Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/124472
research Lessons of a Megacity The Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India 60 May/June 2013 BizEd The Stress of Healthy Eating It may not seem that a simple box of cereal could induce stress in consumers. But according to researchers from the department of marketing at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, trying to decide whether or not a food is good for them can instill anxiety in buyers. Torben Hansen, Thyra Uth Thomsen, and Suzanne Beckmann surveyed 504 consumers to measure a type of stress the trio calls "post-purchase health-related dissonance." Such obviously healthy foods as Torben fruit and vegetables do not cause anxiety, Hansen but the more complex the food item—a frozen dinner, boxed cereal, or beverage, for example—the more likely healthconscious consumers are to feel stress. The more stress they feel after a purchase, the more likely they are to choose a different product in the future. The researchers suggest that marketers can lessen consumers' post-purchase Thyra Uth health-related dissonance by simplifying Thomsen product information on packaging and highlighting health benefits. They also refer to a second approach supported by the Danish Institute for Informative Labeling, which advocates teaching consumers to read product labeling more confidently. "Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers' Response to Health Information Complexity" was published in the January issue of the Journal of Food Suzanne Beckman Products Marketing. Jan e z Skok/COR B IS, Ch e ryl Zibisky/G etty I mag es In January, 35 researchers from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as Harvard University's schools of design, divinity, and public health, traveled to Allahabad, India, to study how a supply chain might operate in the Kumbh Mela, a religious festival held once every three years at four rotating locations. The Kumbh Mela at Allahabad attracts more than 100 million Hindus. The focus at the 55-day festival, which ran from mid-January to mid-March 2013, was "on the numerous vendors who move in overnight to cater to the millions of people who attend the Mela by selling food, grains, vegetables, fruits, and other provisions," explains Tarun Khanna, one of the researchers, in his March 1 blog for the Harvard Business Review. John Macomber, a senior lecturer in finance at HBS, points out that rapid urbanization, scarcity of resources, and government deadlock will be increasingly important factors in globalization in the coming years. All three trends are observable in action at Kumbh Mela. A video that documents Macomber's experience at the festival is available through HBS' Working Knowledge at hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7194. html?wknews=03132013. The researchers will write a case study based on their observations and interviews with vendors at the "pop-up megacity." The case study will explore how trust evolves and what practices prove most successful in such a spontaneously growing marketplace. For links to articles, pictures, and video documenting the event, visit mappingthemela.wordpress. com/2013/01/31/mapping-the-mela-in-the-media/.