Perspectives of emotional food communication for farm operators

Similarly to other countries, farm tourism operators in Germany have also acknowledged the great potential of high-quality food (regional, organic, etc.) in reinforcing guests’ ties to the territory and access, in this way, new target segments. However, due to limited entrepreneurship capabilities farmers may fail at finding the adequate communication of the food component within the farm tourism supply. In the marketing and tourism literature, emotional communication strategies, above all storytelling, are considered very successful. However, there is no empirical evidence whether a story or a more informative communication experimental design, this study compares different communication tools (information list, text and story) in order to detect within a sample of 122 students, which is the most appropriate strategy to promote high-quality food. Although storytelling shows the strongest emotional linkage with the readers, there is no evidence that this leads also to a higher buying intention as only 30 % of the respondents are convinced to buy the product after reading the story. In contrast, a high buying intention is reached by means of the text. Such a communication technique seems appropriate to promote regional food since it is not too emotional as to frighten individuals, nor too sparse as to reduce the attractiveness of the food.