Assessing the Effect of Changing a Bottled Beer Label on Taste Ratings

Abstract

We report on an experiment designed to investigate the impact of labelling on the response of consumers to bottled beer. 142 people were given one of three beers: unlabelled, with a brown label, or with a green label and tasting notes designed to emphasize the beer’s citrus/fruity notes in a between-participants experimental design. The participants rated the beer (which they drank from a glass) on 9-point pencil-and-paper line scales. The questionnaire items were designed to assess taste, quality, citrus flavour, purchase intent, and willingness to pay. The results revealed that the label exerted a significant influence over people’s ratings: In particular, the green/citrus label led to significantly higher ratings in terms of perceived quality, taste, the dominance of fruity/citrus notes in the beer, and purchase intent. While previous studies have tended to look at either the impact of label/packaging colour or else at the impact of descriptive labelling, this is the first study to combine the two using a between-participants experimental design with commercial beer labels in a naturalistic testing environment. The results add to a growing body of research demonstrating that a variety of product-extrinsic cues influence the consumers’ experience and enjoyment of commercial product offerings.