Visualizing Cold: Uncovering the Sensory Visual Cues that Convey Coldness in Images

Photography on social media plays an important role in consumers’ purchase decisions. An alluring image of any product on social media creates a desire to have that product. Various sensory visual cues can be added in photography of different types of foods like fast food, cake, as well as healthy foods. When it comes to cold foods like ice-creams, smoothies, and chilled beverages, there are very few cold visual cues to enhance the photography. This study aims to address these gaps by exploring how cold visual cues, such as ice crystals and fog, affect consumer perception of cold foods using eye-tracking technology. Through eye-tracking, we get to know the visual attention of the participants through cold visual cues. The self-administered survey provides insights about the perceived experience of the consumers. Findings suggest that cold visual cues influence the food desirability. The current study highlights the importance of cold visual cues in food photography on social media and the growing food e-commerce and retail industry. This research will contribute to the growing body of literature on cold food marketing and sensory marketing by providing deeper insight on understanding of how coldness is visually perceived and processed by consumers.