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Consumer's perceptions of (and attitudes towards) food attributes can be assumed to be key determinants of the success of any particular brand within a product category, including the fast-growing one of healthy snacks. Brand attitudes and loyalty come from memory of previous experience of sensory attributes such as taste and odour along with marketing sensory inputs such as point-of-purchase information from advertising, labelling/nutritional contents, display aspects, pricing, brand/product prestige, familiarity and health beliefs ([13] Imram, 1999).
In a highly competitive food market - with many new products, and changing customer preferences - companies increasingly use sales-shelf appearance of food products, including the colour of the packaging, appearance, nomenclature and brand name to gain trial through gaining an immediate perception of the foods' inherent sensory qualities ([19] Martin, 1990). In rational-cognitive thinking, terms, consumers are provided with extensive choice attributes which impact on the consumer's ability to make informed and confident purchasing decisions; these include the provision of packaging which hopefully reflects the product's desired qualities. The three key, broad consumer brand-selection elements of [18] Lawer and Knox (2006) can be considered in healthy purchases relating to choice criteria (of health claims and product alternatives), involvement and knowledge (both of specific interests in areas of health, or product/brand claims and reputation, or both). It has also become an accepted truism in marketing that consumers very rarely making truly "spontaneous" impulse purchases, even their unplanned purchase being strongly influenced by pre-existing tastes, behaviours and preferences ([1] Alreck and Settle, 1999).
The last decade has seen a growth in consumer interest in developed, western cultures upon "healthy" food properties giving a perceived need to focus more on the health enhancing ingredients themselves and associated, "healthy" condition-specific market factors ([28] Sloan, 2002; [2] Armstrong et al. , 2005). In the USA there have been reports that consumers are increasingly interested in trying foods fortified with ingredients to promote health and reduce the health concerns that some foods may cause - so-called functional foods ([10] Day, 1999; [23] Pacyniak, 2006). In the UK and other Western countries there have been specific major concerns of rising obesity and high blood pressure caused by "unnatural" snack foods high in saturated fats and salt, as are present in crisps (called "chips"...