CUEING THE CONSUMER: THE ROLE OF SALIENT CUES IN CONSUMER PERCEPTION

Consumers buy what they perceive, and what they perceive is heavily influenced by the cues — brand name, packaging, color — that marketers send to them. This article reports on an empirical study that demonstrates the influence of color in cueing consumers to the taste of pudding. Vanilla pudding, colored to look like chocolate pudding, was perceived by consumers as tasting like chocolate pudding. The results indicate that color is a more influential cue than taste in the consumers' perception of the flavor of the pudding.