Consumers’ inference-dynamics about healthy menu promotions in a bundle context

A ‘healthy menu’ has become a key concept for the survival and prosperity of restaurant businesses. Despites active practices in promoting healthier options in quick service restaurants, limited efforts have been made in the academic field to understand consumers’ perceptions of healthiness regarding healthy menu promotions. This study attempted to fill this research niche by investigating whether health claims and menu composition influence consumers’ perceptions of healthiness for menu items in a bundle context. This study also examined the moderating role of calorie framing. The results of this study suggest that the position of a healthy menu item in a bundle (anchor or tie-in) significantly influences the level of perceived healthiness, and calorie framing (integrated or segregated) moderates the effect of health claims on the perceived healthiness of the bundled menu items. However, the presence of a health claim in a promotion alone does not affect perceived healthiness. Further implications are discussed in the main text.