence of congruence effects on product level assessments, behavioral intentions and satisfaction suggests that matching framing with motivation might not be sufficient to drive more fundamental changes in consumer choice. Such an effect may well derive from the automatic and habitual nature of grocery choices: shoppers typically rely upon heuristics rather than the systematic consideration of specific product attributes. More generally, the in-store context itself may actually limit the extent to which message tailoring can affect behavior, as time pressure, habitual buying and economic considerations more often override persuasive cues. Together, the findings suggest that congruence enhances evaluative judgments of the communication itself, yet this does not necessarily trickle down into deeper attitudinal or behavioral shifts within a retail environment.

The lack of statistically significant differences on the measures of behavioral intentions also echoes earlier work demonstrating that the effects of tailoring in field settings are often modest, inconsistent or difficult to detect (Noar et al., 2007). Behavioral intentions may reflect more stable preferences or broader motivational patterns that are less susceptible to situational message manipulation, in particular among those in low involvement categories or among consumers already holding strong brand loyalties. In this sense, the present results align with meta-analytic evidence suggesting that tailored communication has more consistent effects on proximal cognitive evaluations rather than on behavior itself.

Further research should examine whether stronger or more personalized forms of tailoring, or repeated exposure over time, may yield more significant behavioral effects. Also, looking into consumers' cognitive engagement and affective responses in real time may provide further insight into the mechanisms by which congruent message framing exerts its influence across different levels of attention and message visibility in retail environments.

In analyzing the effect of product category, the pre-test revealed a significant interaction between message type and product category. For breakfast cereals, the physical benefit message was associated with higher satisfaction and greater ad effectiveness. This aligns with prior research indicating that messages emphasizing functional benefits (e.g. energy, satiety) are more effective when the product is already perceived as inherently healthy (Van Kleef et al., 2005; Bertolotti et al., 2020).

Conversely, in indulgent categories like snacks or cookies, benefit message orientation may not significantly change perceptions due to health-halo skepticism. As shown by Balasubramanian and Cole (2002) and Raghunathan et al. (2006), consumers are more dismissive of health claims on indulgent items, potentially due to a mismatch between perceived product identity and the message.

However, sales analysis showed no differences in the purchasing pattern of the shoppers in the three categories analyzed, comparing control and experimental stores.

Overall, the results showed that the intervention does not generate a uniform improvement when compared directly with the previous year, suggesting that a simple historical comparison is not sufficient to determine its efficacy. However, when the data are examined within their experimental context, a significant improvement emerges in the stores where the new strategy was implemented. The positive effect is clearly localized and driven by one experimental store, the one displaying psychological benefits, while the other experimental store shows no meaningful variation and the control store exhibits no signs of change.

Taken together, the findings suggest that the intervention is capable of generating substantial benefits under favorable conditions, but its impact is not homogeneous across the retail network. This heterogeneity further supports the interpretation of congruence effects as context-dependent rather than generalizable across all store environments. This highlights the need to further investigate the local factors that may enhance or constrain its effectiveness. As a matter of fact, must be noted that instore surveys showed that only twenty-five percent of respondents reported seeing the communication, while nearly 44% purchased one of the advertised products during the interviews. This limited visibility suggests that exposure itself represents a key constraint on the effectiveness of congruence-based in-store communication strategies, shifting the focus from the message content alone to the visibility of the instore communication.

In summary, our pattern of results suggests that motivational congruence may primarily influence proximal evaluative responses (e.g. perceived healthiness of the display and perceived advertising effectiveness), without necessarily translating into more distal outcomes (product healthiness perceptions, intentions, satisfaction) when attention and elaboration are constrained. This interpretation is consistent with research emphasising the distinction between attention and downstream decision stages at the point of purchase, and with accounts of habitual, cue-driven behaviour in routine shopping episodes. Taken together, these insights point to attention and salience as critical boundary conditions: in-store “fit” may require consumers to first notice and process the communication, highlighting that the contribution of the present study is primarily empirical and contextual in identifying when congruence effects are more likely to emerge in real retail settings.

This study explored the impact of in-store communication initiatives focused on benefit-framed messages (either physical or psychological) in influencing consumer perceptions and purchasing behaviors of healthy breakfast products and whether the efficacy of in-store health communication varies as a function of the congruence between the benefits highlighted in the message and the benefits sought by consumers. Through a combination of controlled laboratory testing, real-world quasi-experiments and sales data analysis, the research demonstrates that although congruence did not yield a significant multivariate effect across all indicators of communication effectiveness, the univariate analyses unveiled meaningful selective influences. Participants who viewed a communication congruent with their motivational orientation judged the display as healthier and assessed the advertisement as more effective than participants exposed to a non-congruent message. These findings imply that benefit-based tailoring primarily improves consumers' evaluative responses to in-store communication, likely through increased perceived relevance and fluency, but does not consistently translate into stronger behavioral outcomes in real retail environments. However, congruence did not significantly influence perceived product healthiness, behavioral intentions or satisfaction, which suggests that alignment between message content and consumer motivation may be insufficient on its own to generate more substantive attitudinal or behavioral consequences under typical in-store conditions.

Apart from the specific findings of this study, the results invite a broader reflection on the effectiveness of in-store levers and health-related communication in particular, in shaping consumer behavior. More specifically, the findings highlight important contextual constraints that may limit the effectiveness of congruence-based communication strategies in retail environments. The limited recognition of the communication stimuli, with only about one-quarter of respondents reporting to have noticed the display without researcher assistance, suggests that attention and visibility represent critical boundary conditions for the effectiveness of in-store health communication interventions. Although methodological constraints inherent in field settings, such as limited control over extraneous variables, the cognitive biases associated with self-reported measures and the short duration of exposure to communication stimuli, undoubtedly attenuate the capacity to detect behavioral effects, the results also indicate that the effectiveness of health-related communication may be constrained at an earlier stage, namely the ability to capture shoppers' attention in complex retail environments. The retail environment is becoming increasingly crowded with competing stimuli, and grocery shopping is often controlled by highly routinized, automatic behaviors, which may further decrease the likelihood that consumers will attend to and cognitively elaborate on in-store health information. While engaging communication ways, including humor or visually appealing design, may temporarily enhance curiosity or salience, their impact may be undercut by the sheer amount of information and the cognitive parsimony that characterizes fast paced, habitual shopping.

Thus, a wider consideration must be done to assess the ability of the retailers to exert the choice-architect function also in health-related food purchases. Taken together, the contribution of this study is therefore primarily empirical and contextual, as it identifies conditions under which congruence-based benefit framing influences perceptual responses while showing more limited and context-dependent effects on behaviour in real-world retail settings. Future studies may investigate the real potential of store in creating health needs.

The study presents several limitations that should be considered. First of all, the pre-test was conducted using a convenience sample, whose characteristic did not match the ones of the sample interviewed instore. However, the aim was to measure the potential effectiveness of the communication provided in terms of comprehension and perceived freedom of choice. Secondly, the short-term measurement. Behavioral changes were observed only during the short window of the campaign. The study does not assess whether these effects were sustained in the long term. Future research should investigate long term retention and repeated exposure effects, which may strengthen the effectiveness of in-store communication under realistic exposure conditions.

Thirdly, single country context. The experiment was conducted in three stores within Northern Italy, in collaboration with a single retail chain. Cultural norms, retail strategies and consumer behaviors may differ across regions or countries, limiting the generalizability of the findings.

Moreover, the study focused solely on breakfast items (cereals, cookies and snacks), which differ in perceived healthiness. Results may not extrapolate to other food categories, such as beverages or ready-to-eat meals, where different consumer motivations may apply.

In-store questionnaire responses on whether shoppers “saw” the communication relied on self-reporting, which could be influenced by recall bias or social desirability.

Finally, while the study tested physical vs. psychological benefits, it did not explore other potentially relevant message variables such as gain versus loss framing, emotional tone or source credibility, all of which could influence effectiveness.