Interstitial Space in Food Brand Logo: Effects on Consumers' Food Preferences

Interstitial space is an important component of food brand logos and provides a key source of information to attract consumer attention. In this research, two studies were conducted to examine whether the interstitial space (compact vs. spacious) of food brand logos affects consumers' food preferences, taking into account the moderating effect of the food nature (hedonic vs. utilitarian). Study 1, a pilot study based on product gaze times, showed that consumers had longer gaze durations and more choices for hedonic products with spacious logos and utilitarian products with compact logos. Study 2 designed a 2 (food brand logo interstitial space: spacious and compact) × 2 (food nature: hedonic and utilitarian) between-subjects experiment to show that compact (vs. spacious) food brand logos are more conducive to consumers' preferences for utilitarian foods, an effect driven by the psychological mechanism of food safety associations; conversely, spacious (vs. compact) food brand logos are more conducive to consumers' preferences for hedonic foods, an effect driven by the psychological mechanism of food indulgence associations.