The Science and Psychology of Breakfast Cereals

The Food and Brand Lab from Cornell University did a study about the psychology behind how breakfast cereals are marketed to the consumer.

Using data they collected from 65 types of cereal and 86 different spokes-characters in 10 different grocery stores in New York and Connecticut, Director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab Brian Wansink and post-doctoral lab researcher Aner Tal published their study in the Journal of Environment and Behavior.

They note in the study that 16% of the consumers are more likely to trust a cereal brand when the characters on the cereal box look at them straight in the eye.

They also note that breakfast cereals targeted toward children sit half as high on the shelves (around 23 inches from the floor) compared to adult cereals (48 inches from the floor).

The study reinforced the marketing practice that creating spokes-characters who make eye contact with a product’s target audience (child or adult) is a package design that can be used as an advertising tool that influences people to buy and develop brand loyalty.

Understanding The Deregulation of Energy Providers

With some states' energy providers being deregulated in the United States, people are now given a choice on what energy company will serve their needs. This results in better service quality and lower energy costs for the consumer.

It is believed that fewer and simpler regulations, with minimal government intervention, will result in an open market with a high level of competitiveness, higher productivity, more efficiency and lower prices overall. The energy quality and method of transport stays the same, it's just that the consumer has a choice on the energy company and energy plan.

There are downsides to energy regulation such as less monitoring on environmental pollution and quality standards, financial uncertainty, and constraining monopolies but these are minimal. There are consumer groups and environmentalists that monitor and report any infractions or shortcomings such as these.

Energy deregulation, albeit in its early stages, have empowered the consumer to control and manage their energy needs without being sidelined by a monopoly.

Researchers Release Paper on Exploding Pyrex Glass Phenomenon And Addresses Consumer Safety

A reconstructed fractured soda lime silicate Pyrex bowl. Arrows outline crack paths.
Credit: George Quinn

Pyrex first achieved popularity for baking purposes. It is durable, odor and stain proof. Even the name 'Pyrex' is said to be taken from the word 'Pie' and 'Non-expanding'. Borosilicate glass, the main componenet of Pyrex has a low thermal expansion characteristic.

Aside from kitchenware, Pyrex is also used in laboratory tools. The telescopic mirror used at Palomar Observatory is made out of Pyrex borosilicate glass.

Currently, news and reports abound of pyrex glassware "explosively shattering". Even Consumer Reports have released two articles on this phenomenon.

New paper addresses causes of shattering glass cookware; Margin of safety described as 'borderline'

A new paper appearing in the September 2012 edition of the Bulletin of The American Ceramic Society for the first time provides a scientific explanation of why some glass cookware sold in the United States is more susceptible than others to "explosive" shattering and the possibility of exposing consumers to injury from flying glass shards.

Clear glass baking dishes and pots are a staple in many households around the world and have been since they were first introduced in 1915 to consumers by the Corning Glass Works, which created the Pyrex brand name. The original Pyrex cookware was made of a specific, thermally strong composition known as borosilicate glass. The durability of this glass, originally advertised as an "oven to icebox" and "icebox to oven" product, was startling at first, but eventually became taken for granted by generations of consumers who often passed on the rugged vessels to family members and friends. In later years, Corning competitors, and eventually Corning, itself, substituted a different glass composition—soda lime silicate glass—for the borosilicate Pyrex cookware.

Corning exited the Pyrex cookware manufacturing business in the late 1990s, and currently licenses the use of the Pyrex brand name to World Kitchen LLC for sale in the United States. The other main competitor in this field is Anchor Hocking Glass Co., which has made a similar looking soda lime silicate glass product for over 60 years. Both World Kitchen and Anchor Hocking now use the soda lime silicate glass instead of the original Pyrex borosilicate glass composition.

R.C. Bradt and R.L. Martens, the authors of "Shattering Glass Cookware," became interested in the topic after hearing anecdotal reports of glass cookware shattering and reading reports of cookware failure and related injuries in publications such as the January and October 2011 issues of Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports and others documented that the explosion-like glassware failures seemed to be linked to rapid changes in temperature, such as when the cookware was removed from the oven and placed on a counter or dinner table. The publication also noted that virtually all of the reports of glassware failure involved vessels made of the soda lime silicate glass. In contrast, the magazine reports that there are no reports in Europe of explosive cookware failure, a region where nearly all of the products sold are composed of the authentic borosilicate glass (manufactured and marketed by a separate company, Arc International).

Protecting Bank Notes and Other Documents From Counterfeiting Using Invisible QR Codes

The QR code (Quick Response Code) was invented in 1994 in Japan by the Denso Wave company. It was primarily used to track vehicle and vehicle parts during manufacturing. It is a type of barcode that has now gained popularity as well as a myriad of uses.

The advantage of the QR code above a regular bar code is that it can be read fast by devices as well as hold more data than a regular UPC code. The QR code is arranged in a square pattern with dots arranged inside to reflect the data stored. The dots are black while the background of the square is white.

Information carried by a QR code can be numeric, alphanumeric, binary, or even kanji. Other types of data can be carried through supported extensions.

QR Codes are read by an image sensor. The sensor detects the corners of the code and using digital processing converts the dots it detects inside the square into binary numbers while also validating the data from error-correcting codes also within the square.

Invisible QR codes tackle counterfeit bank notes

An invisible quick response (QR) code has been created by researchers in an attempt to increase security on printed documents and reduce the possibility of counterfeiting, a problem which costs governments and private industries billions of pounds each year.

Publishing their research today, 12 September, in IOP Publishing's journal Nanotechnology, the researchers from the University of South Dakota and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology believe the new style of QR code could also be used to authenticate virtually any solid object.

The QR code is made of tiny nanoparticles that have been combined with blue and green fluorescence ink, which is invisible until illuminated with laser light. It is generated using computer-aided design (CAD) and printed onto a surface using an aerosol jet printer.

Opinion Piece - What's In The Box

What's In The Box?

Brad Pitt kept repeating that question in the movie Se7en. What’s in the box? What’s in the boooox? Yep, even in thrillers, packaging gives off that mystique.

Go to any grocery anywhere and the first thing you will notice is packaging. Everything sold is packed in all shapes and sizes with a sizzle of bright colors on the side. How something so simple can be so important in marketing a product?

Let’s take the simplest thing one can buy in a store; water. Water by any other brand is still that, water. It will taste the same. It will look the same. And all of those fulfill the same purpose, rehydrate our bodies.

So, what makes one brand of water different from the other? Packaging.

Packaging of bottled water epitomizes how important this process is. We as a consumer would choose a bottled water product based on how it looks like. Prefer a square bottle? How about one with pink labels and an orange cap? The packaging will dictate our choice and determine the success of the product in the consumer market.

The number one juice drink in the Philippines (Zesto), attributes its success on their foil packaging. When it was introduced in the market, foil packaging was new. People equated the product as an imported juice drink.

Nissins Ramen scored a success in the global market with its cup noodles. Even in Japan, the cup noodle has garnered tremendous acceptance despite the initial perception that it would fail miserably. What’s not to like about a cup noodle. Open top, add hot water, close top. Wait 3 minutes and enjoy.

Chemical Triclosan Used In Hand Sanitizers And Antibacterial Soap Reduces Muscular Strength

Triclosan is an antibacterial and antifungal agent. It is used in a range of consumer products where it is used to treat and stop the growth of bacteria, fungi, and mildew.

Triclosan safety is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada. There are currently twenty antimicrobial registrations, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

Triclosan is used as a registered pesticide only in a small portion of its overall uses. It is also used in conveyor belts, fire hoses, dye bath vats, or ice-making equipment as an antimicrobial pesticide. Triclosan can be directly applied to commercial HVAC coils, where it prevents microbial growth.

Chemical widely used in antibacterial hand soaps may impair muscle function

Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical widely used in hand soaps and other personal-care products, hinders muscle contractions at a cellular level, slows swimming in fish and reduces muscular strength in mice, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado. The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

"Triclosan is found in virtually everyone's home and is pervasive in the environment," said Isaac Pessah, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and principal investigator of the study. "These findings provide strong evidence that the chemical is of concern to both human and environmental health."

Triclosan is commonly found in antibacterial personal-care products such as hand soaps as well as deodorants, mouthwashes, toothpaste, bedding, clothes, carpets, toys and trash bags. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1998 estimated that more than 1 million pounds of triclosan are produced annually in the United States, and that the chemical is detectable in waterways and aquatic organisms ranging from algae to fish to dolphins, as well as in human urine, blood and breast milk.

The investigators performed several experiments to evaluate the effects of triclosan on muscle activity, using doses similar to those that people and animals may be exposed to during everyday life.

Consumers Connect With A Brand Depending On Their Perceived Relationship With It

Not all brand-consumer relationships are created equal, says University of Toronto study

Marketers who realize this will be in a better position to retain customers and improve the perceptions of consumers who are unhappy with a brand's service or product, says a new paper from the University of Toronto.

Consumers form connections with brands in ways that mirror social relationships. How consumers evaluate a brand depends heavily on whether the brand adheres to—or violates—the implicit relationship agreement.

Pankaj Aggarwal, a marketing professor at the Rotman School of Management and the University of Toronto Scarborough, and Richard P. Larrick of Duke University, recently tested brand evaluation after an unfair transaction. The results depended heavily on whether the consumer was in an exchange relationship with the brand i.e., a relationship based primarily on economic factors and the balance of inputs and outcomes (as in real-world brands such as Wal-Mart that draw consumers with value and savings), or in a communal relationship based on caring, trust and partnership (State Farm, for example, sells itself as a "Good Neighbor.")

In the first study, Aggarwal and Larrick set up a situation of low distributive fairness such that the consumer didn't get what they paid for and wasn't remunerated for a mistake made by the brand. When customers were treated with respect and dignity (high interactional fairness), brand evaluations differed between those who were primed to be in communal versus exchange relationships.

The benefit of respectful treatment on improving brand evaluation was found only in communal relationships—it reassured consumers about the caring nature of their association with the brand. In this case, concern from the brand acted as a form of compensation in itself. This effect wasn't found in an exchange relationship, where, if the consumer didn't think that they got their proverbial money's worth, good treatment didn't move them to reconsider their negative evaluation of the brand.

But the plot thickens. In a second study, the researchers showed an interesting reversal of this pattern. Respectful treatment (interactional fairness) means more to those in an exchange relationship than those in a communal relationship when there has been a fair deal in terms of input and output (high distributional fairness). Since the brand has already met the expectations of those in an exchange relationship—the consumer got what they paid for—good and respectful treatment goes above and beyond. For those in communal relationships, who were already expecting to be treated positively, the same treatment doesn't have as much of an effect.

Users From Countries With High Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Use Google to Search More About Future Than The Past

Google Trends compares a search topic and its relevance to how the whole world searches for that particular topic. It shows how often it has been searched on Google over time. It shows how many times the topic has appeared in Google News and where in the world have people searched for it the most.

Google Trends accomplishes this by analyzing a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms entered, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time.

Using Google Trends, researchers study the search behavior of countries based on their GDP.

Study links Google search behavior to GDP

Internet users from countries with a higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) are more likely to search for information about the future than information about the past, a quantitative analysis of Google search queries has shown.

The findings, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest there may be a link between online behaviour and real-world economic indicators.

"The Internet is becoming ever more deeply interwoven into the fabric of global society", said Helen Susannah Moat, research associate in UCL's Department of Mathematics and one of the authors of the study.

"Our use of this gigantic information resource is generating huge amounts of data on our current interests and concerns. We were interested in whether we could find cross-country differences in basic online search behaviour which could be linked to real world indicators of socio-economic wellbeing, such as per capita GDP," said Moat.

The Supermarket May Influence One's Own Weight And Obesity

The body mass index (BMI) is a heuristic proxy for human body fat based on a person's weight and height. BMI does not actually measure the percentage of body fat. The BMI is defined as the individual's body mass divided by the square of his or her height.

BMI provided a simple numeric measure of how much a person is "thick" or "thin". This allows health professionals to discuss over- and under-weight problems more objectively with patients. BMI is meant to be used as a simple means of classifying sedentary (physically inactive) individuals, or rather, populations, with an average body composition rather than using it for medical diagnosis.

Your supermarket may affect your weight

Your supermarket may affect your weight, according to a report published in the open access journal PLoS ONE.

The study, conducted in Paris from 2007 to 2008, found that participants who shop at discount supermarkets, in supermarkets in areas with poorly educated consumers, or in supermarkets far from their own neighborhood had higher body mass indices (BMI) and waste circumferences. As Basile Chaix indicates, "shopping at discount supermarkets was more strongly associated with higher body weight and abdominal fat among low educated than among high educated participants."

New Eye Scan Data Uncovers How Menus are Read

Restaurants have long believed that there is a correct way to design a menu. The assumption is that there are certain areas of the menu that consumers will look at first and longer (sweet spots) than other areas of the menu. A SF State researchers employed eyetracking technology (scanpaths) to determine how consumers really read a restaurant menu.

The new study by SF State researcher Sybil Yang, assistant professor of hospitality and tourism management, suggests that on average diners read menus sequentially like a book, and that their gaze doesn't linger noticeably longer over any particular location on the menu. The finding goes against decades of conventional wisdom in the restaurant business that suggests there is a menu "sweet spot" where diners look the longest.

Restaurants place the items they hope to sell the most in this fabled sweet spot, lying just above the midline on the right-hand page. The sweet spot is just one strategy, along with colorful text and highlighted boxes, which menu designers use to catch a diner's wandering eye, said Yang.

It's an idea with surprisingly little data behind it, Yang found out. While researchers have studied how people scan a Web page or textbook, there are very few empirical studies of menu reading. Menu reading might be quite different from reading in other contexts, Yang pointed out, "because in a restaurant you have an audience with the motivation to read the entire thing."