Impact of warning labels on sugary beverages on risk perception, attention, and purchase intentions

Abstract

The issue of warning labels on sweet beverage product packaging needs to be tested to determine its role in reducing product consumption. This study aims to examine the impact of warning labels on attention, risk perception, and purchase intention for sweet drink products. The paper conducted an experiment involving 120 participants. Most respondents fall within the age range of 25 to 34 years (38.30%). The analysis was conducted at sports facilities, schools, and playgrounds – in three major cities in Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya). Two stimuli, sugar content labels and visual warning labels, were used after a pilot study. For data analysis, the study used univariate analysis of variance to assess the significance of each label stimulus interaction. Furthermore, this paper employed t-tests to check the significance of comparisons between cells. Through the difference test, the three hypotheses were accepted and had a significant effect. The findings reveal that the influence of visual warning labels on attention (t-value = 66.015), perceived risk (t-value = 68.064), and purchase intention (t-value = 60.483) is more significant than sugar content labels. These findings can serve as a set of innovative policies to support the success of demarketing strategies for sweet beverage products by governments and social marketing activists.