The strategy of food customization has increasingly aroused widespread interest among marketing managers and scholars, but most of them focus on the direct effect of customization on purchase intention. According to the research on self-image-consistent product perceptions, customization may also have an indirect amplification effect. Current research finds food customization will prompt individuals to incorporate their expertise in their perceptions of focal product attributes (taste perception). The findings of two studies demonstrate that food customization and consumer expertise have an interaction effect on consumers’ purchase intention. Specifically, consumers with higher (lower) expertise prefer customized food (standard food). Consumers’ taste perception mediates the interaction effect between food customization and consumer expertise on purchase intention. Finally, these findings provide guidance for marketing managers to adopt customized strategies.

To help consumers understand the healthfulness of food and make healthy food choices, manufacturers are increasingly providing front-of-package nutrition labels. However, not all types of front-of-package nutrition labels can promote consumers’ healthy food purchase behavior. We explored the impact of front-of-package nutrition label type on the consumer purchase behavior of healthy food through three experiments. The results show that evaluative (vs. objective) front-of-package nutrition labels can improve consumer purchase intention and willingness to pay for healthy food. The spokesperson type moderates the influence of front-of-package nutrition labels on consumers’ healthy food purchase behavior. Specifically, when the spokesperson type is a typical consumer, consumers are more willing to buy healthy foods with evaluative nutrition labels than those with objective nutrition labels. When the spokesperson type is a star, consumers are more willing to buy healthy food with objective nutrition labels (vs. evaluative nutrition labels). Finally, this study provides feasible suggestions for marketers to select appropriate front-of-package nutrition labels.